WESTBURY HARRIERS WEEKLY NEWSLETTER – 10/06/2024I lost count of how many races were happening last week, but most of you laced up more than once, so it was an eventful week! Well done to all who took part in all the events. We have lots of fantastic post-race reports that are worth a read, so get a cuppa, find a comfy seat and soak up all the latest news and updates.
A little update from myself, as you know the legend Rick Wallis retired from Up & Running after 16 years in the business. He will be missed! He’s currently taking a very well deserved break. The shop is still there offering all the advice and support to new and existing loyal customers and will continue to thrive. Up & Running Bristol is under new management from Head Office, but the baton has been handed over to me as the new Store Manager. Exciting times ahead. Myself, Katie and the rest of the team will continue to provide the best service to our community and look forward to welcoming you any time. Don’t worry you still get a WH discount!
Editor: Yvette
RACE REPORTS
HOGWEED TROT / AVON COUNT 10K CHAMPIONSHIP – 3RD JUNE
by Mike Mewse
Shame about the clash of races but we had a small team in the Avon County 10K champs (held in conjunction with the Hogweed Trot) and came away with three County Champions. Ben Rawlins dominated the race, winning in a time of 33.00 with a resurgent Anthony Glover (35.16) picking up a V40 win and Nicola Derrick (60.58) becoming County FV50 Champion.
Matt Cant (35.28) and Jack Derrick (37.44) made the top 20 whilst Jim Massey had a fine run to break 40 minutes with a 39.01 clocking.
BLAISE BLAZER
by Geraint Torrington
What a great night of racing at the Blaise Blazer! Favourable weather and course conditions made for a fast race and course records were broken.
In the men’s race it was a Bristol & West AC podium sweep with Owain Jones taking first place with a new course record time of 21:32. In second place was Richard Elston in 22:07 and third place was Thomas Halling in 22:28.
The male category winners were:
- Under 23 – Murray Pearson (Westbury Harriers) 6th overall in 24:25
- Male master 35 – Henry Sly (Bristol & West AC) 5th overall in 23:58
- Male master 45 – Ben Wood (Westbury Harriers) 12th overall in 25:16
- Male master 55 – Keith Wicks 58th overall in 29:29
- Male master 65 – David Salter 73rd overall in 30:50
- Male master 70 – Jonathan Hall 111th overall in 33:30
In the women’s race the course record also fell with Freya Bradley of Westbury Harriers taking 26 seconds off the previous best time to finish in 23:23. The rest of the podium was taken up by Southville Running Club with Jane Faram second in 26:14 and Penny Guess third in 26:55.
The female category winners were:
- Under 23 – Neve Porteous 44th overall in 28:04
- Female master 35 – Jolene Bereza (Emersons Green Running Club) 52nd overall in 29:02
- Female master 45 – Katie Hughes (Westbury Harriers) 31st overall in 26:55 which is a category course record taking 1:18 off the previous record
- Female master 55 – Kate Hoffen (Westbury Harriers) 92nd overall in 32:12
The race also included a team prize decided by the first three men and first three women making up the finishing positions. With Bristol & West AC men finishing 1,2,3 it looked like they would be the winners, but the more even overall spread of finishers by hosts Westbury Harriers meant that they came out on top. The green army from Southville Running Club were third overall in the team race.
| Westbury Harriers | Position | Bristol & West AC | Position | Southville Running Club | Position |
| Freya Bradley | 4 | Owain Jones | 1 | Dave Humphreys | 16 |
| Murray Pearson | 6 | Richard Elston | 2 | Faisal Chaudhuri | 19 |
| Robert Poole | 9 | Thomas Halling | 3 | Ross Blackman | 20 |
| Ben Wood | 12 | Miranda King | 37 | Jane Faram | 22 |
| Katie Hughes | 31 | Francesca Knapper | 56 | Penny Guess | 30 |
| Alison Brown | 67 | Emily Budd | 61 | Elise Goulding | 76 |
| Total | 129 | Total | 160 | Total | 183 |
The full results are available on DBMax and some photos taken by Westbury Harriers’ Richard Hughes are also available here.
Many thanks to all the people who made the race possible; the course marshals, the Westbury bakers, the organising team, St John’s Ambulance and DBMax for making this year’s timing and results stress free. Next year’s race will be on Monday, June 2nd and we look forward to seeing you then.
SRI CHINMOY 2 MILE RACE
by Mark Andrews
The latest round of the Club Championship attracted a really strong turnout of Westbury Harriers for two deceptively tough laps of Eastville Park this evening.
Medals were awarded for the top 7 senior men and ladies as well as the top three in the V50 and V60 categories. Westbury Harriers dominated the awards presentation, can’t find the results online so hopefully I haven’t got too many wrong!
Our ladies achieved a clean sweep of the podium places, Vicky Tester, Sophie Voller and Tamsin Elson Chick all finished within not much more than 10 seconds of each other! Hannah picked up a well deserved medal for her 6th place finish. Heidi Andrews warmed up for her Man v Horse race on Saturday with 2nd V50, Eithne Noonan was the 1st V60.
The men also joined in the fun, actually with more medals than the ladies for a change! Jack Derrick finished in first place despite also racing last night! Chris Palmer was 4th, Ian Gawinowski 5th and Oli 6th (or was it 7th?). Not to be outdone the old men matched the ladies with a clean sweep, this time of the V50 podium, Paul Stuart, Trevor Fitsall (who both also raced last night) and Mark Andrews sharing the medals and milking the moment for all it was worth! Richard Hughes was the 2nd V60. A great evening out, well done to everyone who raced and thanks to Sarah Andrews for the photos!
BITTON 5K – 5TH JUNE
by Mike Mewse
Four races in three days
A very busy week for Westbury athletes with one individual – Trevor Fitsall – racing three times already this week !
A cool and breezy evening at Bitton and good quality running as the race was won in just over 16 minutes. Paul Bretherton, making his Westbury debut, was the first of our runners in with a 17.34 clocking. Robyn Ellis and Sarah Andrews were in good form and picked up the ladies prizes.
Trevor, Mark Andrews and Geraint Torrington (2 races in two nights) made up the Westbury Harriers contingent in what must be one of the busiest race weeks ever.
COTSWOLD HALF IRON-MAN
by Maggie Salter
Please join me in congratulating the fabulous Christine Rose on completing the Cotswold Half Iron-man on Sunday in an amazing time of 7hrs 50m.
Christine joined WH recently as 2nd claim and has started attending the hill reps sessions when she can. I hope she will forgive me for mentioning her age (a very young & fit 68 year old!) as an inspiration to us younger runners (OK some of us are not that much younger) but I am in awe of her achievement at this event.
BLENCATHRA FELL RACE
by George Griffiths
Last night I had the privilege of taking part in Blencathra Fell Race. A proper fell race in the home of fell running the beautiful stunning Lake District. What can I say, huge climbs, bitterly cold strong winds at the summits and some exciting/worrying descents with the last one being so steep I did most of sliding down on my backside! Incredible experience and my favourite race so far. It was nice to proudly wear my Westbury Harriers vest and represent up there in a race where I doubt there were many if any other clubs from the south!
GREAT NORTH SWIM RUN WINDERMERE
by Heather Griffin
On Saturday Carol and I forgo a parkrun and went large. Spending 6 hours travelling up to the spectacular Lake District on the Friday some nerves were felt at the briefing which was full of jollity, but also the realisation that a June event did not mean summertime. Of course we were not prepared for the apparent 5 degree air temperature, when the water was just below 15. Well in for a penny, we gathered our emergency foil blankets and had our photos taken for the very fancy pants tracker. I have completed a couple of smaller swimruns, which I believe are the best most fun events, running then getting into the water to swim and then repeating, no transition (or in my case super slow cycle). We’ve all done incredible events with breathtaking scenery, but with a swimrun you add a different perspective and it has to be said starting an event by swimming across Windermere was incredible!
With these longer events you must have a partner, which to me had always been a barrier to entering, as no one wanted to play. So when I joined Westbury Harriers I was delighted to meet Carol (who appears to have a dafter repertoire of events than I do). Carol didn’t flinch when I suggested this event, she might tell you a slightly different tale. But without Carol I couldn’t do it, so this was her first such event, and at just under a marathon distance with around 3miles of swimming we had indeed gone large. (personally I think this is better value for money).
