The Great Run company has now decided to hold the Bristol 10k and Half Marathon on a single day. I guess that makes sense, as they only have to close the roads on one day – even if many athletes would love to run both events each year.

However the atmosphere in Bristol city centre on Sunday was extraordinary. Everywhere you looked there were runners, and cheering spectators lined the route in their thousands. The simple innovation of printing first-names on the race number meant you got to hear your name called out by hundreds of kind supporters, and I can’t tell you what a curiously motivating boost it is to hear your name called out by a total stranger! The Great Bristol Run is civic life at its best – and I would urge each and every TRC member to consider signing up next year. It’s such a privilege to run on closed streets around our beautiful city, so if you have not done it before, then you’re in for a treat!

Before turning to the results in Bristol, a brief recap on the TRC heroes who braved the howling gales of the frozen North to compete in the Great North Run. This is Europe’s (the world’s?) largest mass-participation half marathon, and such is the demand for places that if it gets any bigger they might have to move the race to the rolling, manicured lawns of Ant ‘n’ Dec’s country estate in order to accommodate everyone.

Chris Foley finished comfortably inside two hours, and that outstanding achievement secured him an 11th place in his age category; in a race of tens of thousands, there are bound to be some particularly pacy pensioners to go up against, so Chris should be delighted with that result.

Melanie Wilson ran a parkrun the day before, which is the sort of decision Sir Humphrey Appleby would describe as ‘courageous’, yet she still ran an impressive 1hr 42 mins and 38 seconds. She was only 15 seconds behind Kevin Wood who also recorded 11th place in his age category.

What is even more impressive, however, is the fact that a mere fortnight later Kevin ran his second half marathon of the month in Bristol, and managed to run a bit quicker too, finishing in third place in his age category, in a time of 1 hr 41mins and 38 seconds. It is a magnificent feat to run two halfs at that intensity in such a short space of time. Definitely overall performance of the month!

However, despite my obvious bias, I am sure Kevin will concede that the individual performance of the month has to go to 19 yr old James Harrod. We always suspected that James might be quite good over the half marathon distance, but you never really know until you try and race one. He set off with that wonderful confidence of youth, leading a large pack of runners, who were behind the runaway winner. James went through 10k in 34 mins and 10 seconds, in second place, and soon whittled the chasing pack to just three runners.

Perhaps inevitably, he couldn’t quite match the final surges of the athletes who came second and third, and was disappointed to be overhauled in the last mile by a fast-finishing Bristol athlete, but he still crossed the line in 5th place overall, first junior, in a time of 1 hr 13 mins and 2 seconds.

Not far behind James, Phil Blackburn produced another stunning performance to knock almost four minutes off the time he recorded in last year’s race. Phil surged through the field and finished in 1 hr 22 mins and 18 seconds. Phil’s progress is largely down to having had 12 months of consistent, aerobic-based training, combined with his faster efforts on the track. There is still so much more to come, and I think he could now aim to run under 80 minutes some time in 2023.

Paul Harrod was next home in a PB of 1 hr 24 mins exactly. He managed to squeeze ahead of George Evans, the real life inspiration behind Inspector Gadget, who put on his go-go bionic legs for this race, and made a mockery of a long period of injury niggles, to race to a 1 hr 25 min and 19 seconds finish. But more importantly George was the overall winner in his age category (which can’t be revealed for security reasons). That is a wonderful achievement, and to come top in ANY category in a race of this size and scale is something the whole club should celebrate.

Connor Vidal-Cocker was next home in a fraction under 1 hr 28. I think he’s just a year or two behind Phil in developing that endurance base that should enable him to run these longer events in times commensurate with his already very impressive results over shorter distances. The ever-consistent Garry Slater also ran 1 hr 28 mins, while Peter Cable made what I think was his half-marathon debut (?) but either way should be pleased with his 1 hr 32. Dylan Roberts has not been able to train much recently, and we know at his best he’d be up there challenging Phil, but such is Dylan’s natural ability that he essentially jogged round the course, and still finished in 1 hr 33 minutes. We all hope to see him in full stride very soon.

Daniel Nott finished in 1 hr 45 minutes, while Stuart Barnes and Roger Glew were only a few seconds apart in 1 hr 53 minutes, and I think both of them may have run PBs for the distance.

The Bristol 10k race was the first event of the day, and while it attracted fewer TRC runners than the Half, it was actually the more competitive race, as it featured a Home International competition that seemed to be very closely contested between runners from England and Wales.

Andrew Darton has finally been able to train properly without injury setbacks, which is fantastic news, and he backed up a recent 20 min parkrun with a fine effort of 41:37 to be first Thornbury runner. Jonathan Hall ran 48:08 while Sam Glew finished in 1 hr 7 minutes.

TRC’s proud tradition of ultra running was boosted further on Saturday when the indomitable pairing of Natalie Bennett and Ros Rowland completed the 30 mile ‘Conquest of Avalon’ – a gruelling, if scenic, run from Castle Cary to Glastonbury, featuring an ascent and descent of the famous Tor. Ros posted a picture of a really rather snazzy medal on the Facebook group, which rather added to the Minecraft vibe. It is not clear if our intrepid duo collected diamonds and swords along with their gels and water at the feed-stations, or if they had to defeat the Ender Dragon in the final mile, but their results were highly impressive. Ros was first woman home, closely followed by Natalie in second. Huge congratulations to them both.

