Thornbury Running Club

LAST Saturday was a day for celebrations for several Thornbury Running Club members, though for some, the day was rather longer than it was for the others.

Although it is stressed that parkrun is not a race, it is an opportunity for runners to test themselves over a measured 5k course and, after many weeks with no new records, something in the air at both Little Stoke and Chipping Sodbury saw three personal best times.

Ross Phillips dipped below 22 minutes with a run of 21:59, 17 seconds faster than his previous best recorded last November.

Jon Welsh bettered his time by just a few seconds, with a new PB of 22:48.

Meanwhile, at Chipping Sodbury, Moray Sloan’s time of 20:16 saw him finish in fourth place, easily his best run over the Sodbury course.

And that time was only a few seconds short of his all-time parkrun PB achieved at Little Stoke in January this year.

Also at Chipping Sodbury, Hugh McPherson ran 24:10, while at Little Stoke, Garry Slater was first club finisher in 19:04 and Kevin Cundy crossed the line in 22:29.

After a break of a year-and-a-half, it was good to see Mitchell Fussell making another comeback, running Cheltenham parkrun in 29:39.

While the parkrunners had finished their daily exercise by 9.30am, the day was still young for Ros Rowland and Jo Plumbley, taking part in the Green Man Ultra race.

This consists of a 45-mile course following the Community Forest Path around the city of Bristol, which was developed by the Forest of Avon Trust team.

With an 8am start time, the ladies were hoping to finish in around 10 hours. Both having run many marathons of 26 miles as well as being experienced over longer distances, they judged their pace well, running together throughout the day, and were pleased to finish in 10 hours 11.17 minutes, for 18th and 19th of 50 lady finishers and 120th and 121st of 218 overall.

Both were not only pleased to finish, but enjoyed the experience as well.

Thornbury Running Club welcomes new members, whether they choose to run five kilometres or 50 miles, and meets weekly at Thornbury Leisure Centre.

Full details at thornburyrunningclub.co.uk