Starting us off this week on Wednesday was the irrepressible Georgina Brice making the now familiar trip to Phoenix Running’s Walton on Thames base to complete the Christmas Advent Calendar Marathon in 5h32m and collecting a lovely medal and a fine pair of silver wings in recognition of having finished 25 marathons with them. You don’t get to 84 marathons by Georgina’s tender age by doing just one marathon a week, so she was back for more on Saturday for yet another marathon, the Silver Key, to take her total to an incredible 85!
Also on the Saturday, Rob Harris took on the Endurance Life Dorset multi-distance event where runners choose from 10k, Half Marathon, Marathon, Ultra (36 miles) and Ultra PLUS (47 miles). In true Running Forever RC style, Rob chose to take on the Ultra PLUS, although the conditions and brutal nature of the course at over 8,000 feet of climbing saw him complete the Ultra distance instead in a time of 10h03.
The heart of Running Forever RC is the Wednesday club night, where we have 10 groups each week catering for all paces. Peter Stretton, Group 7 leader, took a few of his fellow runners down to Torquay on Saturday to race the 7.5 mile hilly Cockington Christmas Caper where Craig Moore, Elizabeth and Matt Williams completed the event in 2h13m. Please contact us if you want to come along and give a Wednesday session a go – we’re very friendly and have a group that will suit everyone.
Carrying on the Christmas theme, Charles Hiney sped around the Cardiff Santa Dash in 18m44s to finish in 4th place. Llongyfarchiadau Charles, as they say around those parts!
Regular trail and road group leader Andy Higham continues his quest to run an Ultra Marathon in each of the UK’s national parks, this time taking on the Montane Cheviot Ultra. At 55 miles this has a reputation of being one of the toughest in the UK over the ~50 mile distance. Fellow club member Ali Bisatt accompanied Andy up to the North East but in the event their plans were scuppered by Storm Arwen, which blitzed through the region leaving many without power and Andy and Ali without a race to run. Being made of hardy stuff, despite the cancellation of the race they decided to use the time to recce some of the course, and after slipping and sliding in the snowy conditions eventually beat a retreat to the warmth of the car after 30 miles. I have no doubt they will be back next year for another go!
Locally, parkrun was mercifully largely spared by Storm Arwen and we had 20 take park at Longrun Meadow in Taunton plus one each at Burnham and Highbridge, Exmouth and Central parkrun in Plymouth.