Welcome to the Avon Valley Runners Website
Welcome to the Avon Valley Runners WebsiteAvon Valley Runners are a Running club based in West Wiltshire. The club was founded in 1986 and currently has around 200 members of all abilities.
We meet at least three times a week at our training venues in Trowbridge, Melksham and Bradford-on-Avon with typically between 10-40 members running anywhere between 1 and 10 miles in different pace groups.
Avon Valley Runners host
a number of events throughout the year including the
Over the Hills
12K Multi-Terrain Race, the
Conkwell Killer and
assist with the organisation of the
Trowbridge 10K,
the
Around the Common 5K,
the
Shaw&Whitley Stampede,
the
DB10K
and the
Foxtrot 5.
Details of this trip may be found in the forum under "Other Stuff"
The view of the waterfall over the dam at the Elan Valley Visitor Centre showed a spectacular torrent of water cascading down to the river below. Unfortunately that's where the pleasure ended until it came back into view as we crossed the finishing line. The Elan Valley 10 mile race, described as 'undulating', seemed anything but, having climbed two miles steeply within the first three. The conditions were appalling with driving wind and rain causing running water sometimes shin-deep and wet leaves making the downhill stretches treacherous. Multi terrainers would have probably felt at home out there, but for a whimp like me, who hasn't run further than 10k since the bath half, I was just happy to finish and complete the three races for the year. Would I do it again? Only if it took place in the summer.
Ken Marshall, 22nd November 2009
The weather turned out to be very kind to the runners, after having strong winds and rain till the early hours of Sunday, skies brightened up and only a couple of showers before the start - then sunny throughout the race. Winner this year is - or should I say winners - were Jonathan Sharkey and Steven Way of Bournemouth AC coming in at 54:09. Third place Paul Adams (St Albans Striders) at 54:46 followed by Ian Habgood (Bournemouth AC) at a time of 54:58
First lady was Gemma Turtle (Shaftesbury Barnet) at 56:49 breaking the course record of 58:33 set by Amy Chalk Bristol & West AC in 2007
Bournemouth AC took the Mens team prize with the Ladies team prize going to Poole Runners Harriers.
This race was the penultimate in the AVR series, top points for the men went to 11th placed Michael Towler in 58:37 (1st Male U21), with James Hart 23rd 1:02:34 second and Carl Davies 48th 1:05:30 consolidating his position at the top of the table with another good performance achieving 18 points by coming in third for AVR
For the Ladies, also extending her lead in the race series, Ali Atkinson 206th in 1:17:08, took the 20 points, from Kay Middleton 226th 1:18:22 and Kathy Kinsey 272nd 1:18:22.
A well-organised race, with 567 finishers all receiving complimentary Tea and cakes at the finish.
Ali Atkinson, 16th November 2009
SEAA Relay Team
On Sunday 27th September, six Avon Valley Runners set off for Aldershot to compete in the South of England Athletic Association Road Relays, ‘a step up in class’ to quote Coach Alan (he was right). Each leg consisted of two laps in and around the Rushmoor Arena, Aldershot, a mixture of roads and gravel tracks approximately 6k in length. The weather as with most of September was hot and humid, fortunately we were able to position ourselves close to the start and finish line in the shade with a great view of the race.
Carl Davies (23.50) led the team off in the first leg, starting steadily as the lead runners blasted off into the distance. Warming to his task he started to move through the field to finish the leg in 88th position. Carl handed over to Michael Towler (21.21) who ran superbly well to pick up 8 places before handing on to Alex Booth (20.53) who produced the performance of the day for the team picking up a further 7 places. Alistair Bartlett (23.50) continued the progress by picking up a further place, to put us 72nd overall, before handing over to Mike Pace who ran well to hold our position. Mike did however have the honour of sharing the finish straight with winning team, Aldershot, Farnham & District AC, as their runner completed the race in 1 hour 49 minutes 28 seconds. The final leg was completed by Stuart MacGregor (23.37) bringing the team home in a time of 2 hours 17 minutes 33 seconds, to finish 72nd out of the 78 team to complete the race.
The result of 72nd out of 78 finishers might on the face of it might not appear to be a great result, however each of the six runners enjoyed the experience and want to go back next year. Now we know what it’s about we will do better!
Stuart MacGregor, 27th September 2009
On a beautiful early Autumn morning, 20 members from Avon Valley lined up at the Stourhead Estate to take part in the King Alfreds Torment.
Hosted by Yeovil Town Road Running Club and described as….. “A tough multi-terrain race over '7 Irish miles' around the beautiful Stourhead estate, taking in the sights of St Peter's Pump and King Alfred's Tower. All finishers receive a burned cake! “
Not only was the race victor our very own Michael Towler, who completed the course in 45:29, Ian Mapperson won the 2nd MV50 prize in 51:46 and Kay Middleton was 1st Lady V45 in 57:19.
And………. Both Men and Ladies won the Team Prizes. The Mens Team comprised of Michael Towler, Carl Davies 50:24, Mark Harris 51:10 and Doug Barber 51:16. For the Ladies Kay Middleton, Ali Atkinson 1:01:18 and Tina Giles 1:02:33
This race was the 9th Race in the AVR Series, Carl Davies consolidated his lead by taking 19 points with another good performance. After a battle for the points with current joint leader Tina Giles, Ali Atkinson gaining 19 points to take her into top spot for the first time this year.
Ali Atkinson, 20th September 2009
Avon Valley Runners held their inaugural Track championships at Clarendon school in Trowbridge.
The first event the Men's 800m which saw a close three-way race with Andy Grist taking victory in two minutes twenty nine seconds from Will Whitmore just one second behind and Carl Davies a further three seconds adrift. The Ladies 800m also saw a tight race with just one second separating the victorious Claire Howard in three minutes dead from Tina Giles. The 3000m saw an early break away from the field by Michael Towler and Alex Booth, unfortunately a missed timed finishing kick by Alex saw Michael capitalise to take victory in nine minutes forty one seconds. The Ladies 3000m title went to Kay Middleton who clocked thirteen minutes and twenty five seconds.
The Men’s 400m proved so popular that two heats were required and saw Club Captain Will Whitmore take victory in 1:04:13 from Carl Davies in 1:04:66. The Ladies 400m saw Tina Giles take revenge upon Claire Howard for the early 800m, by taking victory in 1:17:62 to 1:20:94. Michael Towler claimed his second win of the evening in the Men’s 1500m recording four minutes thirty nine seconds from Alun Rees in four minutes fifty six. Sue MacGregor claimed the Ladies 1500m title running six minutes and twenty eight seconds.
The evenings final event was the 4x400m Relay with teams drawn at random. Victory went to the grouping of Tina Giles, Chris Atkinson, Andy Britten and Carl Davies.
Photo’s here
Darren Wrintmore, 11th August 2009
This year's reports: