Boddington 10 miles - Club Records keep on coming!
- brian17harris
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
The Gloucestershire County AAA 2026 road race series kicked off today with the a 10 mile race along the country lanes near Boddington, organised by CLC Striders. Fortunately the weather decided to stay dry and the sun even appeared for the latest finishers.
Now in its 3rd year after the previous Staverton 10 course based at the airfield was compromised by housing development, the 4-lap race is virtually car-free (but this year not horse-free!!) and fairly flat, albeit prone to be a bit windy in places. Although the views are pleasant enough, the downside of the 4 laps is that you can be running what you reckon is a pretty decent pace and still get lapped ;-)) - especially when a course record is being broken at the front.
Despite three age-group prizes and a ladies club record (see below) surely the club performance of the day was from our first man home, Rich Allen in a super 57.34.
Boddington last year was his first turnout for the club. He then ran 59.30 which was the start of a successful road racing campaign that ultimately saw him clinch the county MV40 title (as well as the Club Championship).
This year, fresh in a new age group, he got off to an even faster start, not only knocking a really impressive 1.56 off his PB, but comfortably breaking Bill Leggate’s club MV45 record of 57:58, set since “Roman Steps” was published (i.e. post 5/11/23).
Unfortunately, Rich was pipped to the race MV45 prize by less than 4 seconds, thus missing out on the beer, beer glass and voucher (see the photos below). At the awards ceremony, despite being super happy with his time. Rich looked like he was the unluckiest man in the room, wrongly thinking he’d also missed by 6s a club record of 57:30 (he hadn't).
Hopefully his new record will last much longer than the missing beer would have done. Many congratulations on a fantastic start to the season Rich!
The other club record to fall was LV65, where Kate Kilby’s time of 1.24.33 earned her 1st FV65 and also significantly advanced on Liza Darroch’s 2015 club record of 1.33.12. That makes two records in two weeks for Kate – nice work! Which one next ;-)
Club members picked up two other age-group awards -
Kate Jacobs was 1st LV45 - as she was last week at Linda Franks. Whilst she is not planning to prioritise the road series this year (having been Ladies Open Champion last year), she was still 5th lady overall.
David Wright was 1st MV65 in 1.10.20 which, notwithstanding his starting line protestations of getting very old and slow, was a full 6 minutes ahead of the next V65.
Having travelled all the way from Salisbury allegedly just for the free beer afterwards ;-)) , the beer glass and beer prize were almost the cherry on the top, eclipsed of course only by the chance to catch up with club members old and new. Certainly a couple of our newer members were happy to meet the legend in person.
New dad Jack Bonnick also improved hugely on his time last year – by around 4 minutes, bagging an official 10 mile PB but with a bonus unofficial (Ed – nope, I don’t reckon it counts) 10k PB enroute (Strava 36.21). Theories on becoming a dad improving your PB’s – one for discussion at the curry night?
Two more of the club’s LV45 runners finished next – Charlotte Wilton was just 2 seconds ahead of Clare Stickney. Charlotte ran a brilliantly paced race, almost exactly to her plan, with just one mile wind-effected. Clare had been ahead of Charlotte for much of the race, but unfortunately took a slight detour at the end of the 4th lap which set her back perhaps by 30 seconds.
Jo Musk and Brian Harris were next to finish, both carrying recent injuries that have not gone away yet, and c. 3 minutes off their best recent form. In a very disciplined tempo run, Jo managed to sustain a steady c. 72-min pace the whole way round. Brian ran with Jo until he had to ease off just before 6 miles, subsequently losing about 90 seconds over the last 4 miles.
By contrast, David Moss managed his pace very nicely. He wisely let a small group he was tempted to run with push ahead, but then caught them up later and overtook to finish with a fast last mile and a pleasing negative split overall – also his 2nd best 10 mile time per Strava.
Lastly, the Club's team - 2 men 2 ladies - came THIRD !! And we even beat western Tempo - sweet!
1 Dominic James (Western Tempo) 49.30 (chip 49.29) – course record
23 Rich Allen (Cirencester AC) 57.37 (57.34) – PB, club V45 record
29 Jack Bonnick 58.55 (58.52) PB
55 Kate Jacobs 1.03.40 (1.03.38) – 5th lady / 1st FV45
109 David Wright 1.10.28 (1.10.20) – 1st V65
111 Clare Stickney 1.10.53 (1.10.49) – PB, went off course last mile, lost 30 seconds
112 Charlotte Wilton 1.10.55 (1.10.51)
118 Jo Musk 1.11.51 (1.11.42)
127 Brian Harris 1.13.26 (1.13.18)
145 David Moss 1.15.32 (1.15.23)
184 Kate Kilby 1.24.43 (1.24.33) – 1st FV65, club FV65 record
*************************PARKRUNS*******************************
Parkrun super-fan Phil Davey was celebrating a significant Birthday this weekend. Happy Birthday Phil! Two rather smart black and orange parkrun woolly hats featured on his present list.
Phil was instrumental in starting up a new event at Kilkenny Lane in Carterton, so several members travelled across to help him celebrate – by taking part in the parkrun then sharing a bacon baps and homemade cakes afterwards. Unfortunately Karen Higuera was a little late in arriving so she caught up and then walked with Clare Tapley and Cathie Cowell.
Back at Cirencester, numbers were down compared to usual, but the extended McAdam clan was out in force, with 5 running and 2 supporting. The reduced number of senior runners gave our juniors the chance to lead.
Toby Conway (U15’s XC captain) was first male home for the club whilst last year’s Junior Athlete of the Year, Alice Averies, was first female home, breaking her PB by more than a minute. The improvement is very likely linked to her XC racing as well as weekly training. Well done Alice.
At Tetbury, Jonathan Higgs equalled his best time for the last 6-7 years with a course PB and set his best-ever age-graded score at a smidge over 65% - congratulations on getting better as you get older!
Highest placing for the week went to Ian Barrett who was 3rd both overall and age-graded at Kingsway, Gloucester.
Cirencester: 10 Toby Conway (J) 21.38, 19 Alice Averies (J) 22.53 (PB), 35 Rob Forbes 24.49, 57 Alan McAdam 27.00,69 Susanna Austin 27.46, 78 Brendan McCarthy 28.09, 98 Rachel McAdam 29.35, 132 Pam Wheeler 32.17, 202 finished.
Tetbury: 53 Stephen Hale 24.08, 64 Jonathan Higgs 25.19, 130 Amanda Naylor 29.41,261 finished.
Swindon, Lydiard Park: 154 Corinne Clark 26.50, 240 Gordon Jones 29.37, 497 finished.
Gloucester, Kingsway: 3 Ian Barrett 19.30, 269 finished.
Carterton, Kilkenny Lane: 42 Colin Tapley 24.56, 126 Rachel Ranger 30.26, 207 Clare Tapley 43.21, 208 Cathie Cowell 43.22, 209 Karen Higuera 43.22, 234 finished.
Three Brooks, Bradley Stoke, Bristol: 317 Martin Croucher 40.58, 340 finished.
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