Thornbury Running Club

The Big Cheese has been a firm favourite with many Thornbury runners in recent years.

This 15-mile trail race starts on the outskirts of Cheddar before quickly ascending into the hills, including scaling the highest point in Mendips - Black Down.

Thanks to a litany of injuries there was a smaller team of Thornbury runners than usual at Sunday’s race.

Nick Williams made his Big Cheese debut and quickly found his feet, finishing sixth overall in a rapid 1 hour 49:31 mins.

There was a greater depth in the field than 12 months ago, Rob Watkins was a minute faster but dropped from eighth place in 2018 and winner of the V40 age category to 17th position this year in 1 hour 55:49 mins and fourth V40.

Jim Godden was 41st in 2 hours 3:57 mins.

Andy Hollingdale was the first of the five Thornbury runners to finish at the Forest of Dean Spring Half Marathon on Sunday.

Andy finished 426th out of almost 2000 runners in 1 hour 46:03 mins.

Colette Jackson was making a racing return and was the first of three Thornbury women to break two hours, Colette was 821st overall/196th woman in 1 hour 56:08 mins.

Sarah Newnes was next in 914th/229th woman in 1 hour 58:30 mins and Angela Bushell was only a short distance behind in 920th/232nd in 1 hour 58:44 mins. Mike Bennewitz was racing a week after Weymouth Half Marathon and finished in 973rd place in 2 hours 29 seconds.

The inaugural Weston-super-Mare Half Marathon was on Sunday and there were three Thornbury runners in the field.

Last year’s race was cancelled due to the snow storms, but it was a beautiful sunny morning which greeted the 1,500 who gathered on the promenade at the start line.

The course featured some testing hills, a leg-sapping two mile stretch along the beach and the finish line was at the end of the famous pier.

Tom Usherwood finished in 84th place and fourth place in MV50 age category in 1 hour 31:54 mins.

Hannah Kinloch Haken was next in 164th overall/22nd woman out of 758 in 1 hour 38:28 mins, followed by John Grimsey in 1381st in two hours 31:17 mins.

Jon Welsh returned to his roots in Plymouth for another race making its debut - the Tamar Bridge 10k.

There were hard hills on the course, but the runners were rewarded with some stunning views from the bridge.

Jon’s finished in 282nd place in 54:14 mins.

There were several lone Thornbury runners on the parkrun courses on Saturday; Rebecca Taylor ran 26:17 mins in Norwich, Nick Langridge ran Hyde parkrun in 22:21 mins, Henry Orna finished Cheltenham in 19:11 mins, Anne Palmer ran Chipping Sodbury in 33:32 and Matt Johnstone finished Pomphery Hill in 23:00 mins.

At Thornbury parkrun, Benjamin Foss was first TRC finisher in 21:53 mins followed by Chris Lee 27:35 mins, Nikki Hale 28:27 mins, Karen Carr 30:26 mins, Nigel Hale 32:29 mins, Sylvia Fox 44:16 mins and Sue Pascoe 44:27 mins.