Author: Peter

Our runners have been busy over the last couple of weeks!! From 5 miles to 100k, Taunton to Valencia, we have raced our little socks off!!
But first, we need to congratulate and thank all those amazing trail runners who tackled our own Herepath half marathon yesterday. Our sell-out race is popular with people of all abilities, and we had some amazing feedback. As always, the marshals fulfil their roles with big smiles whatever the weather, all the entrants had a jolly good time and money was raised for a local charity!!
October was good to Rob Harris who earned a 1st male place in the Coast to Castle 100k where the conditions were tough due to the weather and the arduous climbs over Exmoor National Park from Lynmouth finishing at Drewsteignton on Dartmoor.
Dee Finch enjoyed the Bath to Bristol 25k which she signed up for at the last minute (as you do) and half marathons were completed far and wide, from the Eden Project in Cornwall, to Valencia in Spain!!
Peter Hall went over the border into Wales to run up Pen y fan in the cold and foggy OTT Ultra
A group of runners attended the Weston Prom 5 miles on Thursday evening, one of a series of 8 races and another group trotted along the waterside in the Grand Canal Canter 10k a couple of days later.
This weekend whilst the Herepath Half was happening, Georgina Brice completed another marathon in Cornwall, Sally Tuer was awarded 2nd lady in her age group in Apocalypse 10 mile trail race and we had a great representation of runners in the Bideford 10.
All in all, a great couple of weeks!!

Another busy weekend for RFRC with races all over the South West and beyond. A small group of our runners headed off to Burnham on Sea for a local Half Marathon while Emma Biswas ran the Bournemouth Half. A slightly longer distance of 20 miles was completed by Tanya Downes who ran the ‘Winding Paths’ tough and hilly ‘Loop’ in Devon.
Also in Devon, Peter Hall completed a larger loop of 50 miles. ‘Potter Round the Otter’ is a Long Distance Walking Association event which also welcomes runners. Further afield, Dean Bennett tackled the Autumn 100 in Surrey in a fantastic time of 17hrs and 2mins to finish in 6th place overall!!
If you want to be part of our fantastic club, check out our website and sign up https://runningforever.club/

Fantastic turnout from RFRC at the Taunton 10k!!! Great results all round including age group trophies for Ali Bisatt, Hannah Kirkman and Sarah Capstick 🏆🏆🏆

June has been a busy month so far for RFRC members with lots more to come but I’ll leave that for next time!!
2 major races featured over the last couple of weeks – the first one being the Dartmoor Discovery 32-mile road race. This is super tough and has beaten many a runner but for some reason we just keep going back!! It is a major local race on our calendar for runners and supporters and was extra special this year. It is the favourite race of our beloved Scott Weetch and a chance for many to reminisce and do him proud. A disco followed the race and some well-deserved ale to aid recovery.
As if that wasn’t tough enough, the following week some of those same runners attended the Giant’s Head trail marathon in Dorset!! There were also the shorter half marathon and 11k distances ensuring something for everyone. Runners were once again accompanied by many supporters from the club with a barn dance in the evening to finish off the legs completely.
Runners also attended the Crewkerne 10k, Maverick Dorset 14k and Shiver Me Timbers 10 mile trail race with beautiful scenery all round.
A special mention goes to Dave Urwin who completed the South Downs Way 100 miles in 27 hours and 40 mins. Fantastic work Dave – lovely to see you back doing ultras!!

