Monday 11th Feb
7pm Track Session at PoW
Wednesday 13th Feb
7pm 5m On-road. HI-VIZ, Cheltenham Football Club car park
Thursday 14th Feb
9:30am 1 WEEK only - Waitrose - click for details.
7:00pm PoW Track
Saturday
16th Feb
Cleeve Golf Club, 9am
Happy Valley. Dribbly Dog Farm. The Gallops. The Mill. The Butterfly Fields. Goat Track. Lone/Joshua Tree. Trig Point. The Zig-Zags. Just some of the wonderful place names on Cleeve Hill.
Yes, there might be mud .... and Yes, there will definitely be hills.
Please park considerately in the Golf Course Clubhouse Car Park, rather than the Quarry Car Park, furthest away from the Clubhouse on the right as you drive in for a 0900 start.
There is no group leader for the Saturday morning run, so either check or post on Facebook, to see who else is running. There are options to run faster/slower and longer/shorter distances depending on what the group decides.
There is also the option to stay afterwards for a coffee and a natter in the Clubhouse.
The Staverton 10 mile race took place on Sunday 27th January, with 37 Almost Athletes taking part. Despite the cold and windy conditions there were some impressive results for Club members, including a host of new PBs.
Josh Hand was first Almost to finish in 16th place, closely followed by Matt Polson with a time of 1:03. For Polson, this was a PB of more than 4 minutes from his previous 10 mile event.
Helen Youde was first Almost lady to finish in 1:05, followed by Ellie Laney-Bolton in 1:08 and Michelle Balchin in 1:16.
Peter Mitchener acted as pace maker for Mark Lyes, Hayley Woolnough and Lorraine Taylor, and all three of them gained new PBs of 1:23.
There were also new PBs for each of the following: Matthew Hickman in 1:05, Ben Stone in 1:06, Chris McMahon in 1:22, Daniel Magovern in 1:28, Deborah Elliott in 1:39, and Dave Nelson in 1:44.
Slightly further afield, Ingrid Harris tackled the tricky LDWA Twisted Wye Canter of 24.5 miles, whilst Heather Theyer, Debbie Gaynor and Karla Cleverley all travelled to Bristol to take part in the 5 km Run for Chocolate event.
On Saturday 26th January Matt Barnes came eighth at Cheltenham parkrun with a time of 19:34 and Jeanette Gullick was first Almost lady to complete in 22:40.
In Gloucester North parkrun Lesley Cottle was 1st female with 24:30, and in Kingsway Gloucester Ben Taylor came 8th in 19:45. At the Bath Skyline event Neil Tring was 1st in his age category with 21:55 and Lorraine Taylor was 2nd in hers with 26:24. Lynne Macedo was also first in her age category and gained a new PB with 29:48 in the Mile End, London, parkrun.
Visually-impaired runner Rob Rennell completed his 70th parkrun with the challenging off-road Fire Service College event which he finished in 39:45.
Members of Almost Athletes took part in 11 other parkruns throughout the UK encompassing Cirencester, Gloucester City, Churchfields Farm, Pocket, Ipswich, Worcester Pitchcroft, Wycombe Rye, Netley Abbey, Newent, Burnham & Highbridge and Tewkesbury.
Marathon specialist Allan Green continued to add to his tally by taking part in the Phoenix Challenger event on Saturday. He completed the muddy, eight lap course in 5:48.
Almost Athletes held their very popular Linda Franks 5-mile race in Hatherley and The Reddings on Sunday. In near ideal conditions, a field of more than 240 runners competed over the course which is part of the Gloucestershire Amateur Athletics Association series. For the first time in the event, there was a wheelchair category too for which Les Hampton of Cheltenham & County Harriers took 1st in 36:19 followed by Danny Reeves of Almost Athletes in 37:49.
In the ladies race, first home overall was Rachel Felton of Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers in 28:10, second was Tracey Hinxman of Glos AC in 30:21 and third was Helena Youde of Almosts in a new PB of 31:04.
For the men overall, first was Steve Kenyon of Glos AC in 27:03, second was Joe Willgoss in 27:48 & third was Mark James in 27:57 both of Cheltenham & County Harriers.
Top three men for the Almost Athletes were 1st Josh Hand 28:25, 2nd Matt Polson 29:16 and 3rd Jon Bird 29:46. Top three ladies for the club were 1st Helena Youde 31:04 new PB, 2nd Amy Sheer 33:45 new PB and 3rd Stacey Osmond 34:13 new PB.
There were a host of other PBs for the club at the event too, with Matthew Hickman in 30:31, Chris McMahon 37:43, Louise Bryan 36:00, Hayley Woolnough 39:32, Hannah Brown 43:23, Nat Stow 43:55, Sue Monaghan 43:44, Kevin Balchin 45:10, Deb Elliott 44:59, her first sub 50 and Lynne Macedo 48:10.
Andrew Wilkinson & Ingrid Harris tackled the Gloucester half marathon both in 1:45 whilst Pete Blakeman in his debut at the distance went 2 minutes quicker in a highly respectable 1:43.
Nicky Staniforth competed for the first time in Almosts colours at the Chepstow 10k and was home in a new PB of 50:25.
Allan Green completed the Funchal Marathon in Madeira on an 8-lap course in 4:58.
At parkrun this week there was tourism from the club by Danny Carroll at Limerick Eire, Deb Elliot and Hayley Woolnough at Kingsbury Water, Dave Rogers, Martin Thomas, Catherine Mason, Lepha McCartan, James Clay, Mike Bryce at Brueton near Birmingham, Kim Mansell at Arrow Valley Redditch, Ellie Laney at Faelledparken in Copenhagen and Martyn Fisher at St Albans.
