Runners of the Month, First Half of 2022

Our first runner of the month for June is Des Beer. She is a fantastic all rounder over shorter and longer distances. She is also a remarkable runner in her age category. In her last 5 races she has come 1st or 2nd overall in her age category! She was 2nd at 20m Berkeley in 3:12:15, 1st at the Pendock Spring Chicken 10k in 54:53, 1st at Sheperdine marathon in 4:26:28, 1st at Stroud’s very hilly trail half marathon and 2nd at Dymock Half in 2:03:21. In fact her times this year place her impressively at 5th and 16th in the UK rankings for her age category for 20 miles and marathon! She is also a highly valued club member regularly leading club runs and participating in most of the club race series. Well done Des!

Our second runner of the month for June is Richard Knightley. He’s a fantastic runner, very responsive to coaching and really dedicated to his training being a regular attendee of the Thursday speed endurance sessions. Since the return of races in 2021 he’s run his first ultra the Dartmoor Discovery and is about to run it again! He has been regularly knocking out PBs over all distances since then running his first sub 4 hour marathon at Worcester, ran Cheltenham half PB in 1:40:11, ran Frampton 10k PB in 44.53, ran Linda Franks 5 mile PB in 34.49 and is now a regular sub 22 minutes parkrunner. And more recently completely smashed his marathon PB by a huge 16 mins with 3:39:04 at Manchester. Well done Rich!

Our first runner of the month for April is Mike Johnston. He’s an incredibly talented runner who has for some months now been continually smashing PBs with Worthing parkrun (17:35), Brighton 10k (36:55), Staverton 10m (60:48), Reading half marathon (1:18:50), Berkeley 20m (2:09:49) and then most recently at Manchester marathon 2 weeks ago he ran 2:49:07, taking 5 minutes off his previous PB. He is wiping the board of MV40 club records! Mike regularly attends the Thursday speed sessions despite living in Oxford and he is very supportive of his club mates, inspiring and encouraging them at every opportunity. He is also incredibly modest about his own achievements. He is simply a fantastic runner with a fantastic attitude. Well done Mike!

Our second runner of the month for April is Steve Phelps. Steve had a serious health issue last year which he has overcome in the most amazing way this last six months by setting PBs over many distances from Cheltenham parkrun (22:49), Bourton 10k (44:02), Staverton 10m (73:50) and a PB 2 weeks ago at London Landmark half marathon of 1:37 taking 6 minutes off his previous best. Steve has also recently competed in a canicross trail half marathon with Ace, a duathlon at Castle Coombe and cross country. Steve is a really nice friendly chap, regularly attends club sessions and is a very popular member of the club. He was also very good recently at fixing my leaky tap! Well done Steve!

Dave McGrath is our first runner of the month for February. Dave has been knocking out some stunning performances recently. He was the first Almost and won his age category in 30:58 at Linda Franks breaking a club record! He was again first Almost and first in age category at the Mallards Pike Night Time 5 miler in 43:07. He also finished 2nd place in the Canicross division of the Howling Bull 6 mile off road run. And recently finished Stroud parkrun in 7th place with the highest age grade at the event. Dave also does so much for the club, running the Wednesday evening social club runs and also as the club’s Cross Country captain where he has been leading by example with 3rd in age category in 44:45 over a very challenging 10k course in Pittville Park. Well done Dave!

Natalie Greening is our second runner of the month for February. Natalie is always just getting on with her runs, she runs some amazing distances and does so without shouting about it. In recent months she has been building towards a huge challenge and she is a real off road specialist. Towards the end of last year she completed the 15 mile course for Rolys Run. She ran the Red Buzzard 20k in Malvern in 2:36 and completed the Broadway hilly half marathon in 2:52. And then a week ago she tackled the challenging Brecon to Cardiff Ultra in the most horrendous conditions and completed the 45 miles in just under the 10 hour mark. Such an amazing achievement! Well done Natalie!

Issy is our first runner of the month for January. Issy is a regular attendee of many of our weekly training sessions which has clearly lead to a rapid development in recent months as she has been smashing her PBs over a number of distances. She is a keen parkrun tourist and her parkrun PB has tumbled recently and is now 22.23 which was set recently at Cannon Hill. She also delivered some impressive half marathon times in Stroud and in Cheltenham recorded a huge half marathon PB of 1:42:51. But all that was surpassed by an astonishing debut marathon in Malaga last month where she executed the perfect race, recording 3:48:46 and a huge negative split. Well done Issy!

Ela is our second runner of the month for January. Ela is another runner who has benefited from being a regular attendee of our weekly training sessions. Ela had a busy festive period at the Weston Christmas Cracker, being the first almost home at the Severn Bridge night run and winning her age group at King George V parkrun. Ela has been delivering a number of PBs in recent months. Ela finished the Angels 10k in a PB of 53.07 and has been regularly delivering parkrun PBs with her best time last week at Mallards Pike in 25.25. And she was a standout performance at the London Marathon where she smashed her PB by a whopping 57 minutes, finishing in 4:04:22. Well done Ela!