In an usual convergence of dates largely owing to the pandemic, this weekend saw the London Marathon and Cardiff Half Marathon take place on the same day, and as you’d expect we had good participation in both. Last week also saw a few others events ranging from a 10k, through a sprint triathlon and, being RFRC we do of course have an ultra marathon to cover!

Firstly, despite the ever increasing challenge of grabbing a place we had 6 runners in the capital racing the iconic London marathon. Ali Bisatt was first finisher for the club in a fantastic time of 3:06:40, followed in by Andrew Saunders in 3:17:28. Sally Tuer produced yet another great performance in what has been a very busy year for her, crossing the finish line in 4:29:31. Next back was Kris Saint in 4:33:30, Joanna Gavins in 4:44:27 and then Rosie Benneyworth in 5:11:50. Each of the runners at London have their own challenges to overcome just to make it to the start line, so congratulations to all 6 for making it to the finish as well!

Not to be left out, Georgina Brice did the NOT the London Marathon, completing it in a great time of 5:32:25.

Over in the Welsh capital we had a good turnout of 12 runners for the always popular Cardiff Half Marathon. So popular that many have already signed up to give it another go next year. First back was Ron Foord in 1:50:12, then a cluster of runners around the 2-hour mark including Darren Purchase (2:00:08), Sam Cross (2:01:16), Damon Butler (2:02:23), Chris Adams (2:03:49), Nadine Prouse (2:08:10) and Jamie Hill (2:09:37). All the others got around the course in under 3 hours, including Katie Baker (2:17:48), Liz Williams (2:33:57), Tanya Gault (2:51:17), Karen Chapman (2:59:50) and Sarah Holloway (2:59:51).

The less high profile events of the week included Ben Timpson in Cornwall for the Poldhu Trail 10k in 53:17, Andy Staples up in Cheshire for the Chester marathon which he whizzed around in 3:07:08 and ensuring we had representation in at least one ultra marathon was Emily Macaulay in the Winding Paths Exe Estuary 50k, completing the race in 7h30m. Race regular Simon Rowland was in action in the Minehead Sprint Triathlon completing the three events in 1:38:51.

A good selection of parkrun locations again this week, with 21 at Longrun Meadow and then ones and twos at Bolberry Down in the South Hams, Hastings, Penrose, Street, Whitby, Worthing and York.

RFRC were out in large numbers last week as the popular autumn racing season continued, mostly road running for a change and ranging from 10k through to ultra distance.

Starting with the longest race of the week, Andy Burgess took on the Albion Running Conquest of Avalon 50-miler and defeated it in 10h32m. Other ultra distance races this week were the Chagford Challenge measuring in just shy of 33 miles and completed by Matt Price in 8h04m. Slightly shorter again at 31 miles we had Rob Murr doing the Jurassic Coast Ultra in 8h27m.

Seven marathons were completed this week as well, although five of those were by one person (regular readers will not need any clues to guess who it is). The remaining two marathons are diametrically opposed, one being a hilly trail run and the other the quickest road marathon course in the world. Rob Harris was running the hilly one, the Jurassic Coast Marathon which he finished in 4h40m. Eliza Brodie was over in Berlin running in the footsteps of the great Eliud Kipchoge around the Berlin Marathon which she completed in 6h40m.

That leaves the other 5 marathons for Georgina Brice who in another mammoth effort completed the Phoenix Running 5 marathons in 5 days challenge to take her overall marathon tally to 113!

The Bristol Half Marathon often draws in a number of runners from the club and this year we had better than average participation thanks to a bit of a club trip for some of our Group 7 regulars as well as a few others. Ali Bisatt produced a great run on a decent course to finish in 1:28:32. Next back was James Palmer in 1:53:49, and then Chris Adams was over line in 2:01:12. After Lauren Clarke’s time of 2:18:23 the results came thick and fast as Charlotte Donegan (2:20:54), Emma Salter (2:23:32), Lucy Stancer (2:24:18), Rachel Nicholls (2:27:04) Craig Moore (2:31:45) followed her in. Last back for the club but very much not least was Sherri Dingle in 2:43:06.

