And just like that, the 2024 Towpath series draws to a close after another season of top running action!
Race 4, the 5k, half the distance but just as fun and still the last-minute course obstructions to remove. Yes, believe it or not we had another course issue with a fallen tree and with some great teamwork and help from a few members of the public, we got it moved and the race could take place safely.
Another dry Friday night gave excellent conditions for the potential for some great performances. First home was Jamie Williamson from Springburn Harriers in 16:36! Second past the line was Robert Farley (Bitton RR) in 17:08 and third saw Bristol and West’s Aled Anderson in 17:15.
In the ladies’ race, Marie Monaghan, again from Bristol and West took the win in 19:33 beating Katie Egan (Southville RC) who finished in 19:35 and Beth Pudifoot from Bristol Trail Runners in 19:39. A close one!
The series drew to a close as well, a big thank you to UpandrunningUK for once again supporting the series with the prizes:
The series results were as follows:
Male Winner: Robert Farley (Bitton RR)
Ladies Winner: Katie Egan (Southville RC)
MV40: Brian Robb (Bitton RR)
FV40: Lucy Ellis (Great Western Runners)
MV50: Tariq Kurd (Bristol and West AC)
FV50: Heidi Andrews (Westbury Harriers)
MV60: Jonathan Taylor (Unattached)
FV60: Bernadette Lewis (Unattached)
MV70: Chris Pearce (Portishead RC)
Note 1: The scores were taken from the highest average gender finish position from the best 3 race finishes from across the 4-race series.
Note 2: There were no FV70 that had run 3 of the clubs 4 races to qualify for a prize.
For a full list of the individual race results please see this link below:
https://dbmaxresults.co.uk/results.aspx?CId=16421&RId=30300
After the race, race winner Jamie Williamson gave a quick shout out about his new running shop based in Bedminster in Bristol, so if you are local then please go and check in out! If you’re not local, they have an online store also. Expect plenty of try on nights for kit and all sorts for sure.
Here’s all the details to take a look:
Kinisi Run Hub Shop
IG: @kinisi_run_hub
Of course, it wouldn’t be the towpath without those fabulous free photos! Big credit goes to Geoff Keogh for taking the time to attend and upload all the photos. See below for those:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/70214272@N04/74Su76hN35
From a personal perspective, taking over from previous RD – Kelly Dicks, who I would say ran a well-oiled machine in terms of logistics, was always going to be a challenge but I feel as a team we all delivered in every race. We saw it all, plenty of smiles, dodgy race photo’s, the odd hick up and some bad jokes that brought some of those smiles along with challenges overcome with fallen trees and race directions changing throughout the series.
Obviously, as most of you are aware that these races don’t just happen, many hours of work before during and after the races have been completed to bring you the series. A massive shoutout goes to John Cox for setting up most of the admin to make it all work, Awais for sorting all of the marshals for the 4 races and anyone who took time out to support the series and the club.
DBMax were excellent all series and have really added to the accuracy and speed of the results, if you have any queries with the results then please get in touch, St Johns ambulance luckily had 4 quiet shifts, having the school as a base and the use of their facilities is a great asset also.
Last but certainly not least is a thank you to everyone that ran, whether you ran all 4 races or just one we thank you all the same, you are all part of what makes the towpath such a great series.
Can we do better? If you have any constructive feedback, then I encourage you to email committee@greatwesternrunners.org.uk .
We look forward to hosting you again in 2025, we hope to announce the dates by the end of the year and hope to bring you the same great series we’ve always done.
Cheers
Mark
GWR Club Chair
