The first report of this year covers three weeks after the editor took a break (see running-related holiday snap at the end). There were more parkrun results than racing, but a strong start on the roads from our ladies.
Offroad racing
Three of the club’s fastest men took on the "Immortal Sinner" trail race between Lydney and Cinderford on Monday 30th December, over some tough terrain including 7 hills.
Rob Forbes finished in 2nd place, far enough ahead of Aaron Willis to think of some appropriately supportive words for Aaron as he crossed the line in 3rd place - “I thought you’d got lost”. Qllie Campbell was last in for the club in 4th, deprived of the chance of running with his brother Luke who was laid low with a dreadful lurgi.
Gloucestershire AAA awards ceremony for 2024 road race series
On Friday 10th January, award winners were invited to a reception in Gloucester to receive their medals or shields.
As reported here and in the local newspaper last year, our victorious ladies won both the Open and Veteran Ladies Team events for the first time in the club’s history. Many of them also won individual age-group medals – here’s how David Wright kindly recorded them in last November’s results page.
Individual (maximum 10 points x 8 best races)
Women Open: 1 Emily Chandler (Stroud AC) 68pts, 2 Kate Jacobs (Cirencester AC) 67pts.
Women FV35: 1 Lucy Salter (Stroud AC) 65pts, 2 Corinne Clark (Cirencester AC) 46pts.
Women FV45: 1 Kate Jacobs (Cirencester AC) 80pts, 2 Charlotte Wilton (Cirencester AC) 73pts.
Women FV50: 1 Emma Millman (Severn AC) 77pts, 2 Rachel Ranger (Cirencester AC) 62pts.
Women FV60: 1 Deborah Phipps (Stroud AC) 74pts, 3 Kate Kilby (Cirencester AC) 58pts.
Women FV75: 1 Ruth Fulford (Cirencester AC) 60pts.
Men V50: 1 Darren Long (Bourton RR) 68pts, 2 James Widdowson (Cirencester AC) 38pts.
Men V60: 1 Alan Pitt (Stroud AC) 77pts, 2 Brian Harris (Cirencester AC) 69pts.
Team – best 8 from 12 races, three to score.
Women Open: 1 Cirencester AC 144pts, 2 Stroud AC 181pts.
Women Masters: 1 Cirencester AC 101pts, 2 Stroud AC 215pts.
Road racing
The ever-popular Linda Franks 5 mile race on 19th January (not in either club or county champs) saw a strong set of results from 6 of our ladies racing in cold but dry conditions in Hatherley.
First home for the club in a blistering 29.38 was ladies captain Kate Jacobs, 26s faster than her time last year. This improved her own LV45 club record and puts her 2nd on the club’s all-time rankings - only Wendy Jones has run faster. What a great start to the season!
Karen Higuera and Ruth Fulford both won their respective age groups, and Jo Musk and Charlotte Wilton were both 3rd in theirs. Jo was pleased to improve on her November Guy Fawkes time, with nicely even pacing until finishing even stronger over the last mile. Karen was chasing Kate Kilby’s club record but despite an age-graded result of >84% was still over 20s behind. Watch this space?
Parkruns
Some parkrun courses laid on extra runs for the new year, so there are 4 sets of results since the last newsletter that you can find elsewhere on the website here.
I haven’t been through 4 lots of results/strava activities quite as closely as normal so just a few highlights I’m aware of - (if you had/have a milestone, let us know!)
1st January – Kate Jacobs was first lady finisher at Cirencester’s extra run
4th January – the club had a 1-2 with Rich Allen first in 18.33 just ahead of James Thomas in 18.38 in Cirencester. Paul Timms in Singapore and Amanda Naylor in South Africa were furthest from home.
11th January - Cirencester with 325 runners had its largest field ever, boosted by a cancellation at Tetbury. Rob Forbes in 2ndwas credited with the same time of 18.04 as the winner, and Rich Allen finished in 3rd with 18.29, over a minute ahead of the rest of the field.
In her first run after many months off with an injured foot, Kate Kilby was back with a bang, turning in the highest age-graded time of the day (79.5%). Great to see you back running Kate (and a great advert for the cross-training benefits of Elliptigo?).
18th January – Rob Forbes didn’t have to share the lead this week, finishing clear first in 18.28.
Kate Kilby was again first on an age-graded basis.
Looking Ahead....
Next weekend sees the first race of the county road race series and club champs – the Boddington 10 mile. If you managed to get a place but now can’t run there’s at least one club member on the waiting list, so do hand it back.
And finally….
That holiday snap I mentioned (from Yala Cinnamon Wild in Sri Lanka). You may remember Dorian Matts’ articles on the Need for Speed, encouraging us all to do some speedwork. He probably didn’t have in mind the following need to run faster ;-))

30 December 2024, Immortal Sinner, 14 miles trail
1 Graham Russ (Steyning AC) 1.45.26
2 Rob Forbes (Cirencester AC) 1.47.21 – 1st V40
3 Aaron Willis 1.54.57
4 Ollie Campbell 1.57.4727 finished
19 January 2025, Linda Franks ‘5’, Cheltenham, 5 miles road
1 Jacob Cann (Newham & Essex Beagles) 23.38 (chip 23.37) – course record
36 Kate Jacobs (Cirencester AC) 29.38 (29.38) – 4th lady / 1st FV45, club FV45 record, 2nd female all-time club list
77 Jo Musk 33.09 (33.05)
80 Charlotte Wilton 33.27 (33.22)
123 Karen Higuera 36.35 (36.29) – 1st FV60
250 Ruth Fulford 52.59 (52.40) – 1st FV75
267 finished
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