Club News
Members not on the club whatsapp group will be interested to know that we have just had a handover of the role of men's captain. Many thanks to James Thomas for all his work for the club and a big welcome to his successor with immediate effect, Aaron Willis.
Offroad racing
On Sunday 17th Karen Higuera took on the Broadway “Marathon” – in quotes because it is actually a bit longer than 26.2 mile. Starting and finishing in Broadway village, the route, which is laid out as two loops in a figure-of-eight fashion follows predominantly trails and unpaved tracks through picturesque Cotswold villages, woodlands, mud and, most importantly, just over 3,000ft of hill climbing. The field of around 100 is small, so it's not always easy to get an entry. Here’s Karen’s feedback
“Approx. my seventh Broadway marathon and it never disappoints! Today was one of the driest I’ve run on and although there were still places to slip slide, I remained upright and had a thoroughly enjoyable run.
Today’s marathon as well as the half M you can choose is a very laid-back affair. Well-stocked aid stations every 5 miles and experienced trail runners there to help out.
The organisers Cotswold Trail Events also do a 50 miler and a century every September if anyone fancies the challenge. Until the next one….”
And as a follow up to the Guy Fawkes 5-mile race 2 weeks ago where Karen picked up the FV60 prize, we now know from RunBritain that her time of 37:59 puts her in the national top 40 for her age group over this distance so far this year, and her age-graded was c. 81%. So a very strong run, esp. only 2 weeks before a hill off-road marathon. Good job Karen.
{Official results not available at time of first posting}
Road racing
Also on Sunday, in the Gosport HM, on a fast two lap course along the promenade and back, David Wright successfully “chipped” 50 seconds off his own MV65 half marathon club record set just 7 weeks ago in the Solent (the sea air must be good for running fast?).
David reports that it was quite blowy and a bit monotonous. He was disappointed to not maintain his first half pace right through to the end, but picked up to finish strongly. {Ed. and of personal interest, nip inside my recent Stroud time by 13 seconds. Challenge accepted ;-) }
Congratulations to David on his third club record this year (Ed. I hope I got that Wright?).
Parkruns
Sam Timms won the furthest away parkrun hands down this week, on a stop-over in Singapore. Husband Paul ventured to the furthest corner of our county (Newent), along with Phil Davey who I understand had chosen a new parkrun venue over a weekend trip to the USA !
On our home course, it was great to see one of our U15 juniors, Ben Conway finish well up the field in a new parkrun PB of 19:50. Ben also trains with Swindon Harriers, and it looks like the combined training effect has helped to significantly improve his parkrun best, which was 21:30 last year.
Coming in 3rd at Lydiard Park, Rich Allen set a parkrun PB of 17:53, which was 45 seconds faster than his winning time at Cirencester last week – maybe giving an idea of how much faster the Lydiard course is?
17 November 2024, Gosport Half Marathon, 13.1 miles road
1 Will Grace (Chichester Runners & AC) 1.08.01 (chip 1.08.01)
217 David Wright (Cirencester AC) 1.31.42 (1.31.27) – club V65 record
16 November 2024 Parkruns
Cirencester: 5 Ben Conway (J) 19.50, 46 Rachel Ranger 25.02, 66 Alan McAdam 25.54,69 Gordon Jones 26.16, 75 Rachel McAdam 26.48, 103 Pam Wheeler 28.25,112 Brendan McCarthy 28.43, 128 Amanda Naylor 29.48, 131 Kirsty Leggate 30.08, 217 finished.
Lydiard Park, Swindon: 3 Richard Allen 17.53, 356 finished.
Tetbury: 35 Stephen Hale 25.30, 145 finished.Chippenham: 193 James Hunton 33.41, 237 finished.
Berkeley Green: 73 Ruth Fulford 31.47, 111 finished.
Newent: 14 Paul Timms 25.18, 24 Phil Davey 28.52, 60 finished.
Bay East Garden, Singapore: 47 Samantha Timms 32.37, 78 finished.
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