Bank holiday weekend kicked off with our club AGM, Quingo and raffle. Great fun was had by all as we reminisced over the last 20 years of the club and started looking forward to our 20th Anniversary celebrations. Club president, Helen Phillips was honoured with the George Hudson award for contribution to the upcoming celebration activities and Scott Weetch was posthumously awarded the Mike Nicholls trophy for his inspiration to others. Our club charity for 23/24 was St Margaret’s Hospice and it was decided to roll this over for another year with £185 raised in the raffle to kickstart the fundraising.
A couple of great weeks of running for our club members!! A regular race on our club calendar, The North Dorset Villages Marathon, does exactly what it says on the tin and follows a beautiful route around North Dorset villages!! Some good results all round with new member, Emma Rathbone, achieving a 1st in her age group and Georgina Brice adding to her 160 marathons!
Members travelled over to Yeovilton on Wednesday night for the second race of six in the Yeovilton 5k Series where Sarah Capstick came 1st in her age group. Excellent running on a sticky evening as the weather started to heat up.
This Saturday, most of the competition stayed local with the West Country Ultra Hilly 50 and Flat 50. Starting from Taunton, an unexpectedly hot day didn’t stop our members from completing the 50-mile, flat route along the canal, River Parrett and coastal path to Minehead. Dee Finch was surprised to receive a third lady place, but we all knew she was more than capable and look forward to seeing great things from her. Emma Grieg completed her 50th marathon, walking the whole distance in just 14 hours!! 2 members took on the Hilly 50 from Minehead up to Dunkery Beacon and back – a beautiful but tough route along the coast path and up onto Exmoor National Park. All the runners were encouraged along by friendly and supportive RFRC members marshalling at aid stations throughout the route.
Further afield, Rob Harris took on the gruelling Apocalypse Ultra in Shropshire which involves 4 tough loops totalling nearly 10000ft of ascent!! He survived to tell the tale and was one of only 24 people out of 130 to finish this year!!
Sunday saw club members travelling to the Ottery 10k and Portcullis 10k in Langport.
A great weekend of racing and supporting others. This is part of the ethos of our wonderful club. If you want to be part of the next 20 years, why not check out our website and sign up? https://runningforever.club/

The past week has been a time of very mixed emotions for the club. On Wednesday there was a deservedly huge turnout at Taunton Crematorium to say a final goodbye to Scott Weetch, a founding member of RFRC but more importantly a thoroughly decent man who made friends wherever he went. As a result it was standing room only for a very moving service, with people from every part of Scott’s life there to pay their respects to him. Members of RFRC and Taunton Athletic, accompanied by past and present race directors of Scott’s favourite SW races, formed a guard of honour on the approach to the crematorium building proudly wearing their respective club colours.

Scott was hugely supportive of runners of all ability and would have wanted nothing more than for club members to continue to enjoy a sport he loved very much. He would certainly have been present in some capacity at the inaugural Channel Events ‘Steaming to the Coast’ race on Saturday. It’s fair to say that without Scott being a friend of the race director that the event would not have been devised. It was very poignant therefore that Channel Events announced on the day that this would become a memorial race for Scott – a wonderfully fitting tribute to him.

The red and white of RFRC was everywhere you looked in the assembled throng, who had just enjoyed a steam engine powered trip from Minehead to Bishops Lydeard, before setting off under their own steam to complete distances from 11k up to a full marathon. There are too many to mention here, but well done to everyone for supporting this new race, which looks like it will become a fixture of the spring calendar. The weather was absolutely perfect – I’m sure it will be far more ‘interesting’ in future years!

If you say marathon to most non-runners in the UK they will immediately think of London, and this year’s event saw strong club representation in the event, including a few ‘lucky’ entrants who made it through the ballot, the club ballot, charity entries and some well earned ‘good for age’ places. Congratulations go to Eleanor Perry, Ali Bisatt, Damon Butler, Isabelle Ashton, Jamie Bousfield, Nicola Kelly, Morwenna Dunstan & Nicky Chrascina.

And bucking the London trend was Georgina Brice who took her marathon completion tally to an amazing 160 by running ‘Not the London Marathon’.

Wow – what a weekend! We kicked of with ‘RFRC does parkrun’ at Longrun Meadow, where the club filled all of the volunteer roles, to ensure people got around a very splishy sploshy course!

From Taunton we have access to some of the best trail events in England & Wales. The sub-optimal winter weather has made these events tougher than ever, but enjoying these challenging conditions in Wales were Cathy Parmenter and Julie Gilbert completing the 43 mile Canum Ultra along the ‘Mon & Brec’ Canal. Also in the principality was Peter Hall for a very muddy and windy 33 mile Vale Coastal Ultra.

We had several runners taking place in events along the south coast, including the self-declared ‘brutal’ Exe to Axe 22-miler. As anyone familiar with the coast path knows, if it isn’t going up it’s going down and with a bunch of steps thrown in. Regardless, the six hardy souls of Dee Finch, Emma Biswas, Jonathan Newby, Martin Webb, Paul Parmenter & Rob Harris got the job done!