Also in action in Bristol only this time over the 10k distance were Paula Bisatt finishing in 1:14:07 plus Lisa Windsor and Sarah Holloway crossing the line together in 1:23:12.

We had an absolutely whopping turnout for the annual and always fantastic Taunton 10k on the Sunday. Fully 39 RFRCers pounding the roads of the circular route from Blackbrook Leisure Centre out to Stoke St. Mary and back in. Full details of the excellent individual performances below, but a particular shout-out for Vicky Hanna, Sarah Capstick, Bev Collins and Sally Tuer who completed a bit of a grand slam of age-category wins for 45+, 55+, 60+ and 65+ respectively. Home support was also great around the course, helping our runners to give their best.

Complete listing: Andy Saunders (39:41), Matt Paul (42:55), Nick Brazcliffe (42:57), Vicky Hanna (44:14), Ross Jenkins (44:57), Don Macphail (45:59), Sarah Capstick (46:16), Damian Lake (46:31), Hannah Kirkman (49:11), Pat Date (49:19), Nigel Baker (51:22), Bev Collins (51:25), Chris Manley (52:05), Richard Mackrory (52:21), Arthur Lewis (52:28), Andrew Phillips (53:21), Marcus Blackburn (53:53), Sally Tuer (55:34), Peta Aspden (55:43), Jennifer Chambers (55:44), Steph Andrews (56:13), Adrian Troake (58:47), Tracy Marshall (58:53), Paula Mcshane (58:54), Sean O’Sullivan (1:02:27), Dan Devlin (1:02:37), Charlotte Sargent (1:02:47), Wendy Fincher 1:03:00), James Fincher (1:03:01), Rosie Bennyworth (1:04:06), Peter Stretton (1:05:04), Karen Chapman (1:05:05), Lin Lewis (1:08:40), Gerri Fagan (1:10:10), Rachel Reid (1:14:06), Teresa Cheetham (1:18:14), Kate Mackenzie (1:21:21), Sarah Reed (1:21:42), Claire Loader (1:22:01).

We also had 23 runners at Longrun Meadow parkrun, several using it as a warmup for the Taunton 10k the following day. Tourist numbers were down a bit but club members still managed to get out and about to Berkeley Green, Exmouth, Itchen Valley, Killerton, Penryn Campus and Richmond.

A definite triathlon vibe to this week’s results. First up was Sally Tuer taking part in the 5th of the summer Cromhall Sprint Tri Series and finishing in 1h36m. This one was the first of the season that finished in the dark so we are very much heading towards shorter days now. Get your headsets charged and your hi-vis at the ready!

We also had representation at the Langport Sprint Triathlon where Rosie Benneyworth completed her first triathlon event in a great debut time of 1h:49m, followed home very closely by Elizabeth Williams in 1h51.

Simon Rowland, a triathlon regular throughout the year, also debuted at the Half Ironman distance in Weymouth, completing the tough event in a very good time of 6h50m.

We also had members at three running events. At the Glastonbury Levels 10k Nigel Baker was first back in 51m21s. Sally Tuer, not content with just a single event during the week also ran this race in 54m17s, just one second ahead of Chris Adams who was sporting the number 1 bib for the second race in a row. Ray Tutton was over in Chippenham where he completed the half marathon course in a pacey 1h38h17. Finally, Huw Vaughan-Jackson got around the Relish Races Cheddar Gorge 10k in a fabulous time of 39m26s.

Our parkrun representation was widespread this week. We had runners at two events in Wales, a quartet at the Eddig course in Wrexham and one runner at Hafan Pwllheli. The furthest afield this week was Hackney Marshes. We also had good representation at various parkruns within the South West region and just outside, including Minehead, Seaton, St Mary’s Bridport, Marlborough Common, Salisbury and the somewhat legendary Woolacombe Dunes. Longrun Meadow had a pretty standard showing of 23 runners.

