It’s been an ultra big weekend for some of our runners this week.

We start off with Max Luff who completed the Green Boy ultra in just over 7 hours. 30 miles of self navigation around the outskirts of Bristol on minimal training.

Also in ultra action this weekend were Ade Hurren, Stewart Unsworth and Danny Parker at the Imber Ultra. 32 miles across the Salisbury plains while battling storm Freya.

And finally, Angie and Dave Aplin did the two tunnels 10K in Bath. It may seem easier but you have to run a 10K hard the whole time without stopping every 2 miles for a snack. I know what I’d prefer to do.

Some good performances this weekend as many got out to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather.

Alison Collins won the F55 trophy and Ade Hurren won the 2nd M50 trophy at the Terminator in Pewsey. Steve Hible and Gareth Evans were also there enjoying some meaty hills.

The Mackies and Jo Motto were in attendance at the Wokingham half marathon where Susan set a 15 minute PB and Dave claimed his best time this millennium.

Damian Hall ran 79 miles (128 km) across Gran Canaria, finishing 26th in a stacked field at the Transgrancanaria.

And Tuesday night saw the latest full moon run with the added bonus of a shorter 4-5 mile route. There is only one full moon run left this winter starting at the Northey Arms on Thursday 21st March and they’re great fun and we hope to have the shorter distance again as a gateway for people who want to try it out.

This last weekend was a good chance for us to get together and just enjoy each other’s company without the pressure of racing.

Andrew Wood led an excursion to the Black Mountains to enjoy some hills and fabulous scenery, I think he’ll have lots more people to join him for his next trip across the Severn Bridge.

Dave Mackie organised a nice 7ish mile run around the Bowood estate finishing at the Lansdowne arms at Derry Hill for a slap up Sunday roast.

We did have some people out racing at the weekend.

Dan Harman, Chris Hunt and Stewart Unsworth ran the Bramley 20 miles and combined to be 4th placed team.

Craig Rumble and Laura Rumble both set PBs at the Castle Combe Chilly 10k where we had 5 members racing. Craig took a minute from his PB and Laura managed to beat her 5k PB in the process of beating the 10k. She wasn’t monkeying around.

Where do I start this week?

Whether it’s the latest visit of Bryan Clinton, the 10k speed sessions being run by Jane C, Dave M and Andrew or perhaps the enforced quiet weekend the week before we’ve posted some exceptional results this weekend.

I’ll start with the Wiltshire 10, where we had 16 members, from what I’ve been able to tell, 14 of them set a PB and I have my suspicions that the other 2 did as well. Lois Norcott and Katherine Burrett each took 20 minutes from their 2018 times, Susan Mackie took 15 minutes, Paula Clarke 10 minutes, Mark Cortaville 7 minutes, Angela Aplin 4 seconds.

Next up we’ll make the short journey to Bath where Marie Vinolo-Young did the Pipley Wood Mud Bath 10k (representing JMS but we can forgive her for that). There were 158 ladies in the race and Marie finished 1st despite having an injury. She also gained one at the end as an ember from the bonfire got her.

Andrew Wood made the trip North to Shropshire to do the Long Mynd Valleys Fell Race. Around 11 miles of big hills, but using the power of his snazzy pink gloves he took 12 minutes off his time from last year.

And on Saturday, Becky Townsend and Helen Ashworth made the trip to Avon in Wales where they ran the Winter Trail Half Marathon together. Again, hills may have been a feature.

After a quiet start to the year, 2019 really kicked off this weekend as we had our regular start to the Club Championship calendar at the ever popular Slaughterford 9.

30 runners braved the cold, mud, river crossing and hills with PBs for Becky Townsend, Tom Frost, Alison Graham, Susan Mackie (by 12 minutes), Jane Tunnicliffe, Nick Maryon, Adam Turner, Chris Hunt (by nearly 5 minutes), Richard Biggs, Ade Hurren (his 10th Slaughterford 9), Neil Andrassy and Adrian Finch.

It was also Stephen Hible’s 15th appearance at Slaughterford, can anyone claim any higher than that?

On the Saturday, Stewart Unsworth took on the Wychavon Way Ultra. A 37.5 mile run through Worcestershire, and luckily for him, it involved a horrendous storm. He scraped into the top half of the field with an 8:03:35

There was only one runner this weekend which was Susan Mackie at the Doynton Hard Half Marathon where she improved her time from last year by over 26 minutes.

While there was only one racer we still had a busy week.

First up we had the return of Bryan Clinton to give us a tough coaching session on Tuesday. Lots of hard work but lots of smiling faces at the end.

And then on Friday evening we had our AGM. Over 50 members attended for our annual reports (Chairman, Treasurer, Membership, Captain’s) and far more importantly our AWARDS. Well done to all of our winners.

We had a visit from Corsham swimmer Stephanie Millward who thanked us for our donation from the Corsham 10K to help her spend more time training for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics and Stephanie also brought her Rio 2016 gold medal.

And after some food we had a talk and a Q&A from Damian Hall.

It was a Bath Skyline double this weekend as we had two runners each at the night race and the day race.

First up on the Saturday night were Marie Vinolo-Young; running with her friends from JMS run crew; and Rachael Dark. They did the 10K course around the southern Bath woods at nighttime.

And of course, that would have made the route much more fun/treacherous for Angie and Dave Aplin who did the Sunday morning version.

Darren Thorley ran a bit further afield taking on the Stubbington 10K, near Portsmouth, and completing in just under 50 minutes.

And finally Dave Mackie joined his brother in the Pennines for the Marsden to Edale Trigger Race described as ‘Entrants will navigate their way from Marsden over Black Hill, Bleaklow and Kinder to Edale visiting three trigs points on route. The linear route is measured at 20 miles with 4500 feet climb.‘