Another hot week…both weather and running wise.
Although there was a quieter start to the week with juniors still on their holibobs. But there was one race to catch up with from last week and that was the10k at Burwarton Show on Thursday 6th August. There were 19 runners including three Sky Blues – Rob Wood came in 16th in a time of 62:05 and took 1st VM70 prize, hot on his heels was Sue Wood in a time of 62:37 and snaffling 1st VF70, last but not least was Reachel Kenny in 71:34 taking 1st FV60 honours. There’s was talk of being overtaken by a lad with a bale of straw on his back! But either way well done to all three.
As the mercury started to rise so did the level of activity. Huw led the senior session at Croft Castle on Tuesday evening which was long intervals around the Croft Castle carpark. 18 joined in to work at different paces to build speed endurance. The session finished with Huw’s favourite a paarlauf relay
Later that evening all dot watching stopped as Emma Jones Senior completed her amazing challenge of completing the 215 miles of Southern Upland Way (I actually think it was closer to 220 miles) in an incredible time of 88hrs 43 mins. She finished an incredible 39th (and from my estimation 10th female) with only 87 finishers from an initial field of 189 – that’s an attrition rate of over 50%. We look forward to hearing from Emma herself and seeing in person the very blingy buckle she was awarded at the finish.
Liza Austin and Kath Hardwick were at the track on Wednesday evening. It was a session of 400m/rest/800m/rest and repeat for 40mins. With everyone encouraged to pace to the heat!. Then there were glasses to watch the eclipse and ice lollies to cool down with.
Wednesday night also say the intrepid trio of Saffi Reid, Flora and Gary Gunner running the Ragleth Inn fell race. It must’ve been a hot night for running up a hill! There were 85 senior runners (and 20 juniors). All three posted great times and won their age categories. Saffi came in 32nd overall in a time of 35:16 and was 1st U16 Girl and 3rd female overall. Flora finished in 45:40 and was 1st FV60 and Gary finished in 52:16 and was 1st MV80. Congratulations to all three of you.
The 2026 edition of the SUSAN DAVIES UPHILL TIME TRIAL at High Vinnalls was staged on Thursday evening. In Mark Paviour’s words, this is “A members’ event for Croft Ambrey Running Club that Sue and I began in 2018 as a bit of a challenge but still suitable for juniors, those new to running and older members. The thinking was that it should still remain a fun, sociable event with lots of support and encouragement. The crux of the event is a distance of 2.4 km with 160m ascent through the switch-backs to the viewing point at the summit of High Vinnalls. Having been run as a straight race for the last couple of years, this year it returned to it’s Time Trial format, and was renamed in memory of Sue. A new trophy was crafted by club member Dawn Hargadon, based on the gradient of the climb, and in a move to make the event more club-inclusive the winner is determined by age-grading giving fair opportunity for those 8 – 80. So, on the evening of the hottest day of the year, club members challenged themselves against the heat and the hill and came out on top. The age-grading was really close between the top 7, and the trophy will be presented after the final club Bircher Handicap race on September 1st. Spot-prizes on the evening went to Natalie, Jamie and Simon as 1st, 8th & 13th over the line. A massive thank you to all the team that helped with the time keeping, recording, photography/videoing the finish, and pointing runners in the right direction, without whom the event wouldn’t be possible.” The results and course records are below.
Saturday is always Parkrun day and there must’ve been something in the air as there were lot’s of PBs. There were 10 Skyblues running at Mortimer Forest and three volunteering (Seb Martin, Paul Lewis and Jamie Symonds). The runners are listed below from the Club’s consolidated Parkrun report, although missing from the list is Gareth Leek who ran a PB time of 19:03 and came in 5th overall. It’s worth noting this was a record breaking day as Angus Mcmillan from City of York AC set a new course record in 15:41!
At Queenswood there were nine from the Club. Again the consolidated report is below although missing from this is Mark Lamonby who came in 2nd in a time of 18:47. There were PBs for Scott J, Gwyn H. Theresa J and Christina LM.
Steph King and Mike Bending were at Wyre Forest with PBs for both of them.
Eric Apperley and Bron Preece were at Llanfoist with Eric coming in first. And down in Porthcawl Sam Juson ran in first in a PB time of 15:02.
Well done all runners and volunteers
Later on Saturday, Flora Gunner, Sam Mayglothling and Nigel Taylor were racing in Snowdon as part of the Sky Run Eryri series. Flora and Nigel did the Copper Sky Trail and Sam the Snowdon Sky Race. In Flora’s words “this was 17.27 miles and 7871 feet total elevation according to my watch. You can choose the distance,there were 4 distances. Myself and Nigel choose the Copper race and Sam choose the Snowdon race. It’s all organised by the same people. This is one of my bucket list this year that I want to do it.For me this is the hardest and scary race that I did since I started running. I only did run a little mostly I scrambled going up at the tops of the summits. Going downhill sometimes I had to sit down to swing my legs to reach my feet into the ground.Most parts of the route have big rocks, I tried hard concentrating going up to one of the summit then one of the runners telling me to be careful. I didn’t realised that I’m on the edge of the Cliff that scared me 🫣. Overall I did enjoyed it and it’s a great race well organised. There are 111 runners who participated in the race. Finishers: 100 runners. DNF :11 runners retired”
Nigel = finished in 41st place overall and came second in his age category
Flora = finished in 57th place overall and came 1st out of 2 in my age category.
Sam did equally brilliantly in the Snowdon Sky Race – this is a 24 mile race with an estimated 3.300m of total elevation. Sam was Second overall and first in his age group (MV40-44) in a time of 6:09:29. Congratulations to everyone.
Still in Wales, on Saturday Steve Partridge took a well earned break from firefighting and was in Tywyn Racing the Train. In his words “Always a favourite race of mine. Only did the 10k this year as the 14mile race starts at 2pm so didn’t fancy it in the heat. It’s a tough course across cambered fields with plenty of ups and downs. I managed to come home in a time of 45.37 which was 6th overall and 1st in age out of 249 entries.” Well done Steve
On Sunday, one of juniors Saffi Reid enjoyed a once in a lifetime opportunity to run the same route as the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships Marathon course on the final day of the 2026 European Athletics Championships. In her mum’s words “After an exciting morning watching the Marathon in the city centre of Birmingham, the route was opened for the Birmingham 2026 5K Unity Challenge. This was a chance to follow in the footsteps of Europe’s star endurance athletes just moments after they competed for European titles. The closed roads, roaring crowds and championship energy was electric with thousands competing in the 5K Challenge over three mixed heats. It was a super tough hilly course with 5.11K clocked and an average elevation of 488 feet/149m. Hitting a maximum of 892 feet/272m. Saffi had a great run finishing an amazing 9th female in her heat and 31st overall out of 1,310 females. 263 overall out of 2,741 runners.” Great running.
