Super Sydney, a flying mile and Dave's TDS
- brian17harris
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
With many of you on holiday, it’s been another relatively quiet 2 weeks on the racing front, so we're wrapping up two week's worth here, having skipped a race report last weekend.
Last week’s parkruns, 22nd August
Apologies if any milestones/PB’s/great photos go unmentioned, you’re always welcome proactively to let us know ;-)
Cirencester: 36 Brecon Musk (J) 23.18, 49 Paul Timms 23.57, 56 Rachel Ranger 24.11,82 Alan McAdam 25.31, 89 Jonathan Higgs 25.45, 141 Brendan McCarthy 27.42,148 Rachel McAdam 28.08, 189 Amanda Naylor 29.46, 225 Richard Edwards 31.00,229 Samantha Timms 31.06, 276 Kirsty Leggate 34.33, 350 finished.
Cheltenham, Pittville Park: 59 Clare Stickney 22.00, 662 finished.
Chippenham: 45 David Moss 22.49, 299 finished.
Bath Skyline: 126 Susanna Austin 28.30, 265 finished.
Three Brooks, Bradley Stoke, Bristol: 241 Ruth Fulford 34.15, 312 finished.
Severn Bridge: 4 Rich Allen 17.32, 507 finished.
Sharpham Estate, Totnes: 39 Colin Tapley 24.10, 176 finished.
Fountain’s Abbey, nr. Ripon: 59 Martin Croucher 21.39, 551 finished.
Glossop: 54 Stephen Hale 24.55, 209 finished.
Dalby Forest, nr. Scarborough: 24 Charlotte Wilton 22.23, 232 finished.
Perth: 86 Bill Leggate 25.17, 145 Philippa Leggate (J) 28.11, 346 finished.
August 22nd trail races – La Toussuire, France
The Stewart-Hodges (mum Anna and daughter Holly) slotted in trail races on holiday in France last week.
Holly was the first girl and 3rd overall in the shortest race for teens – she enjoyed it and had a great speedy finish.
Anna chose the longest course option which was 41km with 2130m elevation, taking her just over 7 hours.
“Had to add a painful one km stagger at the end to make it a marathon. [Edit, just seen I was 200m short for marathon distance, but I guess I walked to the car afterwards.]
1st marathon I've done in 19 years and my first long mountain trail race. 🥇1st placed female in the 45 - 59 year-old category- a huge awesome surprise! Hurt like heck going up and worse going down, my poor quads are in shock.”
Well done to Anna for doing this somewhat last-minute – hope you’re recovering well from the shock!
August 24th – TDS Ultra - Courmayeur, Italy
One run you won’t find on the club’s results webpage is Dave Musgrove’s epic DNF after “only” c. 75km and 16,000 feet of elevation covered in 19 hours. The full race distance was 145km. Here’s Dave account.
“Well. That was very difficult. Dropped out of the TDS about halfway round. Midnight start in Courmayer was an odd time to start running. Combo of extreme cold and heat, mountain mudfest after heavy rain, sleep deprivation, and my old friend the vomit viper put paid to my attempt. I was excitingly briefly in dead last place when I fell asleep at an aid station and was woken up to tell me that cut off was in 5 minutes. Couldn't take on fuel for the last 10 hours so the hills were a bit tricky. Amazing adventure and quite enjoyable when I wasn't puking.”
It’s difficult for those of us who haven’t attempted a proper hard ultra to appreciate the difficulty in getting even halfway [and also to comprehend how “enjoyable” they are ;-) ] but when you get these sort of Strava comments,
· From Bill “still mightily impressive” and
· From Rob Carmichael, for those of you who know him, “Amazing effort… those climbs and descents are no joke. Was following the tracker and willing you on to make the cut offs. Inspiring!”
then it’s clear that Dave’s run was quite an achievement.
{Unrelated, but if you want to see Dave in action in his non-running guise, look out for his slots at the Cirencester History Festival later this year – the program has just been released. Tickets on sale next week or two, tend to go very quickly. No money has changed hands for this plug!}
Friday 28th August 2026, Meteor Mile, Staverton Airport, Cheltenham
It’s pretty hard to find mile races, so when the Meteor mile came along Rich Allen was very keen to test his speed, having been injured and unable to run in the torrential rain at the Bourton mile back in May. Possibly the aviation connection for an RAF man was an extra pull?