The past weekend was quiet for RFRC as befitting the national mood and just three races had club participation. Nigel Baker and Dan Devlin ran the 10k distance at the Wells Festival of Running, finishing in 53m24s and 1h04m10s respectively. Rob Murr was over in leafy Surrey at the Hurtwood Park Polo Club for the multi-lap Dragon’s Eye – Red marathon, which he completed in a solid time of 6h25m. Tanya Gault completed the Great North Run.

The club also had representation at a variety of venues, including the home of parkrun at Bushy Park, Cardiff, Hastings, Haverfordwest, Marine Parade in Western-super-Mare, Minehead and last but not least Nose Hill in Calgary. We also had a healthy turnout of 25 runners at Longrun Meadow.

We’re almost out of holiday season now and that was reflected in the number of events with RFRC representation last week with a total of 8 races, although that includes doubles at Bridgwater (half marathon and 10k) and the Albion Running Mendip Marauder (30 and 50 miles).

The last few years have seen a big increase in the number of ultra marathons that club members sign themselves up for, sometimes very quickly regretting having done so! Races of any distance are tough in their own way but ultra marathons by virtue of their extreme duration offer a really ‘special’ level of pain and suffering. The challenge is also usually amplified by choosing difficult terrain. We had representation at four ultra events last week. Two in Somerset and two in Wales. Neither are known for their flatness.

Starting with Somerset, the Mendip Marauder is a combined 30 mile and 50 mile event organised by the club’s own Dave Urwin under the auspices of Albion Running, who offer a hugely popular set of races across the year. The ‘shorter’ race saw four of our ultra marathon regulars taking part, all making good time and led home by Andy Burgess in 6h02m, then Mercedes Thorne in 6h44m, who just nipped across the line ahead of Dave Loader in 6h45m, and Peter Hall completed the set in 7h34m. The sole club entry in the 50-miler was Matt Blee who finished the epic undertaking in 11h58m.

Over in Wales, Andy Higham ticked off another national park in his ongoing quest to run an ultra in them all. The Ridum ultra is a 32-miler over hilly terrain with a punchy 6,000ft of ascent, which Andy got around in 7h21m. Dean Bennett, who is on a really impressive string of wins and high placings, took on the frankly scary GB Ultras Snowdon 50-miler. This is a mountainous route with terrain which is at times un-walkable let alone un-runnable, and has a total ascent of over 13,000 feet. Dean quickly established himself amongst the front runners, which he maintained throughout the race to finish in 5th place with a time of 12h06m.

Richie Hill was also in action over in Hampshire taking on the Andover Trail events ‘On Trails’ marathon, completing the distance in 6h05m.

Darren Purchase was in London taking on Mo Farah and a few thousand others in the Big Half. At one stage (well, the start) Darren was within 30 minutes of Mo, but the gap extended a little more once Darren actually stated the race! Nonetheless he completed the course in a very creditable 2h04m.

We had 6 runners at the combined Bridgwater half marathon and 10k, split evenly between the events. Both courses are largely quick and flat on country roads well suited to road running. In the half, Emily Macaulay was first back for the club in 2h02m, followed by Chris Adams wearing bib number ‘1’ (no pressure Chris!) in 2h08m and then Paula McShane in 2h17m. Over the 10k distance our first finisher was Kevin Garner who took the age category win in 46m05s, with Pate Date not far behind in 50:54 and Dan Devlin just over the hour 1h00m56s.

Numbers at parkrun were also up compared with August where we had 28 RFRCers at Longrun Meadow, as well as travelers to Minehead, Lanhydrock, Penrose, Tewksbury, Worthing and Aberbeeg.