So full disclosure, yes you swim in your trainers, and yes you run in a wetsuit (perhaps now you see why no one would play). On the day we completely lucked out with the weather, the sun came out, the views were incredible! Which you will just have to imagine as on this type of event it’s a bit tricky to carry a camera. We swam across Windermere with smaller swims in Rydal and Grasmere, we had a couple of hairy moments, and it has to be said by the 7th and final swim maybe I’d stopped looking at the beautiful scenery and concentrated a little more on not drowning, as (who knew) the waves were tricky to navigate, and I really do need to learn to swim in a straight line.
I can’t recommend this type of event enough, it’s such great fun (don’t ask Carol about the climb from Grasmere back to Windermere), maybe next year we could have one in the Club Championships? Ha!
LIMITLESS TRAILS BLACK MOUNTAINS
by Seema Srivastava
Limitless Trails Black Mountains Mara done. Wonderful race with fantastic support. Was pretty under-trained so I took it slow.
What I love about Limitless Trails is that you get a tracker whatever your distance and each race has a back runner with a generous 24 hour cut off. Wonderful hot food and hugs at the end. Elle the Race Director, is fab, so it’s well worth checking them out if you fancy having a go at a friendly mountain event. And it’s only 70 minutes drive from Bristol.
MAN v HORSE
by Heidi Andrews
How lucky were those of us who headed over to Llanwrtyd Wells this weekend to race those horses in the 43rd Man V Horse annual mad bonkers event. Around 600 runners and 60 horses tackling 24 miles, lots of up matched by lots of down across off-road terrain, finished off with a cup of tea and a pile of homemade sandwiches (included in the entry fee). Weather conditions were perfect, both cool and sunny enough to show the wonderful mid Wales scenery off to perfection.
I have wanted to do this event for a few years and it did not disappoint. From the pasta party on the Friday night to Dangerous Dave’s band and dancing on Saturday, the organising team pulled a blinder. I have to say for me the race narrowly over shadowed mile 26 on The Mall last year.
Bravo to all who galloped:
Kate Hoffen, Richard Hughes, Emma-Jane Orchard for coming 18th in the mixed relay (4hrs 12mins)
Sophie Voller also ran in the Relay (lovely to see you) – apologies but I do not know which team.
Heidi Andrews: 4:33 (5th in Category).
Trish Robson: 4:43 (2nd in Category).
Helen Sawyer: 4:48
Jane Goodwin 5:07
Anneke Bull 5:21
Tim Carr 6:24
In case you are wondering a horse won this year!
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/society/article/human-v-horse-the-topsy-turvy-race-dreamt-up-in-a-pub-63cq9c6vl?
BRADLEY STOKE 10k
by Felicity Russell
Freya Bradley wins as first lady at the Bradley Stoke 10k today (as well as first Bradley Stoke Resident and second overall) – well done to her! Well done also to Debbie Hunt and Judy Knights, both of whom were second in their age categories, and Oliver Grove who was 3rd Senior Male. I managed to get the bottle of fizz for first FV65.
CLUB NOTICES
MONDAY TRAINING
The Club has now been able to make a decision on the structure of our Monday Evening sessions.
We want to have a complete set of pace based groups running at the same time and have decided that all groups will run at 6:30pm.
We are aware that there are some members who cannot run at this time, and that some members may not always want a pace based training run.
There will therefore also be an option of a mixed pace Wellbeing Run starting at 7:15pm. This will predominantly be organised by some of our Group 5 leaders which should give members a guide as to the likely pace of that run.
We have tried to take into account the views expressed by members both in the survey and at the meeting last month and thank everyone for their contributions.
We hope the members will understand that there are a number of factors that we have to take into account when deciding what sessions we can offer. We have to try and ensure that all groups work well, not just the group that you usually run with. We also have to consider the availability of our volunteer Run Leaders and the way in which our activities affect the Junior section of the club who also train on Monday evenings.
These changed arrangements will start from Monday 17th June 2024.
ALL-CLUB DAY
The committee has made the difficult decision to cancel the all-club day that was due to take place on Sunday 23rd June.
The day would have taken a lot of organisation, cost a lot of money for potentially a small turnout and following the cancellation of the centenary meal we felt this was the best decision. Whilst this is disappointing we will look to arrange smaller events later in the year that should have greater participation.
MEMBERS OF THE MONTH
Junior Freya Bradley – Freya has been on fire during May, raced six times, won six times. To quote a nominee “unstoppable!”
Senior Sarah Slade – it was great seeing Sarah back competing, racing the Blaise Blazer and really enjoying herself.
