TRAILS - up/down mountains, in the forest, through a stable (yes!) & just round the park
- brian17harris
- May 25
- 5 min read
DO YOU NEED A CLUB VEST?
If you’re running in the Summer Sizzler or any other race this summer and don’t have a club vest, please get in touch with Brian Harris through this link. He will have the stock of vests available to try on and purchase before this Tuesday’s session (27th May) – suggest you arrive 5-10 minutes earlier than usual. If you can’t attend then, but need a vest please fill in the contact form here https://www.cirencesterac.com/club-kit
LATE (ROAD) RESULT FROM LAST WEEK
One race report from last weekend (24th May) that just missed the cut-off time for publishing (tea-time on Sunday please) was for Michael Hobbs running the Worcester marathon.
He’s taking his time as 3.15.39, despite his chip time being exactly 2 minutes faster (not sure why, but that seemed wrong). He reports it was fairly tough for a road course, as it’s quite undulating (over 350m of elevation), so he was happy with the result. {For a proper hilly off-road race see later}
Having run 3:15 in (flat) London on a charity place last month, he would ideally like to qualify for a GFA (good for age) place for London next year, which at his still relatively youthful age {Ed. relative to me at least!} is a pretty tough 3.07.
Fingers crossed for a fast flat course in September Mike – good luck with the training for that including the bike work that seems to be paying dividends.
TRAIL RACING
Taking advantage of the longer daylight hours, almost a 1,000 runners including two club members ran a mid-week 10k on Wednesday evening 21st in the beautiful surroundings of Westonbirt Arboretum. Karen was running with her friend Ros rather than racing this one.
1 Martin Wood (Stroud & District AC) 35.26 (chip 35.25)
39 Elysia Harrison (Cirencester AC) 44.28 (44.27) – 6th lady
538 Karen Higuera 1.04.30 (1.04.29)
930 finished www.forestryengland.uk
Gareth James was the only member actually running a UK race at the weekend {Ed. repeat after me, "Parkrun isn’t a race” ;-)) }.
He came 2nd out of 28 in the longest, 26 mile, option of the Christ College Brecon Mountain Challenge 2025, including almost 6,000ft of elevation.
From his Strava post you can see it went really well -
“First male and second place overall I'm ecstatic! I was second from about 10k in till about 25k, when I got lost going downhill and to double up there was apparently an approved shortcut that wasn't on the map and I dropped to 6th 😔 . Put my big pants on and GRAFTED, took me 12k to reclaim my place. Thrilled with the time, crazy conditions on the top.”
Great job Gareth – and must have been a nice change from organising a race to running one.
And lastly for trail racing, but certainly not least, over in France, on Sunday David Wright continued the trail theme and sent this account {the first under my editorship with a video clip in - worth watching alone for the route going through a horse stables, as well as DW of course at 1.20 into the clip ;-) }
"I ambled around a 25km trail race this morning on a brutal course, particularly for an old git like me. I was just a spectator when the mountain goat trail runners bounced down the steep, rutted downhills and bounded up the tough hills. Definitely not my comfort zone but had to be done. Got some revenge when we emerged out onto the roads. Don't know if results will be up today (they are) but here is a video of the race from 2019 when I last did it (seen cruising along about 1:20 into the video, white singlet).
It doesn't give an idea on the difficulty but does show the beauty of the course, Trail en Guirec: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0rQrxvwTBo
Trail en Guirec, La Granit Roz, Puerros Guirec, France, 25km trail
1 Glenn Le Quere (Lannion, France) 1.36.48
131 David Wright (Cirencester AC) 2.18.09
438 finished www.perros-guirec.com
Multisports
On Saturday 24th Ann Sherrington took part in the Cotswold Aquathlon (a 750m swim followed by a 6km run) at the Cotswold Water Park, one of several available cominations on the day organised by LPS events, for whom our club chairman happens to be Event Manager. Ann sent this report
“Lake 62 is my favourite setting for an Aquathlon and LPS events are always the most friendly! Nice and local, with a clear lake for the 750m swim and 4 laps of the lake for a 6k run.
I had a good swim (14.16) and a steady run (35.09). I’m pleased that my running is getting stronger and I’m feeling more confident with it. Came 3rd/5th overall and 2nd/4th women which meant Luke presented me with an award which was a nice Cirencester club moment!
This could be a great local event for Ciren club members to do next year, especially as there is a team relay triathlon option as well as duathlon, Aquathlon, triathlon and Aquabike”.
[Ed. You should ask for a discount next year after this plug ;-)) ]
PARKRUNS
In another big field with a good showing of club members at Cirencester, there were several PB’s and milestones
Toby Conway set a new PB of 21.33
Stephen Hale’s 25.15 was also a PB
Jonathan Higgs clocked up his 100th parkrun
Bella Stickney registered her 25th parkrun.
Congratulations to all of them.
At the front of the field, in 3rd place Rich Allen was just 1 second off his PB (although his Strava time was just sub-18 minutes, so maybe he just needs sharper elbows at the start to join the official sub-18 club). Just behind in 4th place was 2nd claim teen member Ben Conway with 18.31, also setting a PB like his younger brother Toby.
Welcome back too to the Macadams, back to local parkrunning, albeit both somewhat weary after their 3-week epic coast to coast walk.
24 May 2025, parkruns, 5km trail
Cirencester: 3 Rich Allen 18.21, 17 Edward Knight (J) 21.00, 25 Casey Vatcher 21.27,27 Toby Conway (J)(PB) 21.33, 54 Paul Timms 23.34, 73 Neil Broadley 24.38,79 Alan McAdam 24.56, 84 Stephen Hale 25.14 (PB), 91 Isabella Stickney (J) 25.51,104 Jonathan Higgs 26.23, 108 Susanna Austin 26.46, 134 Rachel McAdam 27.47, 148 Gordon Jones 28.31, 149 Brendan McCarthy 28.33, 170 Pam Wheeler 29.30, 194 Richard Edwards 30.55,197 Samantha Timms 31.16, 235 Ruth Fulford 34.07, 323 finished.
Swindon, Lydiard Park: 123 Chris Miller 24.42, 489 finished.
Marlborough Common: 82 David Moss 28.51, 175 finished.
Witney: 100 Phil Davey 26.53, 317 finished.
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