It looks like Rich has finally shaken off the effect of his injury as he finished in a cracking time of 5:01, equalling his time at Bourton last year, and keeping him at 11th man on the club’s all-time list. Well done Rich.
Daughter Tilly (Gloucester AC) shown in the photo below also clocked an impressive 6.05.
1 Charlie Worsfold (unattached) 4.28 (age-graded 84.2%)
15 Rich Allen (Cirencester AC) 5.01 (age-graded 81.5%)
219 finished www.almostathletes.co.uk
30 August 2026, Sydney Marathon, Australia, 26.2 miles road
Last but certainly not least for this week’s racing, Charlotte Wilton combined a visit to see her sister in Australia with achieving something that may be unique amongst our members – as she explains -
“My 7th Abbot World Marathon Major!
Started slowly as training block interrupted by injury, ran 5mins, walked 30 sec, repeat. Epic race! Loved every second! So nice to finish strong instead of broken 😎🤣”
Not only has she surpassed the original 6 majors by complete the newest addition, but despite not having a full training block to prepare, she smashed the V50 London Good For Age time whilst using the jeffing (run-walk) method. Her steady pace didn’t drop off, and indeed she picked it up for the last half mile. Really well done - your club friends are delighted for you Charlotte !
[Ed. – we’re aware of some other members close to finishing their 6th major – if you’ve already done so, let us know!}
1 Addisu Gobena (Ethiopia) 2.04.42
8647 Charlotte Wilton (Cirencester AC) 3.43.49
36287 finished tcssydneymarathon.com
29 August 2026, parkruns
At Cirencester, Dave Wright was first home for the club and also got the fastest age-graded time apart from our own Kate Kilby. Dave just missed out on a PB by 3 seconds, but that must be a matter of time and better conditions given his fantastic Heddington 5k time recently.
Last home for the club, not a usual spot for her, was Rachel McAdam, but as she was sporting a newly acquired broken wrist, staying upright whilst walking the course in the mud and rain was a brave achievement, no doubt to keep level with Alan in parkruns done.
The Leggate family were parkrun touring again, on a “definitely undulating” course. The other reason that Bill's time wasn't his fastest recently -
“Misdirected at the first corner so spent the first half lap dodging through traffic and most of the run reeling in the leader. Useful tempo”.
He was indeed successful in reeling in the leader, finishing in 18.45 – congratulations Bill.
Rich Allen clocked the fastest time for the week on tired legs at Carterton.
Furthest afield was obviously Charlotte warming up using one of the Sydney parkruns to warm up for her marathon on Sunday.
Cirencester: 8 Dave Wright 21.07, 12 Toby Conway (J) 21.47, 79 Kate Kilby 25.56, 82 Jonathan Higgs 26.00, 90 Alan McAdam 26.20, 120 Gary Wood 27.53, 130 Susanna Austin 28.23, 144 Amanda Naylor 29.09, 157 Brendan McCarthy 29.41, 170 Ben Hilditch 30.29, 176 Angela Hilditch 30.47, 190 Samantha Timms 31.48, 196 Richard Edwards 32.05, 251 Ruth Fulford 37.47, 268 Gordon Jones 48.08, 270 Rachel McAdam 48.52, 283 finished.
Tetbury: 6 Helena Sexton 21.28, 18 Paul Timms 24.52, 170 finished.
Swindon, Lydiard Park: 79 Corinne Clark 24.43, 373 finished.
Swindon, Seven Fields: 35 David Moss 24.57, 167 finished.
Carterton, Kilkenny Lane: 3 Rich Allen 18.27, 92 Sophie Mason (J) 29.41, 170 finished.
Witney: 30 Martin Croucher 22.59, 253 finished.
Thames Path, Woolwich: 90 Stephen Hale 24.31, 287 finished.
Westmill, Ware, Herts: 1 Bill Leggate18.45, 80 Philippa Leggate 31.34, 93 Kirsty Leggate 33.14, 146 finished.
Woolacombe Dunes: 33 Leo Crawford 25.17, 348 finished.
Gdansk, Poland: 25 Ben Francis 24.54, 72 finished.
Pirrama, Sydney, Australia: 243 Charlotte Wilton 26.05, 1053 finished.
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