With the sun still shining, 18 Juniors started the week. Mark Paviour led this session with Clare P and Tori helping out. After warming up and practising their dynamic stretches they ran through some sprint drills. Split into two groups, one worked on speed to agility and the second focusing on agility. They finished with a longer interval to recover and cool down stretches. Everyone worked really hard. Well done team.
Mark was back at Wigmore on Tuesday leading 28 seniors through their paces. After warming up and practising their dynamic stretches they also ran through some sprint drills. The main part of the session was a pyramid interval session with the idea of the effort being at 6/10 and recovery at 4/10. We wound up with longer intervals and resting recovery before a cool down.
On Thursday Huw led the seniors through a Tempo session with runners choosing between a 1 mile and 1 km distance to cover at their target pace.
It was Parkrun’s 22nd birthday on Saturday and the dress code was a tutu! And Parkrun was a popular choice for many from the club especially with Mortimer Forest the next event in the Club Championship – there was lots of great running in good conditions with Eric taking the win and with PBs for Steph King (25:54) and Nicola Luscott (35:31), full results are below. There were lots of club volunteers also with Clare P as race director, Tori D. was let loose with setting the course, Jamie, Michelle and Tim Symonds were all helping out and Thea P and Scott J, Paul L, Neil T, Seb Martin and Angus all marshalling or finish funnelling.
Sam J (17:03) was the sole sky blue at Hereford. Further afield Kath Hardwick (24:17) was at Burnley. Jordan McQueen (37:57) was at Aberystwyth. Adrian (32:03) and Karen (32:59) Coffey were continuing their Cornish adventures at Tamar Trails and Bryan Davies (51:57) was at Newent.
Saturday afternoon and Flora was flying the flag at Fan Fawr fell race (distance 2 miles and 948 feet total ascent). Flora reports “It’s a short distance and only 53 runners who participated in the race.” Her time was 29:40 and she was 1st in her age group. Well done Flora (I hope the runner tumbling down the hill was unscathed).
On Saturday night Ali B and Ingrid were in a caravan on the Long Mynd as they helped marshall the Long Mynd Hike.
First off on Sunday morning was the Cardiff Half Marathon with some fantastic results with a couple of PBs. Eric A ran a PB 1:12:35, Gareth Leek a PB of 1:14:34, Mia Davies 1:35:28, Thea Preece 2:11:02, Scott Jamieson finished his first HM is 2:18:24 and Vanessa Bowers also running her first road HM 2:23:37. Great running everyone.
Herefordshire & Borders Winter Cross Country League 2026/27 kicked off with a new course at Gwatkin Cider Farm in Abbey Dore. Hay Hotfooters were the race hosts and what a fantastic event they put on. I think most of us were in slight trepidation at the start as the first few hundred metres were what can only be described as ‘ankle twisting’ (I did wonder what it would’ve been like if it was muddy) but (I think/hope) everyone survived and after it the 2 lap route was a fantastic mixture of hills, woods and some lovely long downhills all run in beautiful autumn sun. We had fallow deer running across the route and some feisty sheep to contend with. I am hoping someone will write a full race report but the most important thing to report is the Men’s team (Sam J, Andrew D, Oscar A, and Steve P) finished in second place just 3.5 minutes behind Western Tempo with Hereford Couriers in third place only just over a minute behind Croft….so lots to race for in the next race at Croft. The Ladies’ team (Irina W, Kelly B, Natalie C. and Emma J) fared better and are sitting in first place with a lead of about 3.5 minutes over Hereford Couriers who are about 12 minutes ahead of Maldwyn Harriers. There are quite a number of sky blues placing in their age category also. Overall we had 31 runners, five scoring men’s teams and three scoring ladies’ teams. Well done team.
The individual times are:
Sam Juson 34:50 1st overall, 1st SM
Andrew Davies 38:23
Oscar Austin 42:20
Steve Partridge 44:12
Nigel Taylor 44:28 1st MV60
Miles Davis 45:24
Simon Norwood 46:36
Irina Whitfield 48:20 3rd Lady overall, 1st FV35
Kelly Bowen 2nd FV40
Russ Limbert 52:10
Natalie Covill 52:13 1st FV50
Emma Jones Snr 53:26 2nd FV50
Greg Jones 53:54
Paul Lewis 54:02
Liza Austin 54:43 3rd FV60
Richard Coltart 55:00
Oli Cameron Swan 55:23
Tom Powell 58:21
Ian Price 58:46 1st MV75
Sonia George 58:54
Neil Taylor 58:59
Tori Dickinson 61:15
Rob Wood 62:54 3rd MV70
Hayley Colebatch 63:09
Guy Whitmarsh 63:48 1st MV80
Lisa Gray 64:04
Lou Phillips 64:50
Nick Paviour 67:13
Gary Gunner 67:53 2nd MV80
Sue Wood 68:03 2nd FV70
Huw Williams 75:28
Later on Sunday, Saffi Reid, one of our juniors, was competing on the national stage representing Hereford & County AC at the 2026 ESAA National Fell Championships in Sedbergh racing the Y10 and Y11 race. She covered the 6.34km course with full kit, a water crossing and a brutal 1,526 feet elevation (465m). It was a very high quality field with national racers with international experience including last year’s Champion, Camilla Hart, the England International & 2026 English Schools Junior Girls National Cross Country Champion, Mia McGoldrick and the 2026 English Fell Junior Champion & England International, Isla Jebb. Not to mention Scottish International, Lucia Connell who picked up team gold, as well as an individual bronze in the U18 International Mountain Champs in Northern Ireland in September, off the back of her success in the International Mountain Running Cup in Italy in June. Saffi finished 11th overall, an exceptional performance especially given she is only just at the eligible entry age and in Y10. Well done Saffi.
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