"Jeff do it" - works for Gary at Chester, and a post-storm Slog in the Park
- brian17harris
- Oct 5, 2025
- 5 min read
Firstly, as promised, an update on the club champs and county road series after last weekend’s races.
With two races to go in the Glos AAA road series (Sharpness 4mi next weekend and Guy Fawkes 5mi on November 2nd) Ladies captain Kate Jacobs, who had to sit out the last race with an injury, is now in joint 1st place in the Open category. Whilst guaranteed a silver, it looks like the gold will be won or lost in the finale on 2nd November. (Kate has already won her age group gold).
Rich Allen is joint first in his V40 category and 3 points ahead of 3rd place, but with a race in hand vs the athlete in 2nd, and not having been beaten this season by either of them, if he can stay fit the gold looks well within his reach, just in time before he moves up to V45 next season.
Karen Higuera’s gritty run last week has guaranteed her bronze but more importantly also kept her in contention for gold. Again it looks like it will all depend on the last race.
Kate Kilby, lying in 2nd place in FV65 has a race in hand against the leader who has only beaten Kate once this year, so again, if Kate can stay fit, she looks a good bet for finishing with a gold.
Finally, Ruth Fulford has now run (and come first in) the required minimum number of races so will be adding yet another (FV75) gold to her AAA collection stretching back longer than she can remember (well over 10 years) – congratulations Ruth.
As regards the club championships, Andy Duff leads the men’s table but Rich Allen has a race in hand and looks set to overtake Andy, with injured James Widdowson likely to finish 3rd. For the ladies, Kate Jacobs has maximum points already, so 2ndplace will be between Kate Kilby and Karen Higuera depending on their runs at Sharpness and/or Stroud HM.
Saturday - Parkruns
Given the windy conditions from Storm Amy (Cirencester Park was closed on Saturday) perhaps it wasn’t surprising to see fewer locations where members ran Parkruns this weekend.
At Cirencester, where Pam wheeler confirmed it was definitely windy, there were no milestones or PB’s, but Kate Kilby was again fastest overall on an age-graded basis, and Anna Stewart-Hodges was only 10 seconds off her PB.
Cirencester: 8 Toby Conway (J) 21.35, 19 Anna Stewart-Hodges (J) 22.50, 31 Paul Timms 24.25, 54 Rachel Ranger 26.28, 55 Kate Kilby 26.31, 75 Susanna Austin 27.47,95 Sophie Mason (J) 29.13, 115 Gordon Jones 30.26, 136 Pam Wheeler 31.24,217 Tom Morgan 44.10, 230 finished.
Tetbury: 28 Stephen Hale 24.31, 151 finished.
Swindon, Seven Fields: 48 David Moss 24.44, 198 finished.
Saturday - Apperley Quarter Marathon, Tewkesbury, 6.5 miles trail
Not a distance or a location that we often see reported on, but on Saturday Barbara Thomas ran this charity trail event which the village website describes thus
“The AQM is run over 6.55 miles (10.55km) around a varied course along local lanes and footpaths starting and finishing at the Cricket Club. The first edition of this running festival took place in 1983, and it has become a regular annual event which celebrated its 40th anniversary in fine style on 24 September 2023 when over 400 people took part including many enthusiastic youngsters who ran in the 1km long “Kiddython”.”
1 Peter Duffy (CLC Striders) 38.12
324 Barbara Thomas (Cirencester AC) 1.14.12
371 finished www.apperley-deerhurst.co.uk
Sunday - Cirencester Park Slog
Having been closed for storm Amy on Saturday, fortunately Cirencester Park re-opened to host a 10-mile trail race in aid of the SARA charity. We’re fortunate to have feedback from three of the four club members running it.
Casey Vatcher
“It was surprisingly pleasant conditions this morning considering the storm that took place yesterday. There were fallen trees along the trail but it didn’t take much to evade them on a mixed terrain. As this was my first time running the course the sporadic steep hills caught me by surprise on occasion, all adding to the challenge and the event living up to its ‘slog’ name. It was a smooth operation and made for a fantastic event - I’d highly recommend it!
As a first-time dad I added this one to the calendar as non-negotiable preparation for the Cirencester half marathon in November, and it certainly did the job, coming in under my 1:20 target time (finishing 8th).
Bella Stickney did well to finish 1st junior lady
‘It was a beautiful morning for the slog. Despite feeling ill, I loved the route through Cirencester Park and was pleased with my time. We were lucky the storm had passed, and I’d definitely do it again next time.’
Susanna Austin
“There seemed fewer of us than the Somewhere Elses, who were out in force this year. A much quieter race than last year, when I think it was affiliated. Also, much sunnier today and good going despite branches and conkers strewn around.
After 4.11 in the trail marathon 3 weeks before, I was aiming at 1hr 30, a bit faster than last year. Theoretically uphill for the first half and downhill back, it did not feel like that, although cheery support and water from the Severn Area Rescue Association helped.
With 10 minutes to go, I said to a lady near me. 'Come on! We can get under 1.30!' We did and our chip times were less then a second apart, so I was pipped to the post, just coming 3rd in the over 50 category and 12th female overall.”
1 Max Eckert (Forest of Dean AC) 1.03.32 (chip 1.03.28)
8 Casey Vatcher (Cirencester AC) 1.15.08 (1.15.02)
29 Isabella Stickney 1.25.37 (1.25.28) – 5th lady / 1st junior lady
32 Ionel Iancu 1.26.24 (1.26.13)
42 Susanna Austin 1.29.29 (1.29.20)
69 finished www.bathurstestate.co.uk
Sunday - Chester Marathon
Gary Wood is one of the club’s most consistent marathon runners, completing at least one every year since 2011, apart from 2015 and 2020(covid). He was back in action for the 10th time at his favourite venue, Chester this weekend. After some disappointing endings to his last few marathons, this time he was trying out for the first time the run-walk method, as made famous by Jeff Galloway (thus “jeffing”). After some experimentation he settled with walking for 45-60 seconds every 6 minutes or so, FROM THE START. This gained him some odd looks in the first few miles. {Ed. I can confirm I had the same odd looks and comments when jeffing at Chester M a few years ago, whilst not fully recovered from an injury.}
His finish time of 4:40:11 was over an hour better than London earlier this year (result not on power-of-ten?) and 18 minutes better than his Chester run last year, so it looks like it worked for Gary - as he says
"I found there were a lot of people that I was running alongside that dropped away in the final few miles. I can also walk a lot easier than I normally can after a marathon. I would def recommend the method to anyone new to marathoning or someone like myself who was struggling."
Well done Gary for sticking with the new approach, and really glad it paid off for you.
1 Josh Griffiths (Swansea Harriers) 2.17.16 (chip 2.17.16)
3755 Gary Wood (Cirencester AC) 4.49.20 (4.40.11)
?? finished www.activeleisureevents.co.uk/marathon
Comments