Runners of the Month 2021 to February 2022 – Redundant?

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!

Katie Coleman is our first runner of the month for December. Katie is a very strong runner and is currently just outside the top 100 in her age category FV40 in the country. She recently finished 1st in her age category at the Guy Fawkes 5 and contributed to the 2nd place team prize won by the Almosts (a mixed team event). Katie is strong over all distances and this year she completed her first marathon for the Alzheimer’s Society in Brighton in a spectacular time of 3:30:15 (which would have been comfortably under 3:30 had they marked out the course properly!). Katie also supports other club runners as one of our Mental Health Champions and is currently training to be a LiRF with the ambition to lead groups of buggy runners. Well done Katie!

Kev Fairs is our second runner of the month for December. Kev is another club member who regularly supports other club runners having recently qualified as a LiRF and will now be leading groups most Wednesday evenings at club run. Kev also stands out as his own running has been developing really strongly in recent times and he has really been challenging himself over longer distances and a variety of different events. He has recently knocked out some very impressive times over a range of distances – 5 miles at Guy Fawkes, 10 miles at the Great South Run and over the 20 miles distance at Roly’s Run! And last weekend tackled the Forest of Dean Night Race. Well done Kev!