There aren’t many dragons on the streets of Cheltenham early on a Sunday morning (insert own joke here) so Hannah Hamilton got to enjoy near-perfect conditions as she raced round the half-marathon course. She capitalised in spectacular style by running a fantastic 1hr 35 min, near-PB. Her split times were metronomic, which is testimony to her growing levels of endurance, and bodes well for her upcoming marathon attempt.

Sunday saw the latest round of the Pete Mainstone challenge: an arduous 8m race through woodland paths at Woodchester Park. Paul Thomas was the first TRC runner across the line with a super effort of just over the hour and an improvement of 2 minutes on his last race here. Lizzie Williams followed in an excellent time of 1hr 7mins and 54 secs. She was also first in her age category. Nick Langridge was only 30 seconds behind Lizzie. Chris Foley was the run-away winner in the MV70 category, although he was gracious enough to point out to me that there were only two entrants!

There was a late change of venue for the TRC ‘park run of the month’. Sadly Berkeley Green parkrun was cancelled, so fans of the pan-flat, super-fast, tarc-mac course, (plus any overflow car-park enthusiasts) were disappointed. So club members went to Pomphrey Hill instead. The overall times and performances were very good indeed, especially for those who had not previously experienced the delights of ‘Up Pomphrey’ – the deceptively steep incline the organisers have slipped into the race route. Ben Bohane finally remembered his bar-code (!) and recorded a stunning 19:14. Paul Saville ran a fine 21:38; Roger Glew a new PB in 24:49; Chris Pritchard and Tom Witherbed must have run together and both ran 28:33, but I far prefer the image of an eyeballs out duel and them separated by whoever’s TRC vest is the least threadbare. Emma Pritchard was well inside 30 mins in 29:15, and Mel Lloyd in 31:55.

Other parkrun highlights included Mark West’s excellent 20:47 to finish in 11th place in the popular Tamar Trails parkrun. Andrew Darton was 7th at Mallards Pike (which is getting lots of rave reviews as a great race to try out) in 21:05. Finally, Nick Williams continued TRC’s run of successes at Thornbury: first finisher in 17:53. Very well done, Nick. Bet he made it look effortless too!

Round four of the Pete Mainstone challenge took place on a motorway. All be it one closed to traffic and with stunning views across the estuary. The Severn Bridge 10k – (a race ‘between the sea and the sky’ as the organisers put it) – is fast becoming a fixture in the local racing calendar.

However before focusing on the 10k results, special mention has to go to George Evans, running in the half-marathon event on the same day which attracted over 400 runners. Despite having to cover, twice, the full distance of the bridge, with its deceptively steep slopes, George finished in an incredible 20th place overall in a time of 1hr 23 mins and 8 seconds. That is an average pace of 6 mins and 20 seconds.

Bear in mind that, notwithstanding his lithe and supple physique, George is (redacted) years of age! His amazing time is therefore the 53rd fastest half marathon recorded across the whole of the United Kingdom in his (redacted) age category. When you consider that the Severn Bridge is no-one’s idea of a PB course, it puts George’s achievement into even greater perspective. Look out London, when he makes his debut in the marathon in October!

The conditions on Saturday were probably as good as they get for running on the Severn Bridge. The wind was light, and coming across the bridge, rather than straight down from the west to east. I have run parkruns there on windy days where if you don’t run hard out of the turn there is a danger you get swept along all the way to Aust services. Five TRC members contested the Pete Mainstone challenge. Jonathan Hall ran 46:23, and after three races, now leads the overall standings. However the fastest male runner on the day was Alan Gatling, in a very good time of 42:44. Chris Foley was the clear winner in his age category with a highly impressive run of 52:32, with Mike Bennewitz and Mel Lloyd finishing in the top ten of their age categories too.  Full results and standings on Pete Mainstone Challenge Results page.

There was a good turnout for the Thornbury park-run. Most weeks see TRC members towards the front of the race. This time it was the turn of Henry Orna (2nd) and Andrew Darton (3rd) to bring the club colours to the fore. Lizzie Williams was third female runner in 23:27, while Jonathan Hall (23:11) and Jon Watt (30:03) both ran course PBs.

Back on Severn Bridge (although taking place the day before the 10k and half-marathon) Ian Hoffman ran an excellent 20:44, with Romeo Maddalena tackling the event for the first time in 24:25. Surprisingly for a Bank Holiday weekend the only TRC member to leave our fair county for a parkrun was Hannah Hamilton. She continued her rapid Radcliffe/McColghan-esque return to racing form after pregnancy with an event PB in 21:55.

With an outright championship for the Pete Mainstone Challenge now having been added the scores and standings have been added to the results page here.

The results and standings for the Club Night 10K Challenge are now available following the closing of the extended period for members who missed the club night  to run the route on their own.  They can be found on the results page for the Pete Mainstone challenge.

Any complaints about the results (or the weather in Wales) to Pete Mainstone.