August 2024
By: Rosie Clarke and Mark Watts
Welcome to August’s edition of the GWR monthly newsletter!
This is the place where you can hear all about the latest club information including races, save-the-dates, ADMF good-news stories, kit updates, and more… all in one place! This is a great way to keep you all updated on the exciting goings-on of the club, and to celebrate all we have accomplished.
In this edition, we look forward to the bright sparkly ‘new year’ at GWR towers, reflect on summer shenanigans (with some exciting 1st place finishes), anticipate the return of the Weston Prom series, and some additional exclusive, exciting (and elusive!) discounts for GWR members straight to your England Athletics account.
Dates for the diary and Events
Check out our calendar of events:
August 2024
- Wednesday 7th August: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
- Wednesday 7th August: Bitton Road Runners 5K series Race 4/4
- Thursday 8th August: Track intervals sessions with Southville Running Club at 18:30
- Sunday 11th August: Lightning Bolt 10K
- Wednesday 14th August: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
- Thursday 15th August: Track intervals sessions with Southville Running Club at 18:30
- Sunday 18th August: Frome Running Festival 5K, 10K and HM
- Sunday 18th August: Two Tunnels Railway Races 5K, 10K and HM
- Wednesday 21st August: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
- Thursday 22nd August: Track intervals sessions with Southville Running Club at 18:30
- Friday 23rd August: GWR Towpath Series 5K Race 4
- Saturday 24th August: The Summer Green Man Ultra – Bristol
- Sunday 25th August: Severn Bridge 10K (please note there is no HM option this year)
- Wednesday 28th August: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
September 2024
- Wednesday 4th September: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
- Thursday 5th September: Track intervals sessions with Southville Running Club at 18:30
- Thursday 12th September: Weston Prom 5 miler – Race 1
- Wednesday 11th September: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
- Thursday 5th September: Track intervals sessions with Southville Running Club at 18:30
- Wednesday 18th September: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
- Thursday 5th September: Track intervals sessions with Southville Running Club at 18:30
- Wednesday 25th September: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
- Thursday 5th September: Track intervals sessions with Southville Running Club at 18:30
GWR TOWPATH
We’re on the home run now with 75% of the series now completed, and only one 5K to go! Where did all that time go? Thank you so much to everyone that has contributed to the event being a success whether you’ve volunteered, raced, or shared the social media posts. If you are free for the final 5K and want to get involved in representing the club, then get in touch with Awais to volunteer, or sign up for the monster finale here!
- Friday 24th May: Race 1 (including MobMatch)
- Friday 21st June: Race 2 – 10K
- Friday 26th July: Race 3 – 10K
- Friday 23rd August: Race 4 – 5K finale
Again, please like, comment and share the Towpath Race Series page on Social Media as it really helps to advertise the event and to gain the interest needed to make it the wonderful event it is.
July Race and Achievements Report
Cotswold Way Relay 6th July
To kick-start the summer on 6th July, we saw the annual return of one of the club’s best loved days out, the Cotswold Way Relay! There’s no way 10 legs totalling 100 miles can’t be a winner for a day out (unless there’s a whole lot of rain… that just makes it character-building, right? Right???). Club and committee member Ian describes his experience of leg 5 below…
“With our leg 5 starting at midday, it was a nice leisurely lie-in whilst hoping the falling rain would stop for later. The drive up was generally dry until a heavy shower before the start… thankfully this didn’t make the ground too muddy apart from a section of field towards the end in which my trainers seemed to have accumulated half of said field. The final two miles in heavy rain weren’t especially fun, but the race itself was enjoyable and well organised.”
GWR picked up some fantastic results at the Sri Chimnoy 3X1 series on 9th July Katie, Janine and Alice were the 3rd women’s team, with Clare and John won a series prize. Amazing!
