Category Archives: January

January, Members, Thornbury Running Club

Club Bulletin  for January 2023 – and Hoka Shoe Night in February

Happy New Year!!

Thursday Club Night Leaders 

5/1: Walking – Val / 12 min –  Steve / 10 min – Jerry / 9 min – Kev C / 8 min – Moray / 7 min – Peter

12/1: Walking – Val / 12 min –  Nigel / 10 min – Suzy / 9 min – Chris P  / 8 min – Lizzie / 7 min – Rob

Tea Rota 

5/1: Nigel Hale  /  12/1: Amel Dobson                                                

What’s On …  

  • January 7th – parkrun of the month – Severn Bridge
  • January 8th – Rollick Letter drop (See item below)
  • January 15th – Riverbank Rollick 
  • February 9th – Hoka Shoe Night
  1. Riverbank Rollick Sun 15th – 5 Marshals still Needed

Thank you those members who have already volunteered for the sell-out Rollick. Despite multiple appeals I’m afraid to say that we are still short of marshals for the Riverbank Rollick.  Volunteer here. 

Route letter drop is on Sunday 8th January meeting 8:30am at the Scout Hut. There will be 2 groups running the course at different speeds, so all welcome. This is your chance to experience the course (wear off road shoes!)

  1. ‘Mad Men’ of Thornbury

Many event organisers are having problems filling their events, so I am delighted that ‘The Riverbank Rollick’ has SOLD OUT. This has been the result of a lot of work by a team of people working our advertising campaign. The ‘Mad Men’ of Thornbury that I think deserve recognition and thanks (in alphabetical surname order) are Kev C, Nathan, Jon H, Paul H, Nick, Chris P, Arthur & Kevin W. This has included using Full on Sport, Facebook, Instagram, IM, e-mail, posters, photos, race platforms, Radio Thornbury, local press etc. The result, Rollick is sold out, we have a wait list and we already have 100 entries in both the Thornbury 10k in June and Oldbury 10m in September 2023. (Previously published on Facebook)

  1. Let Them Eat Cake

Cakes were an important part of the Riverbank Rollick experience pre-Covid. The great news … cakes are back!  As well as cheering up our chilly runners and supporters all monies raised from cake sales goes to our Club charity, Bristol Bone Marrow.  This is a plea to any remotely capable bakers to offer up some homemade delicacies ready for Jan 15th please. Whatever you can rustle up will be very much appreciated by hungry runners and people who really need your support. Please label if cakes contain nuts etc, it’s very important we know. Please let Jo Plumbley know if you can help out jo.plumbley@gmail.com Thank you.

  1. parkrun of the Month 2023

The Club parkrun of the month has proven to be a popular event and the plan is to continue with this in 2023. parkrun tourism has proven to be less popular, so  in 2023 we will stick to the 3 very local events – Severn Bridge, Berkeley Green and Thornbury. All dates and locations for the year are how here. Next event is 7th January at Severn Bridge.

  1. Blonde Street Angels (THANK YOU)

Message of thanks from Blonde Street Angels –  I  wanted to thank you so much for the fantastic donation from Thornbury Running Club – I was totally overwhelmed by the thoughtful , kind and  generous  donations — they were all sorted over the next couple of days / some are stored for the next drop after Christmas ,but several pairs of trainers and most of the sweat shirts and jumpers have already been passed on to the guys we support. I enclose a copy of our page describing the vast pile of amazing goodies from the club [Ed – See Club Facebook page] . Again please pass on my sincere thanks to your club runners – you really have helped us to make a difference. Happy Christmas – hope to see you in January

  1. Bristol Bone Marrow Raffle

Thank you to all those who purchased raffle tickets in aid of Bristol Bone Marrow and drawn on 15th December at the Xmas Light run. We raised £330 total! Terrific total. Top prize winner was Paul Harrod. T-shirts were won by Tom Usherwood and Chris Foley, buffs by Amel Dobson and Jim Godden. Prizes were donated by Endurance Life and anyone wanting to run one of the Endurance Life races we have a Club discount code for 10%: TRC22

  1. Have your say!

We are starting to think about our Club 2023 Annual Awards Event and would like to hear your views please. You may remember on 20th May 2022 we held an event at Thornbury Golf Club with BBQ buffet food and a disco. What we like to understand is for the 2023 Event would you prefer (1) Informal – An informal event (as 2022) with casual dress code.  Buffet / BBQ type food. For those who were not there, or have forgotten, we had table seating, served ourselves at a buffet and sat down to eat. (2) Formal – A more formal dinner dance with table service and more formal dress code. We have done this in the past when we had  Xmas Dinner Dances. (Please note a formal event is likely to be more expensive). Please let us know by competing this poll. Poll closes end January.

  1. Hoka Shoe Night

Following the success of the Saucony shoe night last year we are organising a Hoka shoe night on 9th February. More details to follow. Please mark your calendar so as not to miss the event. As at the previous event we will meet at 6:30 for the show try on, before going out for a run.

  1. parkrun story so far

parkrun stats so far this club year for the 39 weeks from 2nd April to 24th December below.  Thanks to Mel Lloyd for compling these:

  • Female – Best time: Hannah Hamilton  00:20:45 at Chipping Sodbury 11th June
  • Best Age Grade: Jane Leslie 78.67% at Berkeley Green 28th May
  • Male- Best time: Philip Blackburn  00:17:15 at Burgess 16th April
  • Best Age Grade: Nick Langridge  81.32% at Tetbury Goods Shed on 6th August
  • Most events: Simon Pinnington with 32 parkruns    
  • Most locations: Ashleigh Ferris  at 18 different locations

Other interesting things:

  • 17 first finishers
  • 677 finishers in total across 80 different locations
  • Most popular location is Thornbury with 282 finishers, followed by Severn Bridge 69 and Chipping Sodbury 60.
  • We have had finishers in USA, Canada, Australia and Japan. 
  • Biggest turnout was 22 at Thornbury on 6th August (a parkrun of the month and my 100th)
  • We have had 95 finishers at 9 parkruns of the month.
  1. Pete Mainstone Challenge

Looks like the last event in the 2022-23 Pete Mainstone Challenge, Back 2 Black, has been postponed until 2024. So the last event was Westonbirt on 31st December – I could only find me at todays very very wet 10k.  Max points for me then and a 2nd place V70 out of nearly 500 runners!.

Look out for the series results coming soon

31/12/22

January, Members, Riverbank Rollick, Thornbury Running Club

The Riverbank Rollick on Sunday 15th January 2023.

The Riverbank Rollick

 We are getting a bit desperate for helpers on the Riverbank Rollick on Sunday 15th January.

Thanks to those who have volunteered so far.

The list below is people who helped on the Rollick last year but who we have not heard from this year. Ideally we want volunteers who can do the same job as last year.

If you are not on this list then you have either volunteered already (thank you!) or you didn’t help last year and have gone into hiding to avoid being asked and not filled in the form that Kevin has been promoting for weeks now.

At this moment we will struggle to put on a proper race up to our usual standards with the limited number of volunteers we have so please step up and help if you can….

You can e-mail me  arthur@arenshaw.co.uk or send a text to 07810 300025.

  • Andy Darton
  • Annie Green
  • Beck Vaughan
  • Chelsea Carnall
  • Clare Watt
  • Dave Hobbs
  • George Evans
  • Ian Evans
  • Ian Hoffman
  • Jim Godden
  • Jorge Lima
  • Julia Jolley
  • Kathy Willott
  • Katie Cross
  • Leighton Prescot
  • Lisa Hooper
  • Liz Baird
  • Melanie Wilson
  • Naomi Hibberd
  • Pat Morrissey
  • Paul Harrod
  • Rachel Parry
  • Richard Jackson
  • Roger Glew
  • Romeo Maddalena
  • Sam Glew
  • Sam Prescott
  • Sarah Newnes
  • Sean Parry
  • Terry Wood
  • Tom Johnson

Thanks Everyone & Merry Xmas.

