Fairford 10k - some great performances and a big turnout (for us)

FAIRFORD 10K

{Before reading about the results, thank you !! if you were one of the many supporters around the course cheering us runners on}

The Fairford 10k was a sell-out event this year (although only 430 odd finished), maybe as it was its turn to be in the Glos AAA road race series (it alternates with our own Sizzler). It certainly attracted a good contingent from the club (the largest for at least 3 years), and the rain held off which was an improvement on the forecast a few days ahead.

Above - the official 10.05 photo, with many apologies to Dave Wright who had actually gone to the "pavilion" as opposed the HQ tent which I meant.

The organisers were presenting prizes based on 10-year age groups, but the county points will be based on the usual 5-year groups.

At the sharp end, last year Dave Bell and Rob Forbes had respectively come 3^rd/4^th with only one second between them. This year Rob got his revenge and finished just 5 seconds ahead of Dave with them placing 6^th/7^th this year in very similar times – so this year’s race had an extra 3 fast runners. Rob’s run earned him the V40 prize, and he modestly attributed his not slowing down with age just yet to his shoes.

There seems to be some controversy over who (should have) won the men’s team prize.

Unfortunately for us, 2 relative youngsters from CLC finished in 4^th/5^th, ahead of Rob/Dave. However when adding in Aaron Willis’ 10^th place the Cirencester team scored 23 points which is the same as CLC, whose 3^rd man was 14^th. Our club statistician reckons on a tie-break it goes to the best placed 3^rd man so we should have won. Watch this space.

With or without the team prize, Aaron’s was a great performance because he knocked a massive 50 seconds off his time from last year, although in a faster field he only held on to the same 10^th place.

Rich Allen was a bit out of race practice after a 3-month layoff and found it tough but still manged within a whisker of his 6min/mile goal, likely picking up 9 county points.

Congratulations to club chairman and Sizzler RD Luke Campbell who exceeded expectations by ducking inside 40 minutes. {Ed. As he passed me about 2 minutes into the race he correctly observed that “one of is on pace” – it wasn’t me ;-) }

The faster men (and your editor) had a group shot after finishing

L-R R Forbes, J Thomas, D Bell, A Willis, R Allen, B Harris, L Campbell, Fairford 10k 2026

In another great performance, Rachel Ranger was thrilled to run her fastest 10k since 2017 – a brilliant result particularly on an undulating course – many congrats to her.

Charlotte Wilton enjoyed testing herself over a shorter distance and setting a benchmark to try and improve on once she has got her upcoming trail and ultra races under her belt.

See below for photos of some of our other finishers

"My poor legs didn't want to move by this point"

Rachel and Susanna before the hard work

Dave Wright - that was tough

The standings in the club championship will be updated on the website soon, but the message is still - it would be great to see more of you competing at these races and just the usual few relatively elderly suspects.

7 June 2026, Fairford 10km, road

1 Jacob Pickering (Cheltenham & District Harriers) 32.18 (chip 32.17)

6 Rob Forbes (Cirencester AC) 35.05 (35.03) – 1st V40

7 David Bell 35.10 (35.08)

10 Aaron Willis 36.31 (36.29)

16 Rich Allen 37.39 (37.37)

19 James Thomas 38.04 (38.02)

32 Luke Campbell 39.56 (39.51)

66 Joyce Matthews 43.05 (42.58)

71 Brian Harris 43.38 (43.35)

74 Simon Campbell 43.53 (43.48)

76 David Wright 44.19 (44.04)

80 Dave Wright 44.41 (44.33)

88 Charlotte Wilton 45.28 (45.23)

125 Rachel Ranger 48.32 (48.24)

154 Emily Averies U18 50.43 (50.33)

167 Susanna Austin 51.22 (51.14)

339 Pam Wheeler 1.02.49 (1.02.40)

361 Rachel Jones 1.08.10 (1.07.47)

370 Liza Darroch 1.09.06 (1.08.42)

397 Ruth Fulford 1.14.10 (1.13.46)

423 finished

Team: Men (3 to score); 1 Cirencester AC (Forbes, Bell, Willis) 23pts, 2 CLC Striders 23pts

(Cirencester win on position of 3rd scorer)

BLENHEIM PALACE SPRINT TRIATHLON

Tommy Payne sent in this report of how he got on on Saturday 6th

“For those that know me well, I’ve been training towards a Half Ironman in July for the best part of a year. This weekend’s sprint triathlon was my first real race to see where I was ahead of the main event.

