Thornbury Running Club news

THE BEAST from the East lay siege to the opening weekend’s racing in March and one of the cancelled events was the final event in the Gloucester Cross Country.

After four completed races, Jo Emerson and Rob Watkins won Thornbury RC’s cross country club championships thanks to their consistent results across the season.

In the age-adjusted competition, Nick Langridge and Angela Bushell came out on top.

Other notable performances included Nick Langridge again, who finished second overall in MV60 competition and Judy Mills, who was third overall in FV60 age category. Cross country racing is a team event and Thornbury had some more encouraging results in this year’s Gloucester league, especially amongst the male vets who were sixth out of 29 teams.

The ladies team finished in 13th place and ladies vets were 10th.

Another casualty of the snowy weather was the Green Man Ultra, a 45-mile loop around Bristol following the Community Forest Path.

Ultra-runners are a rare breed and many of them decided to do the course at a later date and compare with others who had also entered.

Along with 11 other runners on Saturday, Nancy Harding, Sarah Andrews and David Beard ran the very muddy and in parts flooded course, with support from friends and family, completing the 45 miles in an excellent 10 hours 45 mins.

As spring arrives, it heralds the start of the road running calendar and many use the early season races to prepare their legs ahead of tackling a marathon.

Sean Underwood is running his first marathon next month in London and did the 20-mile race at 20:20 Fission race on Saturday from Berkeley, which included some super-sized puddles on the course.

Sean ran at a steady pace and finished in three hours 15:51 mins. Judy Mills is an experienced marathoner, but after recently recovering from illness opted to take part in the 20K event which she completed in two hours 5:25 mins.

The first leg of Thornbury RC’s road running championship was the Minchinhampton 10k on Sunday. Nick Langridge threw down the gauntlet to the rest of his clubmates for the rest of the season with a 45:34 mins performance in 41st place and first in MV60 age category.

Paul Thomas was not far behind in 57th in 46:56 mins. Colette Jackson was the first Thornbury woman across the line in 89th place overall in 49:26 mins. Clare Watt was less than a minute behind in 96th place and second in FV55 age category in 50:08 mins.

Other Thornbury runners on the day included Alison Dyson 113rd 51:41 mins, Mike Bennewitz 157th 54:23 mins, Anthony Yates 206th 57:20 mins, Pete Mainstone 249th 59:31 mins and John Watt in 306th place in one hour 4:51mins.

Henry Orna was 14th out of 306 runners at Eastville parkrun in a time of 19:11 mins. At Chipping Sodbury parkrun Kevin Wood ran 22:41 mins and Carina Cobb finished in 38:18 mins.

Following the success of their ‘Introductory Course for New Runners’ in 2017, Thornbury Running Club are about to start their first 6 week course for 2018. Many of the people who came along last year are still running and enjoying it. Whatever your personal goal, be it weight loss, getting fit, wanting to run 5k (or more!) this is a great place to start. The sessions are run by a qualified coach and you get to run with the support and safety of others. The next six week session starts on Tuesday 10th April meeting at 7:00, meet in the Thornbury Leisure Centre top car park. The first two lessons are free, and the full course cost £10. Spaces are limited to 20, so please register soon to avoid disappointment. This is the perfect time of year to start as the evenings are getting lighter and it’s great fun to be out running. For more details contact membership@thornburyrunninclub.co.uk