Just along the coast Chris Manley and Hannah Baker ran the Powderham Castle 10-miler, again over challenging terrain.

Still at the coast was race regular Eliza Brodie with Chris White, who took part in the Southampton Half Marathon.

Further east we had club representation in the Brighton Marathon and 10k, which despite the trek to get there is popular with the club. This year Kate Mackenzie ran the 10k, with Karen Chapman, Kirsti Nelson, Paula Bisatt, Ron Foord & Sam Cross running strongly in the marathon – including a hat trick of marathon first timers!

In London Chris White, Lucy Stancer and Sarah Holloway took part in the popular London Landmarks Half marathon, with a route that takes in much of central London.

Running under RFRC colours for the first time was Pam Beattie who completed the Brabazon Half Marathon up in Patchway, Bristol.

Also in an RFRC debut at half marathon distance was Tanya Downes who ran the Prague half marathon, one of the European Superhalfs race series.

Finally, Steven Cockram took part in an event that has captured the media’s interest joining Russ Cook ‘Hardest Geezer’ in Tunisia on his last 27 mile run to complete an epic journey across Africa!

It has been a very busy weekend for lots of club members, even with Mother’s Day many have got out onto the road or trails to represent the club.

The most popular event was the 40th Iteration of the Stoke Stampede which was originally penned in for January but delayed due to flooding. There were 33 members running and many others on the side-lines cheering and taking photos. A really impressive run from new member Stephen Cockram who was 3rd male and picked up some silverware, running in a palindromic time of 35:53. Dean Bennett ran a steady 40:11 finishing 2nd for the club and Joanna Carritt finished in 41:23 to take the 1st lady’s crown. There were also any PBs from lots of the runners who got the chance to celebrate at the end.

Jane Hardacre participated in the Grand Canal Canter, a 10km race down the Grand Canal. She finished in 2nd place overall and was 1st lady, a fantastic run. Kevin Garner, Tony knight and new member Julia Strange completed the Bideford Half Marathon. Further afield 4 amigos (Simon Denson, Fintan Murray, Mark Wilson and Robin Upton) headed for the Elche half marathon, which looking from the pictures was warmer than the UK.

This weekend there were 2 major events which club members participated in and supported from the sidelines, the Exeter half marathon and the Portland marathon. The Exeter half occurred on both the Saturday and Sunday and was a sellout on both days.

On the Saturday Michael Turk was the only participant from the club and ran a new personal best of 1:39:39, well done Mike, you have been training hard so a well-deserved PB.

On Sunday a massive 25 members of the club participated, many achieving Personal Bests, or even running their first ever half marathons. Simon Denson finished in a rapid time of 1:28:02 and picked up the 2nd Male trophy, Sam Wharton ran an also rapid time in 1:36:36 and picked up the 2nd Female trophy, well done to both of you.

Paul Parmenter decided to travel to Dorset instead of Devon and did the Portland Marathon, conditions were windy and as usual with coastal marathons there was lots of elevation gain, he finished in 5:08, well done Paul a great achievement.

Photo courtesy of Adrian Troake

Four brave members participated in the Arc50 on Saturday setting off from the Minack Theatre, Porthcurno and following 50 miles of the coast path to Porthtowan. The race has a strict 15.5-hour cut-off with additional checkpoint and safety cut-offs on route. The four members were well supported by other club members who ensured they were well stocked with water and food. First back was Rob Harris in 12:44, followed by Fintan Murray in 13:25 and close behind Andy Burgess finished in 13:30. Marcus Tuke unfortunately had to retire due to injury but still managed an incredible 39 miles, hope the ankle heals quickly.
Ali Bisatt also decided this weekend to take on a big distance by participating in The Winter Wychavon way race which is 40 miles. The race according to Ali follows the Wychavon Way from Droitwich to Broadway via Pershore with one decent hill at Brendon. He finished in an impressive time of 7 hours 52 minutes.
More locally many members participated in the Blackdown Beast, a nice local event which can either be 10 or 16 miles. Included within your entry is a pasty and a glass of cider at one of the checkpoints, which went down a storm with the runners.
If you are interested in joining an inclusive club, membership costs either £27.00 a year for EA registered members (this includes the £17 registration fee which is passed directly to EA) or £10.00 a year for non-registered members, and runs from 1st April to 31st March each year.