Runners of the Month, First Half of 2024

The first runner of the month for May is Fiona Barnes. Fi is a brilliant coach for the club who has helped so many of our runners improve with her speed endurance sessions. She is also regularly helping runners on their long trail training runs and helping them complete their running challenges at trail marathons and ultras. She also regularly runs her own marathons and ultras. In March she ran the Cyprus Marathon in challenging conditions in 4:09. In May she was first female at the Stroud Trail Ultra with an incredible performance in 9:54 over 41 miles with over 5,000 ft elevation gain! And more recently was 3rd in age category at Coed y Brenin marathon in 5:39 with over 4,000ft of elevation gain! She is a fabulous example of practicing what you preach and an inspiration to so many runners at our club. Well done Fi!

The second runner of the month for May is Steve Axford. Steve is a fabulous runner who has made a remarkable recovery from a significant medical scare at the very hot Cheltenham Half last September. After some rest and then a steady return to running he returned to racing this year at Linda Franks 5 in an impressive 34.09 and since then has delivered his best 3 10k times and been remarkably consistent with 38.55 at Bourton in February, 39.01 at Berkeley in April and very recently another PB of 38.51 in 18th place at the Cirencester Sizzler, which is not an easy course to set a PB! And last month he delivered a PB at the challenging Dymock Half in 88.42 finishing in 8th place. Quite an inspiring comeback from a very scary event at the racecourse 9 months ago! Well done Steve!

The first runner of the month for April is Sarah Wood. Sarah joined the club last year and seems to be benefiting hugely from joining our coached sessions, such as Thursday track. Sarah has always been a very keen parkrunner and her times have really tumbled recently getting under 22 mins late last year and then she impressively took a big chunk out of that to set a new PB of 21.18 in April at Marine Parade and was 1st female and then equalled that time just a couple of weeks ago at Severn Bridge. She also regularly volunteers at Cheltenham as a pacer and helping with course set up and close down. She also grabbed an age category UK ranking of 66 with her Linda Franks 5 mile time of 37.03. And more recently completed the Newport Marathon in a fabulous time of 3:52.48. Well done Sarah!

The second runner of the month for April is Dave Elliott. Dave is a long standing member who returned to racing again last year. He put in a number of impressive and consistent performances last summer over the 10k distance with 7 races between 53 and 56 minutes at Newent, Angels, Blaisdon, Bugatti, Gloucester, Cirencester and Pershore. He also ran Upcote and longer distances at Standish Woodland 10, Dymock Half and the Cotswold Way Relay. This year he’s been knocking out some impressive runs over progressively increasing distances with 42.15 at the Linda Franks 5 mile, 86.37 at the Boddington 10 mile, 3:16.29 at the Berkeley 20 mile as he was building up to Newport Marathon which he completed in 5:08.13. All this has been a fabulous return to racing after taking a few years out. Well done Dave!

The first runner of the month for March is Nick Lewis. Nick is a very strong runner and always knocks out very impressive times whenever he races and particularly relishes the off road mud and hills. As usual he had an excellent cross country season taking place in all 4 races in the Gloucester league culminating in a time of 41.26 at a very challenging Pittville course and finishing 5th overall in his age category. He always does well at parkrun and last year had top 3 finishes 5 times. More recently he was the first Almost home at the magnificently muddy and hilly Eastnor 7 and finished in 5th place in 49:46. He recently ran the Wokingham half in an excellent 1:27.21. And then in March he improved from a 10th place finish last year to finishing 1st overall at the off road Cleevewold 14 mile race in 1:40.48. Well done Nick!

The second runner of the month for March is Sandra Stuart. Sandra is one of our runners who quietly delivers some amazing achievements with the loveliest of attitudes over the full range of distances. Last year she was consistently running well at parkrun and 1st in her age category at Cheltenham and KGV. She also delivered consistently excellent times in many races in our road race series last year and was the runaway winner in her age category. This year she has been training like a demon and hitting every run on plan, which included Linda Franks in an excellent 50.12 and Berkeley 20 mile in an impressive 3:50.38. This was in preparation for the last of her six Abbott World Marathon Majors in Boston, which she completed in 6:14 last week after battling the heat and an injury sustained during the race. Well done Sandra!

The third runner of the month for March is Chris Benjamin. Chris is one of our runners who is dedicated to joining club runs and really loves giving and receiving positive support. I have never seen such an encouraging, enthusiastic and caring marshal and passing him in a race gives everyone a massive boost! Over the last 19 months he has shown incredible determination to keep training for the ultra he so dearly wanted to complete. Injury prevented this twice and forced him to pull out of his second attempt in February. But he quickly battled back in March to take part in one and he completed the beautiful 33 mile course at Chalfont St Peter and finished in 3rd place! He truly is an inspiration to all of us and shown us that you should never stop chasing your goal because one day you will cross the Rubicon! Well done Chris!

The first runner of the month for February is Elliot Jordan. Elliot regularly attends club run and his running has been getting even stronger this year after many great performances last year. He put in 2 fabulous runs in the last 2 handicap races finishing 5th and following that with 3rd the next time. He was also the first almost home at the Pershore Plum 10k in 42.23. His finishing positions were improving throughout the cross country season finishing with a superb 44.03 at Pittville. He is a regular parkrunner and is now consistently running under 21 mins and finished in 3rd place at Evesham on 2 occasions this year. He is also a regular parkrun volunteer as a pacer and marshal. He ran a fabulous Linda Franks in 32:45, a PB by over 4 minutes, and completed the Torrevieja Half Marathon in Spain in a fantastic time of 1:32. Well done Elliot!

The second runner of the month for February is Coralie Pearson. Cos quietly delivers amazing achievements and relishes tackling any distance and any type of terrain. Last year she completed the last of the six Abbott World Marathon Majors in Boston and has completed some of the toughest marathons such as Snowdon. Last October she completed the Loch Ness marathon in an amazing 4:51. She recently conquered the very muddy and slippery offroad conditions at the Pendock Spring Chicken 10k. She is also a prolific parkrun tourist having already notched up 7 different locations this year. Cos goes out of her way to encourage and train other club runners on their longer distance runs to build their confidence. And she always has a smile on her face. She is a great ambassador of the club and a true role model! Well done Cos!

The first runner of the month for January is Julia Whittaker. Julia has had a fabulous start to the year building on many strong performances last year where she won her age category over 10k races in our road race series all 3 times she raced at Cirencester, Bugatti and Newent and always finishing in the top 4 of her age category overall. She was also consistently strong all year at parkrun being 1st in her age category 8 times at four different locations! And then in late January she ran the inaugural Boddington 10 mile race in a time of 95.41 which was 3rd overall in her age category and has given her a current UK ranking over that distance of 32nd! Now that’s seriously impressive!! No wonder she also broke our club record for the FV65 age category! Well done Julia!

The second runner of the month for January is Johnny Rea. Johnny is a club runner who was steadily improving over last year and then suddenly at the end of the year he started improving massively as was evidenced by his parkrun times when he posted a PB time of 20.41 at the last parkrun of the year at Cheltenham. And then in mid January he improved that by an astonishing 86 secs to 19.15 comfortably becoming a sub 20 mins 5k runner!! Wow!! This was followed by a very impressive time at Linda Frank 5 mile of 31.48 which has earned him a top 100 UK ranking for the MV35 age category. And he has since followed this with a sub 40 mins 10k at Bourton in 39.37 and an amazing 2:37.00 over 20 miles at Berkeley last weekend. Well done Johnny!