‘Twas the last Weekly CARC Update before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Why? Because they’re all reading this festive edition, of course!
Our Junior runners kickstarted this week with their final session of the year! We’ve seen plenty of regular faces, as well as plenty of new this year – including some of our Senior runners who turned out to help assist the sessions! Our young, future stars of running have worked extremely hard in 2025 practicing plenty of drills and skills and all deserve a well-earned break as we head into 2026. In the meantime, all at CARC would like to wish our Juniors a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We will see you to do it all again in Mid-January!
As for our Seniors, there is still plenty to come in the final weeks of 2025! Training this week took place at Croft Castle on Tuesday with a Long Interval session with Sam H, before the hotly anticipated Croft favourite night of the year on Thursday – The Christmas Party! After the success of the last year’s festivities, we decided to return to Kinsham Village Hall for a fun training session before letting our hair down with party food, drinks, games and a wonderful Christmas ambiance. This year even included a special visit from the big, red man himself – Santa Clause! Thank you to Ali B and Anna for taking the time to arrange and organise a wonderful evening, definitely our biggest yet in terms of Crofties turning out! And, thank you to Theresa and the Kinsham Village Hall Committee for letting us loose in their building! What a wonderful evening and don’t forget to check out all the content on our Social Media Channels!
A couple of Crofties were missing on Tuesday evening for the Croft training session as they were off taking part in the Terry’s Tinselly Townbrook Terror Fell Race! Flora told us: “It’s only a very short distance but quite challenging. Quite a steep hill to climb and slippery especially running downhill. It’s a great and fun race, well organised. I did enjoy it and good to see runners wearing fancy Christmas costumes!” All 4 of our runners who took part finished in the Top 3 of their respective age categories! Brilliant felling Crofties!
Results:
Saffi Reid – 30:24 – 1st in age
Tim Jones – 32:36 – 3rd in age
Flora Gunner – 36:58 – 1st in age
Janet Hill – 45:01 – 1st in age
Continuing a busy week with Parkrun Saturday. In Ludlow, where plenty of runners were running in their Christmas gear, it was Eric who finished in 1st position with a time of 18:58. Casper, Simon, Toby, Mike B, Tony, Richard, Owen S, Neil, Steph K, Paul L and Seb joined him the Top 25! That’s a lot of Sky Blue! A PB this week went to one of our 5 Juniors who took part – Archie! He finished in 35:21. A lovely achievement to get just before moving to Australia with his family! We wish Archie, Ted, Oliver and the Tomlinson Family all the best in their new adventures! Volunteering this week was Casper, Angus and Jamie. Queenswood Country Park Parkrun looked to be a VERY busy one this week! However, only a small handful of Crofties took part. Rob M was first Croftie home finishing in 32:58 on his debut. Mike H ran a new PB in 33:23. We also had a couple of runners head off for some Parkrun Tourism. First up is Reachel K who ran at Aberystwyth Parkrun for the first time. She finished in 29:58 and was absolutely chuffed with getting a sub-30! There are plenty more of them to come yet, Rach! Finally, taking a break from Core Team duties at Queenswood, Sam J headed to Norway to run in the Tøyen Parkrun in Oslo. He told me: “Chilly morning, warmed up nicely by some Glogg and Gingerbread biscuits that was provided after. Got the win in 16:33.”
This year’s edition of the Skirrid Xmas Fell Race near to Abergavenny was held on Saturday, with 3 Croft Fellers taking part. Tim, Flora and Gary were our small group of Fell Runners to attend this year’s event. This race is approximately 5.7km with 1476ft of ascent. Flora would go onto finish 3rd in age, with Gary 2nd in his age category. Croft times were:
Results:
Tim Jones – 41:10 – 4th in Age
Flora Gunner – 41:58 – 3rd in Age
Gary Gunner – 48:36 – 2nd in Age
Continuing with what was quite a busy Saturday, 5 Crofties took on the Long Distance Walking Association’s Wandering Wintertime Wobble, starting from Norbury Village Hall in Shropshire. With an all new route for 2025, this event is described as an “annual seasonal jolly, with plenty of fine views!” It’s advertised as 20 miles long, with a cut off time of 9 hours, which all of our participating members managed with ease! We’re not too sure if official results will be published for this event, but Kelly finished 3rd overall and 1st Female overall, with a time of 4 hours and 9 minutes, as per her Strava. Well done, Crofties!
Are you ready for another fell race this week? Because, our Fell Runners have really been enjoying the mountainsides on the run up to Christmas!
Sunday saw the Jingle Hells Fell Race, taking place in Church Stretton. Flora recorded this race as 6.67 miles, with 3468ft of total ascent. Official results have yet to have been published, but Flora has kindly shared the results that are given at the event. Tim finished in 01:58:39. Flora finished in 02:01:02. Both Flora and Tim have taken part in all 3 Fell Races we’ve reported on this week. Well done both!
A bit of fun to round out the week, with Santa Runs taking place in both Hereford and Hay. Kelly and family headed over to the latter where they all dressed up in their festive gear to take on the streets around Hay. We’re currently unsure if any Crofties took part in the Hereford version!
Well done all! Please remember that if you would like your race and achievements included in the weekly report, please get them to me (Bronwyn) by 6pm at the latest. Any that come in after, I cannot promise they will be included. The upcoming training schedule will be live on our Facebook on Monday morning. In the meantime, don’t forget, we’re always on the look out for your race reports for the website, so get posting them on Facebook or send them to either Sam H, Huw or myself (Bronwyn).