As I write this with the sun streaming through the window, it’s hard to believe October is just around the corner. But there are a few autumnal signs, the nights are drawing in and the seniors are already needing head torches for training.
The juniors are still training in the light and there were 18 being put through their paces by Kelly on Monday. After the regular warm up and sprints they practised their dynamic stretches before moving onto a pyramid reps focusing on effort and recovery. Well done everyone.
Tuesday’s senior session was led by Oli, supported by Sam. This was the final step for Oli to get his Leader In Running Fitness qualification which means he will be able to lead training sessions. By all accounts it was a very enjoyable session with Oli bringing his Morris Dancing experience to the warm up, this was followed by strides and a meet and greet long interval drill though Fishpool Valley.
On Thursday Tim led the senior session with a focus on sprints based at Croft Castle.
On 6pm on Friday evening Joe Lynch set off from Keswick at the start of the 185k Altra 13 Valleys Ultra 2026 race in the Lake District. Joe’s dot seemed to moving steadily from valley to valley though Friday night and Saturday until coming to a halt on Saturday evening at Grasmere, just under 120km completed. From the brief post on FB Joe hit some feet issues… we await a full update but whatever happened that’s a massive effort and big congratulations for making it that far.
On Saturday morning while Joe was plugging away, lots of folk were out at Parkrun whether running or volunteering.
Jo Marriott was the sole club representative at Hereford, running 24:25 trying to keep up with her daughter Lucy!, great to see Jo coming back to fitness. Simon Norwood (27:05) and Jonny F. (23:40) (one of our juniors) were the only ones running at Queenswood. There were 13 runners at Mortimer Forest under Angus’ Race Directorship, others helping were Tim and Jamie Symonds on set up and results etc, Frank was marshalling and Steph K on timing, Rob was tail runner and Tori is storing all the kit for setting up next week!
Gareth Leek (18:40) and Steve Partridge (19:01) made the trip over to Groe. Gareth was first home and Steve set a PB – well done to both of you.
Holidaying in Cornwall was the perfect opportunity for Adrian and Karen Coffey to run the Eden Project parkrun. It was Karen’s fastest parkrun (31:23) and Adrian (29:51) led home his age category.
Sam Juson was in Berlin for the marathon on Sunday 29th so warmed up running the Tempelhofer Feld parkrun – this is a relatively new event at only #22 – Sam ran 20:35 – no doubt saving his legs for Sunday.
On the other side of the world former members Ted, Archie and Oliver Tomlinson were flying the Croft Ambrey flag running at Cronulla in Australia. Ted ran a PB of 31:54 and Dad and Archie were just behind finishing 38:12 and 38:15 respectively.
Now to Sunday’s racing….
First up was Credenhill Canter, race 9 in the Club’s championship series. Sam Harper is as speedy with her race report writing as with her running and one has already been posted to the website here – it looks like there were some great results with Eric and Gareth notching up a 1,2 in the race and Mia coming in second lady with Natalie third lady. There were a few age group prizes also. Well done everyone.
In the opposite direction from Credenhill, Gemma Davies went to Shrewsbury today to run the metric half, 13km/8 miles. Originally planning to run the full distance she had dropped down to the half a few weeks ago after training hadn’t panned out as much as she’d wanted. In Gemma’s words “I got it done in just under 1:30, pleased to have plodded round in one piece (ish – have a dodgy hip atm 
“). Well done Gemma.
Janet Hill swapped her sky blue vest for her England Master’s one to run the International Trail Half Marathon against Wales on a hilly course in the Forest of Dean. She picked up Bronze place in her age group. That’s a fantastic result given Janet had fractured her shoulder in June so had limited training over the summer and she very rightly reported ” I’m very pleased with the result!”
Sam ran the Berlin Marathon on Sunday morning and it looks like he wanted to make certain he didn’t miss his train/plane/automobile home! His official time was 2:22:01 and he was 109th overall and 99th male. That’s an incredible performance in one of the World Marathon Majors on a fast course.
Liza headed up to Redcar to run the Redcar Half Marathon – she had her Mum there for support and she obviously worked her magic as Liza recorded a PB 1:50 (3 mins off her previous best) despite a strong headwind for two miles. Well done Liza
Tim Jones and Flora were racing the Breidden Hill fell race which from the description sounds shortish at 11.5k but steep with 790m of elevation. Tim finished in 1:39:05 and Flora 1:52:22 winning her age group. Well done to both of you.
One race missed off from last week’s race was the Pedol Peris fell race on Saturday 19 September 2026 that Flora Gunner ran. It is 17.10 miles and 7530 feet total ascent. Flora’s race summary is “We’re 49 runners who took part of the race and I am the oldest among women. Finishers: 47 runners. DNF : 2 runners. Tough and challenging race, that’s normal.We’re very lucky the visibility was quite good and it’s not raining.There are 2 distances long which was over 17 miles and the short just over 8 miles. My time:05:47:19. I’m quite pleased that I managed to made the 2 cut off times and completed the race without injury. I ran for more than 2 hours and I walked and scrambled over 3 hours. Most parts of the route not runnable that’s my opinion.The hills is very steep and with big rocks parts of it. Overall I did enjoyed it,if my health still good I will do it again!” Well done Flora, that sounds like a really tough race.
