W/e 1st March - another club record for Rich and prizes at the Jenner Jog

brian17harris
3 hours ago
5 min read

Before the regular reporting on last week’s racing, just a reminder on a couple of important dates coming up :-

1^st April - last chance to nominate members for various 2025 awards – this year we have hopefully made it easier and there is an online form for you to fill in – please follow this long! link

https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=DQSIkWdsW0yxEjajBLZtrQAAAAAAAAAAAAGBUbVcqtBUNE01VFZROENJNjJMWVZCTzlSMDdFRlZNOC4u&route=shorturl

28^th April – AGM after Tuesday training - at the church hall in St Peters Rd, Cirencester

10^th May – Chedworth trail races – marshals and cake-makers will be needed

30^th May - Club Awards event & social at Ciren Rugby Club – a bit like our 40^th do last year

4^th July – Cotswold Way Relay – as mentioned on whatsapp, please contact ASAP Ian Barrett who has kindly relieved Aaron Willis to act as team manager this year – he’s on ibarrett@live.com

A BIG ONE THAT ALMOST GOT AWAY

Club Secretary Rich Allen travelled all the way to Farnborough for the half marathon on 8^th February. The event was a qualifier for the England Masters HM race later in the year, so the top 3 in each age group would get to run in an England vest.

In a very high-quality field and on a fast course, Rich was disppointed to be only 7^th in his age group, but was rightly still chuffed to completely smash his own PB and in doing so also take almost 3 minutes off Dave Musgrave’s old V45 club record, set back in 2020.

That’s two club age records in two months (10 miles at Boddington in January) – many congratulations Rich!

8 February 2026, Farnborough Half Marathon, 13.1 miles road

1 Theo Doran (Aldershot Farnham & District AC) 1.07.48

36 Rich Allen (Cirencester AC) 1.16.16 – club V45 record

2,353 finished

PARKRUNS***

We had one event winner this week, with Rob Forbes up at Bakewell, despite demonstrating “how not to pace Parkrun” (splits 5:31, 5:48, 6:02).

Kate Jacobs finished 1st lady (again) at Cirencester, whilst congratulations to Susanna Austin for completing her 150th also at Cirencester.

Over at Berkeley, Ian Barrett was up with the lark and fitted in a 13-mile reconnaissance run of the Fission course before knocking off a sub-20 minute parkrun.

Luke Campbell’s continues to recover from his time off with his first sub-20 minute parkrun for quite a while earning him 3^rdplace at Lydiard Park.

Congratulations too to Casey Vatcher who finally broke the big 20-minute mark to set a PB of 19:56 at Poole – notwithstanding a huge field of just over 1,000 to navigate. Possibly quite a quick course given more than 70 runners finished under 20 minutes?

The McAdams did some rockhopping to make the Gibraltar parkrun whilst on holiday tortoise-spotting in Spain.

Cirencester: 5 Kate Jacobs (1st lady) 21.04, 18 Brecon Musk (J) 24.22, 19 Jo Musk 24.22,43 Holly Stewart-Hodges (J) 26.36, 45 Anna Stewart-Hodges 26.43, 53 Susanna Austin 27.01,60 Sophie Mason (J) 27.41, 102 Samuel Stickney (J) 30.08, 104 Clare Stickney 30.09,

199 finished.

Tetbury: 41 Paul Timms 24.02, 141 Samantha Timms 31.09, 208 finished.

Swindon, Lydiard Park: 3 Luke Campbell 19.40, 18 Chris Fox 21.20, 446 finished.

Swindon, Seven Fields: 50 Ben Hilditch 24.26, 228 finished.

Moreton-in-Marsh, Fire Services College: 9 Colin Tapley 23.37, 96 Clare Tapley 41.11,109 finished.

Berkeley Green: 6 Ian Barrett 19.38, 222 finished.

Poole: 72 Casey Vatcher 19.56, 1003 finished.

Bakewell, Monsal Trail: 1 Rob Forbes 18.08, 207 finished.

Gibraltar Botanical Gardens: 25 Alan McAdam 27.41, 31 Rachel McAdam 28.30, 108 finished

***ROAD/TRAIL/XC RACES*

Sunday 1^st March saw the second race in the county road series – a 10k put on by New Berkeley Harriers and named the “Jenner Jog” - it started from the Jenner museum. {Local man Edward Jenner discovered penicillin}.

The race publicity said the course was along fairly flat country lanes and through the heart of Berkeley town. Feedback from Pam wheeler picked up on this -

“A very well organised club race. I think we all misunderstood the race details since it was quite hilly, including a steep hill to the finish line - the flat bit referred to in the instructions was in fact the out and back country lane section of the course.

Nonetheless, it was a lovely race. Nice medal and a can of alcohol-free beer to enjoy that later on! A welcome light drizzle half-way through was refreshing. Generally, conditions were perfect. DBMax timing - always efficient.”

Having successfully cracked the hour mark at Bourton, Pam was just a little slower over the hillier course.

Joyce Matthews, running shorter than her usual marathon/HM distances finished well up the field and 2^nd in her age category.

Kate Kilby also won yet another race prize for LV60, with a time not too far off last summer’s mark hopefully a good sign in terms of recovery from her most recent injury.

Rich Allen not only won his (10 year) MV40 age group, but also finished 4^th overall in 36.04, continuing a great run of form this year. Rich ran comfortably under 36 minutes at Eynsham last autumn, so perhaps another sign this wasn’t the fastest of courses.

All four are pictured below

Jenner Jog 1.3.26, L-R P. Wheeler, J. Matthews (2nd V50), K. Kilby (1st V60), R. Allen (1st V40). Photo R. Allen

Once the AAA have processed the results, we'll give an update on standings in that competion and the club champs.

1 March 2026, Jenner Jog, Berkeley, 10km road

1 Alexander Jones (Western Tempo) 33.35 (chip 33.35)

4 Rich Allen (Cirencester AC) 36.04 (36.04) – 1st V40

44 Joyce Matthews 43.58 (43.51) – 8th lady, 2^nd V50

107 Kate Kilby 50.59 (50.53) – 1st FV60

183 Pam Wheeler 1.00.51 (1.00.41)

210 Ruth Fulford 1.16.55 (1.16.34)

213 finished

Also on Sunday, Karen Higuera ran the Bromsberrow Speedway 10k– a mixed terrain race over lumpy and muddy sections. She finished 2nd LV60 and 13th female taking it steady whilst nursing a sore shin and being extra careful when running off road after recent mishaps.

1 March 2026, Bromsberrow 10km, nr Ledbury, 10km multi-terrain

1 Jordan Cross (unattached) 41.13 (chip 41.12)

51 Karen Higuera (Cirencester AC) 57.46 (57.38)

134 finished

Finally, two of our juniors competed in the last fixture in the Oxford XC league. Both Alice Averies, (soon to be second claim) and Toby Conway had good runs, finishing well up the field in their respective races.