Runners of the Month, Second Half of 2019

Our first Runner of the month for November is Hannah Brown (and I’ve definitely got the right one this time!). Hannah trains incredibly hard which has been borne out in her results this year. 2019 started with a fantastic sub 5 hour marathon at Manchester, form that she has maintained right throughout the year. Recently she has managed to lower her half marathon best at Cheltenham and then lowered it again by running 7 minutes faster at Stroud a few weeks later. Hannah has also been branching out beyond running completing a variety of duathlons and triathlons showing her versatility and achieving a podium finish in the process. Top running (and swimming and cycling!) Hannah!!

Our second runner of the month for November is Andrew Wilkinson. Wilko has been on great form this year and has turned in some impressive performances at the back end of the season. Most people are happy just to complete the Snowdonia Marathon but Wilko turned up and produced a PB which shows the great form and fitness that he is in. Proving his love of hills isn’t confined to Wales, he also PB’ed over 10km at Bugatti this year, lowering his time below 47 mins for the first time. Most recently he travelled down to complete Roly’s run, finishing the 40 miler and further showing why he should be our runner of the month. Great work Wilko!

Our first runner of the month for September is Ceri Schofield who is having quite the season. This is demonstrated by the fact she is third in the open category of the Road race series and has been helping the club pick up team prizes. Ceri did a fantastic job at the London marathon earlier in the year, posting a time under 4 hours. She has been setting PB’s throughout the year, most recently at the Meteor mile and at the Oldbury 10 miler the following day. Ceri has recently started trail running which she has taken to very quickly. She was 5th in the recent Afan Forest Half Marathon. Ceri also coaches some of our club members, helping them achieve their best. Congratulations Ceri!

Our second runner of the month for September is Kev Fairs. It turns out that 13 is actually a lucky number for Kev. At last weekend’s Cheltenham half marathon Kev dropped under 2 hours for the first time which represented a 13 minute PB. This result shouldn’t come as a surprise though as Kev has showed considerable gains over the past 12 months. He also took 13 minutes off his Bugatti time from last year to lower his 10km PB below 55 minutes. All of this has been achieved despite ignoring advice from our illustrious chairperson, as Kev suffered a fall seconds after Claire warned of a potential hazard! Great running Kev!

The first runner of the month is our resident drummer, Duncan Mounsor. Dunc loves his running at the moment and it’s being borne out in his results. Most notably has been the raft of impressive performances at parkrun, lowering his time below 21 minutes and achieving first in his age category regularly. This year has also seen him run his fastest half marathon in 7 years; particularly impressive as it was over the very tough Bourton Hilly Half. He ranks inside the top 600 for the UK in his age category over 5km this year and his 10km times are showing a steady improvement. To cap it all off, he’s also going well in the club’s handicap series. Congratulations Dunc!

Our first runner of the month is Martin Foster. Martin is a very consistent performer and his hard work this year has seen him PB in many of the races he has run. Most notably, he completed his first Marathon at Newport in an impressive 3:04 and only last weekend he smashed his parkrun best showing his versatility as a runner. These results are the product of a lot of hard work and Martin is a great supporter of all the weekly sessions the club puts on. We’ll even forgive him the fact that he sometimes puts his baseball cap on the wrong way…! Congratulations Martin!

Our second runner of the month is Joanna Wisniewska-Barreto. Joanna is heavily involved in the club, both through supporting others and getting involved in the race series. She has been achieving great things but has been going about it in her typically understated way. She recently placed first in her age category at the Stroud Trail Marathon and only last week she ran the very hard Cheddar Gorge marathon. She’s a great inspiration to others and she is currently running every leg of the Cotswold Way as part of her training. This is a small recognition of her hard work, so congratulations Joanna!