Jo Emerson & Arthur Renshaw

Events, January, Members, News, Results, Thornbury Running Club

Doynton ‘Hard’ Half-Marathon race report

Not many people wake up on a Sunday morning in January, see slate-grey skies and frost on the ground, and decide to run a half-marathon through freezing rivers, steep escarpments and rutted farm tracks.

Yet TRC has more than its fair share of committed off-roaders, for whom the Doyton ‘Hard’ half-marathon is an inked-in fixture in the calendar, rather than cruel and unusual punishment to flee from.

Thornbury’s men definitely had the A-team out, and they were rewarded with a quite brilliant team victory, defeating even the mighty Bristol and West on cumulative time.   Nick Williams was the first runner home, in 5th place overall, in a fantastic 1hr 36 mins.  That would be an excellent half-marathon time on the road, so it beggars belief that he could cross that terrain at that pace.

Sean Leadbetter was the next runner home, in sixth place, just two and half minutes behind Nick, in 1hr 38:43.  Bear in mind that this was just seven days after Sean celebrated a magnificent second place in the Riverbank Rollick.   That effort must have told in the final few miles, so to come so close to Nick is a sign of how much Sean is improving as a runner for all terrains.  He must have a fantastic coach – and he does; it’s Nick!

But that is not all.   Just 15 seconds behind Sean, and in 7th place overall, was Ben Bohane.   Ben never seems to have a bad run: from parkruns to marathons he performs with incredible consistency.  His finishing time sealed the team competition.   Ben must have a brilliant coach – and, spoiler alert – it’s also Nick!

However, that is still not all.   Behind our triumphant triumvirate, TRC’s men continued to score highly in the remaining competitions.   Rob Watkins isn’t the sort of guy who turns up for mere parkruns, or those commercial road 10ks where they give you jelly babies en route, and doughnuts at the end.   Rob’s in his element on the slippery scrambles and the sapping silt and sludge, and he reminded us that he remains one of the club’s very best runners, by storming to the finish in 1hr 47mins, 17th overall, and second in his age category.   The male V50 team was completed by Jim Godden (1hr 51) and Paul Thomas (1hr 59) and they too were clear winners in their team category.

Congratulations to the remaining TRC male runners.   It really is a significant achievement to get round that beast of a course, and they did so in some excellent times.   Ian Evans, Chris Foley, Chris Pritchard and Kev Cundy were all within 25 mins of each other, while Hugh McPherson and Arthur Renshaw both managed top-20 finishes in their distinguished age categories.

On balance, TRC’s women have had the better of the men in recent major events, and even though they were behind the men on this occasion, it was only by a fraction.   Our top team of Hannah Hamilton, Jo Plumbley and Melanie Wilson finished second overall in the team competition, losing out to Bitton by less than five minutes.   Had Taryn swapped her camera for her trail shoes I suspect the outcome would have been different!

Hannah was ninth overall, in a time just outside two hours.   It is a fantastic achievement to get in the top 10 in a race of that quality.   Jo and Mel were 20th and 21st respectively (although with much higher placings in age category) and barely 10 mins behind Hannah.  Ros Rowland (2hrs 12), Sarah Newnes in 2 hrs 36, and Sonya Bryson in 2hr 45 were the remaining TRC runners, and they capped off another great overall performance from the team.

Cross country, the Rollick and the Doynton Half have meant fewer TRC runners have turned out for parkruns this month.  However it is worth noting a handful of highlights.

Tom Usherwood has recorded consecutive top-10 finishes at the Thornbury parkrun.   Last Saturday he ran 22:24.  Simon Pinnington has been busy: he won the Wotton parkrun on the 15th January, and was just a second above the 20 min barrier, which is very good for such a muddy, hilly course.   The following week Simon ran at the newest addition to the parkrun roster – the super-fast course on the Weston-super-Mare prom – and finished 9th in 19:05.  Simon is another TRC runner honing in on the ‘national standard’ 80% age-graded score.   On Severn Bridge, Jon Welsh knocked a full 40 seconds off his course PB, and finished in 24:30.