The club was well represented at the local and ever popular Stroud Half Marathon and there were some impressive performances across the board. Runners contended with a mixed bag of weather, the beautiful rainbow over a sunny Stonehouse was a warning of the wet and windy spell to come.
Luke Campbell in a superb 1:20:41 was first across the line for Cirencester in 15th place overall, followed by David Musgrove three minutes later. An official announcement is awaited as to which of Luke’s Strava friends predicted his finish time most accurately and won his race day socks!
Next home was Brian Harris who rounded off his impressive season with yet another PB, taking 90 seconds off one set 8 weeks ago. Within the race he also ran a sub 42 minute 10k. He was able to go home and celebrate his achievements with his family including his daughter who returned from three years in Australia that very day.
There were solid runs from everyone else involved including Rob Tuttle back close to his best ever, surely the motivation he needs to tackle his next goal of a new PB. Jos Randall, Carole Rayner and Rachel Barrow finished within a minute or so of each other to take 7th, 8th and 9th positions of 42 finishers in the FV50 category.
Another fine run from Liza Darroch saw her take the trophy for first FV70 with her 2:10:36 finish.
24th October, Stroud Half Marathon, 13.1 miles, road
1 Lee Stopford (Stroud and District Athletic Club) 1.11.51 (1.11.51)
15 Luke Campbell (Cirencester AC) 1.20.41 (1.20.41)
28 David Musgrove 1.23.35 (1.23.34)
92 Brian Harris 1.33.07 (1.33.02)
235 Nicola Denning 1.46.52 (1.46.33)
281 Rob Tuttle 1.51.05 (1.50.44)
294 Nick Wall 1.51.51 (1.51.31)
303 Rupert Chesmore 1.52.44 (1.52.15)
317 Jocelyn Randall 1.53.59 (1.53.40)
320 Carole Rayner 1.54.08 (1.53.50)
350 Rachel Barrow 1.55.26 (1.54.59)
385 Gary Wood 1.58.52 (1.58.32)
496 Liza Darroch 2.11.30 (2.10.36) – 1st WV70
Across the border in Wales, Fi Collings showed the joy to be had when life throws you an unexpected opportunity.
When the offer of an unwanted place in the Newport Marathon was posted on WhatsApp, Fi grabbed the chance to fulfil a lifelong ambition. She had just six weeks to build up from her already strong base and increase her early morning Thursday runs from her usual 12 miles. She credits her off road training routes with making the Newport tarmac feel relatively easy for 13 miles or so. She says her legs started to ache at around 18 miles and by 21 miles thoughts of walking crept in. But she was boosted by seeing friends on the route and by the supportive crowd and so “kept putting one foot in front of the other”.
Fi says she had expected to come in at around the 4:30 mark and so was completely overwhelmed at her 3:59:19 finish. She shed happy tears and describes the whole experience as “wonderful!”
Also at the event was Howard Ewan who ran well within himself as he supported others.
24th October, Newport Marathon, 26.2 miles, road
1 Adam Bowden (Bridgend AC) 2.20.06 (2.20.06)
1038 Fiona Collings (Cirencester AC) 4.01.24 (3.59.19)
1590 Howard Ewan 4.45.29 (4.41.30)
2019 finished
In France, David Wright took part in a more unusual event. David describes the race as an urban trail in the city, a format which is popular in France entailing a road course twisting through back alleys and parks and up and down hundreds of steps! The high standard race is the second oldest in the country and was celebrating its 95th running this year.
David finished in 82nd place overall and took the V60 age group prize.
24th October, Trail Urban Nantais, Nantes, 15km, road
1 Anthony Baumal (Nantes AC) 53.52
82 David Wright (Cirencester AC) 1.08.22 – 1st V60
528 finished
Of note on the parkrun circuit this week, Ollie Campbell impressed with 3rd place in a field of over 500 at Coventry. Karen Higuera enjoyed her outing at Cirencester and was 2nd lady. Brian Harris was tailwalker there. Nea Sneddon-Jenkins was 2nd lady at Tetbury and Wendy Nicholls 3rd lady at Seven Fields.
23rd October, parkrun, 5k, trail
Lydiard parkrun
1 Gregory Hills (Unattached) 17.47
70 David Moss (Cirencester AC) 23.11
102 Gordon Jones 24.01
220 Rachel Jones 31.00
371 finished
Coventry parkrun
1 Luke Davis (Unattached) 16.24
3 Ollie Campbell (Cirencester AC) 17.13
509 finished
Keswick parkrun
1 Ben Lines (Unattached) 17.54
65 Alan Mcadam (Cirencester AC) 24.21
81 Rachel Mcadam 25.34
198 finished
Cirencester parkrun
1 Chris Roxburgh (Unattached) 18.08
14 Ionel Iancu (Cirencester AC) 22.29
17 Karen Higuera 23.10 – 2nd Woman
113 Brian Harris 50.53
113 finished
Llanerchaeron parkrun
1 Luke Martin (Unattached) 17.42
17 Colin Tapley (Cirencester AC) 22.32
51 Clare Tapley 31.53
88 finished
Tetbury Goods Shed parkrun
1 Nicholas Twomey (Unattached) 17.17
9 Nea Sneddon-Jenkins (Cirencester AC) 21.51 – 2nd Woman
94 finished
King George V Playing Field parkrun
1 David Tristram-Johnson (Unattached) 18.28
40 Ruth Fulford (Cirencester AC) 29.43
76 finished
Seven Fields parkrun
1 Kiya Dee (Unattached) 18.32
15 Wendy Nicholls (Cirencester AC) 22.43 – 3rd Woman
81 finished
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