CONGRATULATIONS
Congratulations and well done to each and every athlete who took part in last Sundays XC in Eden Gate. It was a rough, tough, unforgiving course and there were some fantastic performances from our athletes with a number of individual medals won across the age groups. Great team performances as well with every GAC team in the medals, taking Gold in the Girls U12 & U14 & the Boys U12 & U18, Silver in the Girls U16 and Bronze in the Boys U14. Fantastic running from our U8’s & U10’s also and their certs. should be available at next Sunday’s event in Avondale. Full results are up on www.athleticswicklow.com. under results.

COUNTY CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS ROUND 2
The second of the Wicklow XC Champs for 2013 takes place on this coming Sunday 13th Oct. in beautiful Avondale, Rathdrum. Uneven ages this week, with U7/9’s all receiving certs. Back to the normal format this week, starting with  U 7’s at 11am and finishing with the Intermediate adults. Juvenile athletes need to be in Avondale by 10.30 am at the very, very latest, to allow time for (calm) check-in and warm-up.  Arriving at the last minute, means athletes are stressed and upset and don’t warm up properly. This can lead to injury or disappointing performances for the athletes. Once again all registered athletes are eligible to take part.  We hope to see a much bigger turn out this week, as despite all the red & white visible, we had less than one third of our athletes competing last Sunday. As always we will be trying to make up club team from U11 up, so everyone is asked to make a big effort to run. Entry form can be found on our website, (just click forms on the top bar) and closing date is this Fri 11th Oct.

LEINSTER CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
The first of the Leinster XC Champs for 2013 takes place in Dunboyne, Co. Meath on Sun. 27th Oct.at 12 o’clock. Races for U12/14/16/18/Novice. (U11’s, born 2003 can compete U12) Leinster entries have earlier closing dates and there are absolutely no late entries accepted from anyone! Entry form for this event will shortly be on our web-site and entries must be in by Thurs 17th Oct. Absolutely no exceptions to this as they will have to be written up on Thurs. night and posted on my way to work on Fri. morning in order to be in on time. Leinster do not accept on-line entries yet!

PHOTOS FOR NEWSPAPER
We finally got that photo done at the XC last Sunday and sent off, so GAC should be the featured club in this weeks Fit Magazine in tomorrow ‘s (Thursday’s) Independent.

ADULT CLUB MEMBERS
We are keen to grow & develop the adult section of our club and plan to add some road sessions to our current Fit4Life sessions, which are hold on Mon & Wed evenings at 8.30 & Wed & Fri mornings at 10am, and our 10am Sunday run. We will begin by adding a run on Tues. evenings and if enough people are interested, add Fri evenings also. This group will meet at the track at 7.15pm, hopefully this allows time for interested parents to drop younger kids home and get back. After a short warm-up various groups, from absolute beginners to regular runners, will head out for a run, over various distances.  Joanna Pluck will co-ordinate the Tues. runs and we would be delighted if any regular runners, who might be willing to help get us started by leading out a group, would get in touch with Joanna on 0872270167 or Theresa on 0868635797. Remember, you do not have to be a runner to come along to any of our sessions, but you will be amazed how quickly and easily you become one! Running is something you can take up at any age and continue doing for the whole of your life…….. why not give it a try! You may learn to love it as much as we do! First Tues evening run will take place at 7.15pm next Tues 15th Oct. Why not have a go!
Also watch out for additional Fit4Life sessions………… coming soon!

FIT4LIFE
Next race is on Greystones Track on Thursday, 24 October 2013 @ 7:30pm. Registration takes place down on the track from 7pm.  €5 for AAI affiliated members and €7 for non AAI affiliated members
Graded 1 mile races
Timetable: 7.30pm: 6:30 - 7:30, 7.40pm: Sub 5:30, 7.50pm: 7:30 - 8:30, 8.00pm: 5:30 - 6:30, 8.10pm: 8:30+
Prizes
Open categories: Men and Women: 1st 3 Junior, Senior (under 40 on race day), O40, O50 and O60.
Fit 4 Life Categories: Open to New and Recreational runners. Self-selected by participant.
Prize Structure: 1st 3 Women, 1st 3 Men plus 3 spot prizes.

WEEKLY SUBS
A small number of athletes regularly arrive to training without their €2 weekly sub. While some are great to bring it the following night, a number tend to forget. As of Sept.’13 we are counting up subs owed and informing the athletes at check-in. It is unfair that while most of our athletes do pay every week, a small number don’t and are therefore being subsidised by those who do.  Please pay any monies owed for Sept. and make sure to pay your sub weekly from now on.  €2 is not  a large amount, but this is what pays the rent on the track and covers your entry fees.

REGISTRATION CARDS
Many of you have still not collected your athletics registration cards for 2013. Please ask for this at check-in, if you haven’t collected it yet. For the younger athletes we would suggest that parents come down and collect them, as they are likely to get lost otherwise and they cannot be replaced. These cards entitle you to a 10% reduction at Woodies. Cards for recent registrations will not have arrived yet.