June 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.

This month is a bit of a shorter newsletter, because the month is dragging on, I don’t want to steal July’s content and I’ve lots of things on. I’ve rarely received any feedback on the newsletter so I’m not sure how many people are reading it. If anyone fancies a bit of creative writing once per month then please get in touch!

So hopefully this will keep you away from your work for a few minutes to catch up on what’s going on at GWR Towers.

Dates for the diary and Events:

June 2025

• Monday 2nd June: Blaise Blazer 4 miler – Club Championship Race 2 of 6
• Wednesday 4th June: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
• Tuesday 10th June: Clevedon 10k
• Wednesday 11th June: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
• Wednesday 18th June: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
• Friday 20th June: Towpath Series Race 2 of 4
• Wednesday 25th June: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)
• Friday 27th June: Nailsea Beer and Banger – Club Championship Race 3 of 6

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)
• 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
• Wednesday 30th May: Club run at 19:00 (4, 6, 8 and 10 mile groups)

Misc. Updates

Membership Renewals

Final reminders are due to be sent out imminently and in a few weeks if you have not renewed you will be removed from the EA database. There are around 30 runners who haven’t let Martin know whether they wish to renew or be released into the wild.

Towpath is Live!

Race 1 passed mostly without a hitch and we surpassed all expectations with 249 runners for the mob match on race 1, far exceeding the 192 we welcomed in 2024. Big thank you to everyone who came whether you ran or volunteered, 3 to go! Read about it in a bit more depth here:

https://www.greatwesternrunners.org.uk/towpath-series-2025-race-1-recap/

The next one is on the 20th June so please let Awais know if you can help, 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 kicked off in style for a fast frenzied 2 miles around Eastville park. GWR showed up well with 20 runners taking part and staking their claim for a place on the leaderboard. Race 2’s results are live but you’ll need to turn up to a club run to see those..

A quick run down of the Rules for those who are unsure of how it works, i repeat this is a test year and im 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 is a penalty score of the last GWR finisher +3 points for those not attending an event. There will be Male/Female prizes on offer.

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)

Sept – Wotton 10k

Oct – parkrun Five Arches

Here’s the current standings after race 1!

If anyone has any questions then see James Healey or Mark Watts.

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

The grants for 2025 have been awarded. Stay tuned for how these athletes get on in their athletic year, also there’s some exciting social events in the planning for 2025.

For any other queries, please email admf@greatwesternrunners.org.uk. Soon to be announced will be another fundraising event after recent successes of the Bingo night and potentially a night where we put our wits against a fellow run club.

Cotswold Relay

The club has once again entered two teams for the 5th of July relay race. The 20 legs have now been filled but if you still fancy getting involved you can add yourself as a reserve as it has been known to have the odd last minute drop out. There will be many from the club completing recce runs of their particular legs so it’s a great way to spend a summer’s evening anywhere from Chipping Camden to Bath.

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!