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 180 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
Shaw&Whitley Stampede, the DB10K
and the
Foxtrot 5.
On a very rare bright and sunny day, 111 runners lined up to run The Conkwell Killer on Sunday and some very fast times were recorded on what is a difficult and testing course.
Tom Fisher arrived home first in a respectable time of 49 minutes, 48 seconds, just short of the course record. The ladies record was broken by 2 minutes, 32 seconds in a new record time of 55 minutes, 57 seconds by Georgia Wood from Bath Amphibians.
The Men's team prize was won by Stephen Rose 6th, Tom Hutchison 10th, Nick Watson 13th and Dave Woodall 14th, from Team Bath while the host club AVR ladies Tina Giles, Mel Nicholls and Kay Middleton took the Ladies Team prize.
Julia Shaw, 17th August 2008
The weather did it's best to put a dampener on the EAS 10k at Castle Combe on August 10th and the heavens literally opened on the 144 runners as they lined up at the start. But every single runner, from the first-timers, to the club runners, to the top athletes, finished the course and completed the official 10k distance.
Over 20 of the runners were completing their first ever 10k run and 21 different run clubs were represented. Avon Valley Runners had not previously won the Club Challenge but they were out in force to try on this occasion, with 14 runners competing. Vojtech Hajdu was first man home for the club and won the Male Vet 40 category to boot, while Liz Ringham was first woman home and third overall. Team Bath AC are a very strong team and have previously won the club challenge at the EAS 10k. However, the first four Avon Valley Runners home of Alistair Bartlett, Tom Frost, Chris Stevens and Vojtech Hajdu were too strong for Team Bath on this occasion and clinched the club challenge by just 5 points.
Next race up was the Prostate UK Rowathlon. A rowathlon is similar to a triathlon but with the swim replaced by a row on a Concept 2. Competitors in this event completed a 2.5k Concept 2 Row, a 20k bike and a 3k run. All eyes were on local Trowbridge athlete James Hart for this challenge and after a very strong row and bike, he lead the field out of transition on to the final run. But Southampton Tri's Marius Kwint is known for his fast finish and he managed to win the title with James Hart finishing second.
The final event of the day was the DB Max Duathlon and top GB duathlete Wayne Smith turned out to try and take the course record currently held by the Australian Raf Baugh. It was always going to be tough with strong winds and a wet surface, but nevertheless, Wayne managed to dip under the hour. A great performance from Trowbridge duathlete Andrew Grist, saw him finish in 11th place and help DB Max Tri to first place in the club challenge.
The day was supported by Prostate UK, who are a charity organisation, conducting research and creating awareness on prostate diseases. Prostate UK and DB Max will be working together again in the future to promote this good cause.
Full results from Sunday and details of the next event at Castle Combe are available.
Will Whitmore, 13th August 2008
Michael Towler ran out the winner of the Avon Valley Mile, just missing out by one second on the club record of 4:47 set by Michael Bryant in 2006.Michael was chased all the way by Chris Stevens who finished in 5:04. The Ladies race saw a runaway victory for Tina Giles who recorded 5:57 from Kay Middleton in 6:38. In the Master's Mile. Kevin Sparey ran a pretty solitary race to win in 5:17 from Pete Jones in 6:00. For the Ladies Tina Towler clocked 7:19 to take victory over Frances Hood.
July 31st 2008
Six Avon Valley Runners ran the New Forest 10 with third placed Liz Ringham (69:13) leading our ladies: Rachel Bown (73:15), Jo Mumford (74:07); Sophie Grist (77:59) home to the first team prize.
Other Avon Valley Runners: 62nd Andrew Grist 67:08; 212th Simon Ringham 75:49.
July 13th 2008
Links to this year's race reports: