The main news this week is of course our 20th anniversary celebrations but we’ll start with our racers before we have a detailed breakdown of Saturday’s events.
First up we’ll start with the Keynsham Dandy, a 12ish mile trail run which David and Susan Mackie and Debra Kearsey all did. It was a great performance by David winning the vet50 category. Pictured here with David Warren who came 3rd overall and 1st vet40 (running for AVR, but we can forgive him for that)
At the Sutton Benger flyer, Christina Charleston set a new 5 mile PB (as it was her first), being paced around by Nick Maryon. Mark Cortaville finished in just over 32 minutes just missing out on a PB himself.
Darren Thorley did the Gosport half marathon in a very respectable 1:35.
Richard Biggs was also doing a half marathon, although his was a hilly, muddy off road adventure from Broadway at the north end of the Cotswold Way. Not quite a PB at 2:46 but it really is a tough one.
This week also saw our latest full moon run, this time from Heddington, It had a big climb up to the Roundway, a trip round some woods (luckily, no actual trips) and then a lovely downhill finish. And the brave ones ran for a bit solely by the light of the full moon which gave us a dazzling display.
And now for the main event, our 20th anniversary celebration.
The plan was to run a 20 mile run (actually around 22.6) around 6 war memorials in Corsham and the surrounding villages, so people could drop in and out as they wanted.
The day started at 10:30am as a group of nearly 30 of us (and one dog) met for the first leg to Lacock, some planning to do the entire route, some looking to do less than that.
As we were running around the war memorials, Dave Mackie read us a war poem and we had a quiet moment of reflection at each of them. It was a nice moment and very grateful to Dave for picking poems written by soldiers during the First World War or the Boer War.
The first 4 miles to Lacock were extremely muddy, really setting the tone for the day. Steve Parham made friends with a bull, but everyone made it safely to Lacock, where some joined us and some left us.
The next section took us to Atworth, and consisted largely of minor country roads, allowing those of the faster persuasion to go a little faster, although in true Corsham style, we did SCOOP! The highlight (or lowlight) of this section was the bridleway/stream, many of us enjoyed splashing through this section.
Numbers were starting to dwindle as we left for Box and people with other things to do headed home. But around 15 of us ran the next section and were treated to a family of 4 deer running across the fields, just past Stonar school. Then there was the house with peacocks just a bit further along and some runnable trails to take us to Box and lunch.
A couple more changes of personnel after lunch and the trip to Colerne. This was the only properly hilly section of the day and as we were slightly later leaving Box than planned, we took a more direct route.
Colerne definitely won the prize for best remembrance display with knitted poppies all over.
The group heading to Biddestone grew slightly as we picked up some extra members doing the final two legs. It was a very up and down journey, taking in some of the Slaughterford 9 route in reverse (mostly a downhill thankfully).
We were expecting to be joined by a handful of people at Biddestone but the sight that greeted us just blew us away.
So an absolutely huge group of us set off in small groups to head back to the football club in Corsham for 3.5 miles of roads ready to be joined by the children and parents from One Mile Club.
So finally there was a single mile group run around Corsham court with the One Mile Club. Under the dying light and with headtorches on it was a great way to end the day. The children were presented with a special medal, certificate, a drink and cake.
Dave Mackie said he counted 54 different people who ran at least one leg. I think there were similar numbers from the One Mile Club (+ parents).
There were 7 people who ran the whole 22.6 miles (all but one also did the OMC bit) and got one of the medals too. They were Mike Fisher, Chris Hunt, Ade Hurren, Nick Maryon, Carl Zalek and extra special mention should go to Luke Davies, who’d only ever run 18 miles previously and Katharine Burrett, whose longest previous run had been 14 miles, AND she was still able to dance in heels that evening!
A big thanks must go to Dave Mackie for organising the route, the weather and the special touch of the poetry reading, also to Susan Mackie for sharing driving of the support vehicle with Dave so we didn’t have to carry bags and had transport.
After the run, we like to let our hair down and the evening afforded us that opportunity with the party. There was prosecco on arrival (we are Corsham Running Club after all), a hog roast and great puddings, a disco, black and gold decorations and some words from an absent Richard Biggs read by David Mackie doing his best impression of Richard, although without the Dorset accent.
Again huge thanks are in order, this time to Laura Midwinter who organised the evening almost single handedly and even took a week off winning any trophies to do it.
And finally thanks to all of you for joining us to celebrate 20 years of CRC. Looking forward to our 30th anniversary already.