July 2025
By: Mark Watts
Welcome to June’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.
A timelier edition this month as I managed to spare a couple of hours to cobble a few things together. There’s been lots going on and lots in the pipeline for the rest of 2025 as the committee works tirelessly to get you value for money for your membership fee. The latest Club championship scores are live, we have an exciting announcement regarding ADMF and some save the dates for your calendars for things to come.
So hopefully this cool read in the hot summer sun will keep your temperature regulated,whilst you are sitting in the shade somewhere with a nice tipple to enjoy!.
Dates for the diary and Events:
July 2025
- Wednesday 2nd July: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
- Wednesday 2nd July: Bitton 5k Series
- Saturday 5th July: Cotswold Relay
- Monday 7th July: Frampton on Severn 10k
- Wednesday 9th July: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
- Wednesday 9th July: Pass the Buck 5k Relay race @AC
- Friday 11th July: Rodway 10k
- Wednesday 16th July: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
- Wednesday 23rd July: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
- Friday 25th July: Towpath Series Race 3 of 4
August 2025
- Wednesday 6th August: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
- Wednesday 13th August: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
- Friday 15th August: Towpath Series Race 4 of 4
- Saturday 16th August: Chepstow Running Festival (10k) Club Championship Race
- Wednesday 20th August: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
- Saturday 23rd August: Summer Green man Ultra
- Wednesday 27th August: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
Misc. Updates
Towpath is Live!
We are halfway through the towpath series already. Time flies when you are having fun! A big thank you to everyone that came and made race 2 pass without a hitch, even the addition of a rave added to the atmosphere. I’ve written a small blog on the race so when you’re done with the newsletter head over to the website and give that a read. Here’s the link for ease!
https://www.greatwesternrunners.org.uk/towpath-series-2025-race-2-recap/
The next one is on the 25th July (the last 10k!) so, please let Awais know if you can help. The committee have made it compulsory to help the club in some shape or form to be eligible for the London Marathon draw at Christmas so you’re running out of time to help if you want to be in that draw, new faces especially required! Just a smile and enthusiasm required, all other training will be given! Alternatively if you fancy running or know of others that may want to run then here’s the link to enter below!
https://race-nation.co.uk/register/great-western-runners-2/towpath-series-2025
GWR Club Championship
The club championship is now halfway through and like the summer has been hotting up! Its been really great to see 20+ runners at our local events and June provided not one but two championship races, the Blaise Blazer and the Beer and Banger, plenty of alliteration for you language nerds.
Thank you to James Healey for collating all the results and writing the blogs for each race, two more races and then just a parkrun to go!
A quick run down of the Rules for those who are unsure of how it works, i repeat this is a test year and i’m sure it will be modified in future years as we’ll have some data to base the championship from.
The championship will run for 6 races throughout the summer at local events. You must complete 4 of the events to qualify as a finisher of the championship. By running an event you are automatically entered into the championship. You must be a paid up member of the club to be eligible. Points are scored against your GWR finish place for that event (1st = 1 point, 2nd = 2 points and so on..). The person with the lowest average score that has completed 4 races will be the winner. There will be Male/Female prizes on offer and potentially AG prizes depending on how many runners we have in each group..
The six races in question are
May – Sri Chinmoy 2 miler
June – Blaise Blazer – 4 miler
June – Nailsea Beer and Banger
August – Chepstow 10k (You can use GWR runthrough discount on this one)
https://www.runthrough.co.uk/event/chepstow-running-festival-5k-10k-half-marathon-august-2025
Sept – Wotton 10k
https://race-nation.co.uk/register/wotton-lions/10-000m-under-the-edge-2025
Oct – parkrun Five Arches
Here’s the current standings after race 3!