Overall, I finished in 1h27m, placing 20th in my age category and 147th overall out of 2300 athletes.

There was plenty to be happy with: a 13m47s swim (4th out of the water in my heat), a strong 36m42s bike, and a decent run despite my watch malfunctioning (user error!) which meant I had no idea what pace I was holding and probably left a little too much in the tank.

The biggest lesson came from the transitions. T1 took 6m42s and T2 took 3m05s — both far slower than they should have been. Who knew that getting changed, something we all do every day, could become such a faff when you’re wet, out of breath, and trying to think straight?

It reminded me a lot of running pilots at work. The purpose isn’t to prove everything works perfectly; it’s to uncover weaknesses before you scale. This race gave me confidence that the swim, bike and run training is working, but more importantly it highlighted exactly where the gaps are before July.

Very few important lessons come from the parts that go perfectly. It’s usually the mistakes, frustrations and unexpected issues that teach us the most.

A great day out, lots learned, and plenty to improve before the main event.”

T Payne, Blenheim Sprint Tri, 6.6.26

Congratulations on placing so well up the larger field Tommy, and hope the rest of your training goes well.

7 June 2026, Blenheim Palace Supertriathlon, 750m swim, 19.8 bike, 5.4km run

1 Graham Gaydos (unknown) (11.10; 32.30; 18.51) 1.06.55

149 Tommy Payne (Cirencester AC) (13.47; 36.43; 27.42) 1.27.58

2279 finished blenheimpalace.com 

“Classic Quarter” Lizard Point to Lands End

Recently announced 2025 Long Distance Runner of the Year, Dave Musgrove, was in action this weekend in the South-West in a 44 mile trail race along the coast.

“Another classic quarter in the bag. Slower than normal but there was a crazy gale for the first 30 miles”.

Well done Dave, that sounds tough, and hopefully nutrition was ok this time as not mentioned.

1 Peter Le Grice (Cornwall AC) 6.10.02

70 David Musgrove (Cirencester AC) 9.52.14  

319 finished endurancelife.com

PARKRUNS

With fewer members running at fewer venues than normal (maybe due to Fairford 10k), congratulations to Ian Barrett for his win at Marlborough Common, albeit in a slower time than usual for him as it was his first after recovering from the Edinburgh marathon 2 weekends ago (also the course is on grass and trails so probably not the fastest).

At Cirencester it was a close race between two juniors in the 11-14 years old category to finish first for the club – with both Toby Conway and Edward Knight breaking the 20-minute mark to finish 3^rd/4^th respectively.

Toby had his best parkrun ever, with an outright PB and best age-graded score, improving on his recent 20:10 at the faster Severn Bridge course.

Edward, who is slightly younger, set his third course PB in a row at Ciren and was very close to his PB at Tetbury last June of 19:54.

Congratulations to both of them, also to Sam Timms for her 200^th milestone parkrun.  

Cirencester: 3 Toby Conway (J)(PB) 19.53, 4 Edward Knight (J)(Course PB) 19.57, 46 Paul Timms 24.16,53 Karen Higuera 24.53, 156 Susanna Austin 29.42, 172 Rachel McAdam 30.06,208 Samantha Timms 32.45, 226 Lorna Harris 35.23, 271 Alan McAdam 40.11,286 Tom Morgan 43.34, 313 finished.

Tetbury: 26 Howard Ewan 24.48, 41 Stephen Hale 26.08, 79 Ben Hilditch 31.06,97 Angela Hilditch 32.27, 176 finished.

Carterton, Kilkenny Lane: 140 Gordon Jones 53.52, 146 finished.

Marlborough Common: 1 Ian Barrett 20.47, 101 David Moss 37.37, 123 finished.

Marlow, Higginson Park: 31 Martin Croucher 23.19, 456 finished.