It’s a great time of year to get out and enjoy the countryside and our members have certainly been doing that as we didn’t have many racers but lots of other things going on.
We did have 6 members in Chippenham for the Longest Day 10K. A Wednesday evening race using the increased daylight hours around this time of year. Shelley Genery was the first runner back in just under 50 minutes with all 6 back in under an hour.
On Saturday, Dan Harman had a great performance at the Giant’s Head Marathon finishing 6th in 3:53 and only 2 minutes from an age-grade victory. Anyone that knows White Star Running, knows that this will be a hilly race and will not be accurately measured but you’ll definitely do 26.2 miles. I recommend trying to find a picture of the medal when you can too.
On Sunday Mark Cortaville completed his second half marathon of the year, this time in Swansea, only 2 minutes slower than his PB in a time of 1:35.
That was it for racers this week, but there were members out over the weekend, doing recces on the Cotswold Way ready for the relay next weekend and some doing recces of leg 4 of the Avon Valley Relay for the weekend afterwards. Good luck to our 30 runners on the Cotswold Way this Saturday, have great fun and do Corsham proud.
Thursday evening saw the annual For Fox Sake run in memory of Tom Fox, a member of Corsham Running Club who sadly passed away during a race. Tom was a keen runner and absolutely loved the social aspect and running with other runners. So every year, we are joined by some of our friends from Chippenham Harriers and Avon Valley Runners for a social 4-6 mile run, which is also attended by Tom’s wife Gill who is a very active member of club without ever lacing up her running trainers.
We used to start and finish at the Fox pub (so the name worked twice) and have a drink afterwards, but when it closed down we thought that the Corsham tradition of Prosecco and cake would be good so we return to the village hall, eat lots of cake, drink some prosecco and mix with old friends and new. It is a fitting tribute to Tom.
And on Friday it was the summer solstice, so for the second year, David Mackie organised two runs. One to watch the sunrise from Little Solsbury Hill, near Bath and the other to watch the sunset from Oliver’s Castle on the roundway between Devizes and Calne.
At 4:30am, 26 runners and 4 dogs set off from Batheaston for a 500 foot climb to be on the top of the hill for sunrise at 4:53. That is not a miscount, there really were that many of us willing to get up early. After the sunrise we dropped back into the valley where some headed straight back for a 3.5 mile run and some continued for a bit further for a 5.5 mile run. On returning to the car park, David had set up some bacon sandwiches for us all.
And in the evening 12 runners and 1 dog met in Heddington at the Ivy pub for 20:45, and again it was a long run up a big hill to start before running around the top ready for sunset at 21:30. And then back down to the pub for rehydration.
As with last year, David’s organisational skills extended to the weather as after an awfully wet week, we were treated to near perfect conditions and a fantastic sunrise and sunset.
I counted 6 runners and 1 dog that did the double, definitely the longest day for all of us. David Mackie, Susan Mackie (and Willow), Carl Zalek, Lee Davis, Danny Parker, Richard Biggs.