Male Standings
| Athlete | Race 1 | Race 2 | Race 3 | No. Races
Completed |
Total
Score |
Overall
Position |
| Louis Realff | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Will Purcell | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Jonathon Lines | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | ||
| Matthew Styles | 4 | 1 | 4 | 4 | ||
| Russell Beake | 5 | 1 | 5 | 5 | ||
| Dan Jones | 4 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 6 | |
| Doug Hill | 7 | 1 | 7 | 7 | ||
| John Cox | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 8 |
| Jeremy Fagan | 8 | 1 | 8 | 8 | ||
| Aaron Varshney | 9 | 1 | 9 | 10 | ||
| Richard Kershaw | 6 | 5 | 2 | 11 | 11 | |
| Michael Willcox | 11 | 1 | 11 | 11 | ||
| Sam Whiting | 7 | 6 | 2 | 13 | 13 | |
| Charlie Turner | 7 | 6 | 2 | 13 | 13 | |
| James Healey | 8 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 17 | 15 |
| Awais Rashid | 10 | 8 | 2 | 18 | 16 | |
| John Hargreaves | 11 | 12 | 2 | 23 | 17 | |
| Mark Watts | 13 | 10 | 2 | 23 | 17 | |
| Ian Haynes | 10 | 9 | 9 | 3 | 28 | 19 |
Female Standings
| Athlete | Race 1 | Race 2 | Race 3 | No. Races
Completed |
Total
Score |
Overall
Position |
| Katy Sutcliffe | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |
| Kelly Dicks | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 |
| Lucy Ellis | 3 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 3 | |
| Fi Lang | 7 | 1 | 7 | 4 | ||
| Kate Matheson | 8 | 1 | 8 | 5 | ||
| Alice Doggrell | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 6 |
| Sarah Jones | 10 | 1 | 10 | 7 | ||
| Rhian Bethell | 7 | 4 | 2 | 11 | 8 | |
| Nadia Kottegoda | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 14 | 9 |
| Deborah Lockart | 9 | 6 | 2 | 15 | 10 | |
| Janine Cooke | 5 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 19 | 11 |
| Rita Davies | 11 | 9 | 2 | 20 | 12 | |
| Victoria Davies | 6 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 21 | 13 |
| Elena Holmes | 9 | 12 | 2 | 21 | 13 |
If anyone has any questions then see James Healey or Mark Watts.
Tired Legs?
I had the pleasure this month of having that thing we all love to hate. Sports massages! I saw Ben Conway based at B Pro Fitness in BS8. Ben used to work at the running school where the club is based and is a qualified physio and sports rehabilitationist. He is offering all GWR club members 10% off his services when you mention you are a GWR member. So if you’re in need and don’t have a permanent person to fix you then go and check him out.
Save the Date
The annual summer BBQ will be held at the club on the 3rd of August from 4pm. Members are £5 per head as per last year.
ADMF
We have a few snippets of information regarding ADMF in the last month. ADMF has been nominated for an EA award. Wooooo I hear you say! Well yes, we have been nominated in the Community project of the year ahead and we will find out later this month if we have been shortlisted for the award. So more news next month I’m sure!
Also, in the pipeline we have a skittles match against our nearest club Westbury Harriers to raise money for ADMF. The final details are being ironed out and will be distributed in due course so keep an ear out at the announcements or check into next month’s newsletter for more.
For any other queries, please email admf@greatwesternrunners.org.uk.
Save the Track!
July the second see’s the track make the agenda for the local council meeting. They will debate the council’s position and give a formal response to the petition. People are encouraged to submit questions to the council to answer in the hope to save the track by Wednesday 2nd July 12:00 for statements and 17:00 for questions. It is due to be debated by the full council on the 8th of July.
Cotswold Relay
This race may or may not have happened depending on when this newsletter gets published. I hope everyone out there has a great time and runs with a smile on their face and represents the club in the best way which I know you all will. If there are any questions or last minute drop outs (please don’t) then contact Ian in the WhatsApp group.
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.
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 club race kit and leisurewear (including club-branded running gear), please see the website here to pay and then collect your item (s) from the club on Wednesdays. For training and/or leisurewear please see the Macron Store here.
Welfare
Need some support, a neutral second opinion? Please reach out to our welfare team David Honeywill and Karen Wills via email welfare@greatwesternrunners.org.uk
Everyone should feel safe and supported at the club.
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!