COTSWOLD WAY RELAY 2024
Just two places now remaining for the Cotswold Way relay on Sat 6th July.
The relay consists of 10 sections varying in distance from 7 to 12 miles, along the route of the Cotswold Way from Chipping Camden to Bath and all with spectacular views. If you are interested in taking part, then please get in touch by please contact Eithne Noonan to discuss further.
Would you like to volunteer at the Cotswold Way Relay
The organisers would like two volunteers to help at a stage 9 road crossing which is on the A46 close to Dodington Park. This section of road is wide with good visibility. It is close to Bristol and time involved is approx. 2 hours in the afternoon. Volunteers don’t have to be club members. Please get in touch if you can help.
For more information: www.cotswoldwayrelay.co.uk
ACADEMY TRAINING
Just a reminder that Gold and Silver groups will return to Blaise for 10th/17th/24th June and 8th July. On these dates the children will have the chance to run in the river – and so will return wet – you may want to think about a change of clothes/towel. If you do not want your child to get wet – please let them and me know – they do not have to do this. Thanks
Monday 15th July will be our last session and will be at Stoke Lodge from 6.30-8pm for all groups. (If you can’t get there for 6.30 – come when you can)
Monday 1st July there will be no training. It’s the Westbury wipeout – a running race for children in Blaise organised by Westbury Harriers. A lot of the children enter this event. Sign up details to follow. Thanks, Carrie
WELSH MASTERS – LADIES NEEDED
Pat Gallagher received a request from Welsh Masters for Ladies 35+. They are looking for more ladies to compete for them.
You do NOT need to be Welsh, it is the same as any other masters club.
There are plenty of races, to name a few:
1.Welsh Masters Champs
2.Inter area
3.BMAF champs
4.Europeans
5.Worlds
If you have any questions you can contact Pat.
Or otherwise please contact Eleri Jones directly who can provide more info,
CLUB TRAINING THIS WEEK
MONDAY TEMPO
Meet at Blaise clubhouse for a 6.30pm start. Sign up on RunTogether. New time arrangements commence 17th June.
TUESDAY TRACK SESSION
This week the session is –
3 sets of:
800m, 400m, 200m, (100m recovery) (200m recovery bewteen sets)
800m @5k pace/effort, 400m @3k pace/effort, 200m @quicker than 3k pace/effort
If you run regularly at Yate or plan to give track races a go this season. Do make sure you have taken advantage of our partnership with Yate AC and join Yate for free as an associate Westbury Harriers member: https://westburyharriers.co.uk/membership/yate-partnership/
WEDNESDAY HILLS SESSIONS
Meet every Wednesday at 12pm at the traffic lights by Saville Road on the Downs. Book on via RunTogether HERE.
THURSDAY INTERVALS
Meet at 7pm at Coombe Dingle
Pyramid Session: Aim for 5k pace/effort on the 3mins and quicker as the shorter intervals.
45secs, 1min, 90secs, 2mins, 3mins, 3mins, 2mins, 90secs, 1mins, 30secs (1min recoveries)
*option to miss one of the 3mins intervals or reduce 3mins to 2mins.
EVENTS CALENDER / UPCOMING RACES
A reminder that we have an events calendar on our website where you can keep track of dates for training, events and races. (Thanks, Vicky, for keeping this updated). https://westburyharriers.co.uk/events/events-calendar/
Club Championship info and rules on this link: https://westburyharriers.co.uk/events/club-championship/
Friday 28th June – Beer n Banger 10k Club Championship #6
Wednesday 3rd July – Bitton 5k Series (On the night registration, Bitton Railway Station BS30 6HD at 6:30pm
Thursday 4th July – Tintern Trot Club Championship #7
Saturday 6th July – Cotswold way relay (Eithne Noonan)
Saturday 13th July – Maverick/Adidas Cotswolds 7/15/23km
Thursday 18th July – Purdown Pursuit Club Championship #8
Friday 26th July – Towpath Series 10k Race 3 Club Championship #9
Wednesday 7th August – Bitton 5k Series
TRACK RACES:
June 22nd
National Athletics League (Regional West Division) Yate
Yate National League Facebook page & National League website
June 25th
Avon AA Open Meeting Filton
Avon AA Open Meetings
If we have missed any race events that you think should be listed or would like to send a race update that you partcipated in, please contact – communication@westburyharriers.co.uk
