Fission - splitting the race (not the atom)
- brian17harris
- 12 minutes ago
- 4 min read
15 March 2026, Fission ‘20’ and HM at Berkeley former Power Station
Shifting from a Saturday to clash with Mothering Sunday didn’t seem to reduce by too much the numbers running the Fission 20 and HM races at Berkeley this year. Whilst the 20 mile race was in the Glos AAA road race series, it also attracts runners from Wales, Avon, Wiltshire and even further afield. some of them of a very high standard ( the winning time for the 20 miles was faster than anyone from our club, including Mike Smith, has ever run).
If you’ve not tried it before, the entry fees for the races are comparatively low, as the organisers (Rogue Runners – they are runners themselves) let you pay extra if you want a medal or t-shirt.
An unusual plus point is the free tea/coffee and a cake afterwards, although you’re encouraged to leave a donation for the charities that provided manpower for the watering stations (e.g Scouts). There is also very little traffic on the course.
On the downside, it can be windy (Ed. – I definitely felt it on the 2nd of the two 8.5 mile laps). And for some reason, the start time is often put back 5-10 minutes because the toilet queues are so long!
The club had 5 runners, the slowest 3 of which were very much using it as more of a training run than purely racing it. All 5 are hoping to do Spring marathons.
Appropriately for the "Fission" race, several runners split it into parts ;-))
Jack Bonnick was first home for the club, and provisionally 3rd in his Glos AAA category. In the absence of feedback on Strava, we’re guessing he was rather pleased with his time of 2.11.25 as it was a Stravas PB for 30k.
Ian Barrett was 4th MV40 on the day, but provisionally the 1st Glos AAA V40 (congratulations if so!). Here’s his feedback
“A race of two halves. Company for the first half, decided to drop off the pace before half-way even though it meant headwind on my own through to 14 miles. Managed to catch back up to a couple of people in the last 2 miles. “
Ian was comfortably inside his own target beforehand of 2:20, with plenty of time to build on that before his late Spring marathon in Edinburgh. {Ed. - he also had plenty of time to get back from the HQ finish onto the course to nab a photo of me trailing in more than 20 minutes later - see below, thanks Ian}.
Brian Harris came into the race with only two long runs of 15/16 miles this year under his belt mostly due to holidays, so he stuck to his race plan – first half fairly easy, second half as close to marathon pace as possible without blowing up. Despite being 15 minutes slower than when he last ran the race, he was provisionally 4th in his Glos AAA age category, but the main takeaway was not to have brought back (it seems so far) any of his recent injuries.
Charlotte Wilton was not far behind Brian – they ran together for a few miles early on. She was only pushing on for the last 6 miles or so – again wisely sticking to her pre-race plan.
Rob Tuttle was trialling a disciplined walk/run approach as part of his build up to the Shakespeare marathon at the end of April (6 weeks away).
“Everything went exactly to plan - run: walk 3:1, good speed through the running sections, good walking pace, plenty of fluids & nutrition. Very pleasing - but very sore legs!”
1 Simon Nott (Calne RC) 1.49.12
22 Jack Bonnick (Cirencester AC) 2.11.25
48 Ian Barrett 2.18.59
147 Brian Harris 2.41.28
162 Charlotte Wilton 2.43.50
308 Rob Tuttle 3.14.26
422 finished
With Nick Wall unfortunately a DNS, Jos Randall, not long back from Oz, was our only runner over the one-lap race.
1 Lewis Munro (Islwyn RC) 1.11.05
97 Jocelyn Randall (Cirencester AC) 2.13.10
113 finished
15 March 2026, Bath Half Marathon
Whilst our chairman Luke Campbell was working behind the scenes at the Bath Half, two club members were on the course.
David Moss’s time on the day was much better than he had feared given that he had had a difficult few weeks in the lead up to the race, but he was behind his original target pace.
1 Joe Wigfield (Tyne Bridge Harriers) 1.02.07
2602 David Moss (Cirencester AC) 1.43.19
4874 Elysia Harrison 1.54.52
*************PARKRUNS 14 MARCH***************
There were fewer members than normal our parkrunning this week, with no PB’s and only one milestone spotted.
After a slight disappointment last week at Ciren, Clare Tapley was delighted with her milestone run this week
“I did it!!!! Kilkenny Lane Country Park parkrun. Managed to get under 40 minutes on my 50th milestone. Super happy.”
Fastest parkrunner and best finishing position for the day was Charles Woodd, with his best time this year just breaking the 20-minute mark at Tetbury.
It was also good to see Martin Croucher back inside 30 minutes, as he was off for quite a while injured. Best of luck Martin for a continued recovery.
Cirencester: 10 Toby Conway (J) 22.01, 62 Susanna Austin 27.28, 86 Sophie Mason (J) 28.31,105 Pam Wheeler 30.19, 127 Kirsty Leggate 32.01, 174 Ruth Fulford 40.52, 203 finished.Tetbury: 6 Charles Woodd 19.58, 44 Stephen Hale 23.55, 218 finished.
Marlborough Common: 105 David Moss 34.01, 146 finished.
Carterton, Kilkenny Lane: 13 Colin Tapley 22.28, 129 Clare Tapley 39.09, 146 finished.
Gloucester City: 74 Paul Timms 24.15, 110 Alan McAdam 26.16, 122 Rachel McAdam 27.15,194 Samantha Timms 30.27, 372 finished.
Keynsham, Somerdale Pavilion: 95 Richard Edwards 30.41, 135 finished.
Witney: 70 Martin Croucher 29.04, 206 finished.
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