John continued in his streak of being part man, part machine in the Purdown Pursuit 10K…
Nadia and Katy had some pretty spectacular Welsh ascents in the Pen y Fan challenge trail race with Katy being 1st lady and Nadia 4th lady… what an incredible effort and achievement! Congratulations to both inspiring ladies.
13th July there was Parkrun Tourism to Lydiard…
July also saw the start of a new Bristol Parkrun in the shape of Three Brooks in Bradley Stoke Nature reserve. It’s sure to be a popular one, and the first event saw a few GWR runners tackle the course with first finisher Callum creating the course record in 16:57; a great start to the new event (and impressive stuff)!
To end our summer scorcher of racing recaps, Friday 26th July saw the penultimate race in our Towpath series…
Tune into September’s newsletter to see our August recap!
Misc. Updates
Committee Roles 24/25
With the AGM fast approaching in October and some inevitable shifting of priorities, we anticipate a couple of committee roles becoming available. Joining the committee is a wonderful way to represent us all, give back, and help shape our club as it grows and evolves.
If you’ve ever considered joining the committee and would like to know more about what we do on a week-to-week basis, then please do reach out to any of the Committee members. Take the opportunity to think about whether you’d like to submit your name before the AGM in October – we’d love for you to get involved…
Remember: If we all do a little, no one has to do a lot.
Welfare
Dave and Karen will be joining the committee meeting in the upcoming August meeting (5th) to discuss how welfare will look at GWR, alongside some requests from England Athletics to ensure the club remains compliant with the England Athletics’ standards.
They are available to contact regarding any questions or concerns on the below email address:
welfare@greatwesternrunners.org.uk
GWR Run Leaders calling notice
Do you love being a member of our club, and are looking for a way to develop your skills and give back?
We are on the hunt for our next cohort of run leaders to train up to be England Athletics qualified running leaders to help lead our Wednesday club night sessions. Please speak to the committee for more information, or to put your name forward.
GWR 40th Birthday Anniversary merch
To celebrate the club’s 40th anniversary, there will be an exclusive limited-edition T-shirt produced to celebrate! These are currently in the development stages, and further correspondence will be released as soon as the details are finalised so you can order yours.
Weston Prom returns…!
The Weston Prom series is back for another year (I know, where did the time go?!).
There are nine races along the prom for just £50 (£52 if unaffiliated). The series starts on September 12th 2024 and runs one race per month until May 2025. This is a great way of benchmarking your progress every month, plus there’s usually fish and chips and the end (not that you all needed any more incentive).
This is usually a very well supported race series by the club and is a great way to meet members from other clubs too. If you haven’t raced it before and would like to know more, speak to any of your club mates who no doubt will have raced it (or will know someone who has!). We normally submit several teams, so keep an eye out for the roll-call in the coming weeks.
RunThrough offers
RunThroughUK have been in touch to offer the club a 20% discount for all events with our own code.
They are keen to source volunteers for the Frome Running Festival 5K, 10K and half-marathon on August 18th 2024, and are offering each volunteer £65 worth of race vouchers and £10 voucher to spend at their merch store.
If anyone is interested in racing or volunteering at this event then please speak to Mark Watts for further information.
Sportsshoes Code
We have an exciting new discount to offer members of England Athletics affiliated clubs!
You can now link your England Athletics membership with your (free) SportsShoes ULTRA account to receive a discount automatically at checkout. This prevents the need to enter a code at checkout, making receiving a discount from us a lot quicker and easier. You can find out more here: https://www.sportsshoes.com/store/england-athletics
The discount on offer has been increased to 15% off in season products. Some exclusions apply to this promotion, including Coros, Garmin, Shokz, Maurten products and a few shoes.
Please note the old system of sportsshoes supplying a code for discount will cease in the coming months in exchange for the new one.
Kit
For kit (including club branded running gear) enquiries, please see the website here.
Contact
If you would like to contact the committee about any club run business, suggestions, questions or otherwise, please do get in touch on committee@greatwesternrunners.org.uk
We’d love to hear from you!