Over the bank holiday weekend club members were involved in some truly epic events including a race across a whole country (well, principality), another taking in not one but three countries, and an old and a new Somerset Series race.

For the second year in a row RFRC had representation at the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) series of races. Following in Robin Upton’s footsteps from last year, Sam Carden ran a hugely impressive 17h48m in the 100km CCC (Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix) race, starting in Italy and traversing through Switzerland into France across incredibly challenging terrain totaling over 20,000ft of climbing.

The longest races of the weekend were the combined offering from Raidlight Trail Running of the King Offa’s Dyke 185-miler and Mercian Challenge 100-miler. The distances are already scary enough but with both races being largely in Wales there were also plenty of mountains and hills to negotiate. Given the challenge, Ali Bisatt doing the King Off’s Dyke route and Sandra Moffatt taking on the Mercian Challenge, did fantastically to get through the majority of each course but both withdrew, much to the relief of their support crews!

Marathon addict Georgina Brice was in back-to-back marathon action completing numbers 107 and 108 this week. With her incredible persistence it won’t be long before Georgina hits her double century!

Regular racer Sally Tuer was the sole club participant at the Severn Bridge Half Marathon. The multiple crossings of the bridge makes this a deceptively hilly event but Sally was on good form and finished as age category winner in 2:01.

The Somerset Series is the backbone of many runners race diary for the year and it’s great to have it back almost at full strength in 2022. The weekend had races on the Sunday, the Battle of Sedgemoor 10k, and Monday, the Baltonsborough 5 miler. Unusually for the series these were both road races which offered the chance of some quick times for club members.

We had 10 entrants for the Battle of Sedgemoor 10k, and first back was Wayne Windebank in 41:39. He was followed in by Don MacPhail (48:42), Simon Rowland (50:06), James Palmer (51:43) and Richard Mackrory (52:40). First club lady back was Katie Baker who cracked the one hour mark in 59:54, with Dan Devlin (1h03:45) crossing the line slightly ahead of Tracy Marshal (1h03:50). Rounding out the combatants in this battle were Richard Hill 1h05:17 and Rachael Jones (1h22:04).

The Baltonsborough 5 miler is new to the Somerset Series this year, but we still managed to have a trio of competitors taking part. Ben Timpson lead the club members home in 32:06. Kevin Garner was age category winner in 41:27, and Sally Tuer got around in 44:25, a solid effort the day after her Severn Bridge race.

It’s still holiday season and we had quite a variety of parkrun locations this week – including Ashton Court, Minehead, Killerton, Fell Foot (Cumbria), Swansea Bay, Drumpellier (Glasgow), University Parks (Oxford) and Frogmary Green (Ilminster). Back in Taunton we had 20 runners at Longrun Meadow.

With seemingly most of the world on holiday it was left to a very intrepid bunch of 11 RFRC members to keep the club colours flying this week at the LDWA Dorset Doddle 32-mile ultra. This is a tough event, with over 6000 feet of elevation and an endless supply of headlands beyond which the finish line never quite materialises, until mercifully it does! Nonetheless, every one of the brave souls finished despite much grumbling about it being very much not ‘a doddle’.

First back was John Hunt in 7:36, who continues to put in amazing performances after coming back from serious injury. He was followed in by ultra regular Andy Burges completing his 87 marathon/ultra in 7:47, and then Sam Wharton and Mark Wilson made it home in 8:12, followed by Sue Lewis in 8:34. Emma Greig showed her experience by cutting across a small piece of grass to finish in 9:56, leaving Chris Gunn and Andrew Phillips in her wake just 1 minute behind. There is an unsubstantiated rumour that Chris Gunn made the first bus to the start line, but without photographic evidence this has to remain as hearsay.

The final trio was made up of Lee Macklin (10:53) and then Paula Mcshane and Rob Murr in 10:55. Fantastic achievement all of you – especially without a medal as a reward!

parkrun saw 25 from RFRC at Longrun Meadow, with tourists visiting Eastleigh, Exmouth, Llanishen, Mallards Pike and Southsea.

With temperatures very toasty all week it was left to triathlon regulars Sally Tuer and Simon Rowland to represent the club on a balmy Wednesday evening this week. They both took part in the 4th of this year’s Cromhall Evening sprint triathlons, both registering PBs of 1:28 for Simon and 1:34 for Sally.

The weather didn’t stop plenty of people getting their regular 5k parkrun fix in, but I’m sure the early start helped beat the heat at least a bit! This week we had runners at Aldeford Lake, Barry Island, Chippenham, Exmouth, Killerton, Poole and Tewkesbury plus a fair turnout of 17 at Longrun Meadow in Taunton.

Wednesday 3rd August saw the next race in the 2022 Somerset Series take place, the Haselbury Train 10k.The club had a good turn-out of 10 members enjoying a fine evening for this 2-lap multi-terrain event. First club male home was Ben Timpson in 44:39, followed by Ali Bisatt in 48:08. First female back for the club was Karen Foy (51:57), also winning her age category. Dave Loader (52:45), Nigel Baker (57:16) and Simon Rowland (58:35) made it over the finish line under the hour mark, closely followed by Helen Prescott (1:01:43), Sally Tuer (1:03:35) and Rob Murr (1:03:45), plus Dan Devlin rounding out the club results in a time of 1:16:04.

The Somerset Series has now progressed to the stage where runners are reaching the required target of 8 races, leaving Ben Timpson and Sally Tuer riding high in the results, although there are several more races to come and some very good scores just behind them. Ben and Sally are also leading the Running Forever Club Championship, which is unsurprising given it is based on the Somerset Series of races.

The weekend saw Dan Devlin in action again at the Wessex 10k where he managed to knock 4 minutes off his PB to finish in 1:05:54.

Also in action with the family was Peta Aspden in the Indian Queens Half Marathon where she crossed the line in 2:10:28.

There weren’t any examples of extreme parkrun tourism this week, although members did manage to make it to Sussex (Chichester), Cornwall (Eden Project), South Wales (Penallta) and the Peak District (Monsal Trail). Longrun Meadow as always was the mainstay of club parkrun activity, with 24 runners taking park.

Last weekend saw club members taking part in events hosted by two very popular race organisers. Close to home the White Start Running Cider Frolic 12-hour endurance event took place on Saturday 30th July, with regular participant Rob Murr accompanied by regular marathoner Georgina Brice both completing enough laps to make the marathon distance on a hot and humid day. Rumour has it that cumulative fatigue set in as the laps progressed, but it couldn’t be confirmed if cider played any part in this. Georgie finished in 6h28m and Rob in just over 7 hours.

Quite a bit further afield we had several ultra marathon die-hards in the Montane Lakeland 50 mile and 100 mile trail ultra. Despite the name it doesn’t involve an uncountable number of loops of the baking section of that well known high street store, but was a run through some of England’s most beautiful scenery in the Lake District. Contrary to the dry spell in the south, there is no danger of a hosepipe ban in the Lakes and the weather was doing its best to further top them up over a largely wet couple of days.

We had two starters in the 100 mile event but Ali Bisatt had to withdraw, leaving Martin Webb to make his way around the tough and hilly course in an excellent 32h36m.

The ‘shorter’ 50-mile event had 6 club participants taking part. Robin Upton was first back in 10h56m, followed by Mark Wilson in 13h40m and then evenly spaced about an hour apart we had Matt Price over the line in 14h43m, Sue Lewis in 15h44m and Andy Higham and Matt Blee finishing together in 16h35m.

The club also had representation at 5 parkrun venues, Longrun Meadow with 26 club runners as always having the most participants. parkrun tourist locations included Cranbrook Country Park, Torbay Velopark, Winchester and Donaupark in Vienna, Austria.