A Day at the Races 2026
Released On 22nd Jan 2026
Moors Valley Half Marathon & 10K
From Jo: So that’s January’s half marathon completed!! A two lap trail route, which is not a favourite of mine . Lap one saw me fall once, on the softest, flattest sand part , some how save a spectacular fall once & nip into the bushes twice to water the surroundings (note to self, DO NOT have a hot chocolate before a race to warm yourself up!!!) . Lap two, was much slower & hard work but incident free . It was great to see Crispian Macpherson at the start but that was the only time I did see him & he flew around. Although we got wet, & muddy, it was not quite the heavy downpour we all had to stand out in for the race brief . Many on the Yeovil Town RRC would.
Love this one but it’s a NOPE from me
Longleat 10km
From Margarita: Longleat 10km...what can I say...year after year I do this one...the hills are still steep...the medal is still lush and the weather is still cold. Lovely to see so many from the club, although it was a bit piecemeal getting everyone in the photo. Amazing running Debbie Dare who was only talked into running it a week ago after injury and hasn't run a 10km since Martock.
Weekend Running
From Leigh: Trail Gang run around The Stickler route. First time for both Me and Gareth and it was the usual start to a run route with Andy Farrant staring at his watch for 5 minutes. Really nice course with few climbs, steep descents and alot of water. We came across our first water crossing with water up to the top our thighs half way around the run and thought it can't get any worse than that but we were so wrong. Half a mile before the finish we encountered a very flooded field where we slowly navigated around the edge but the water was getting deeper and deeper and my feet were getting colder and colder. We stopped for a few minutes to discuss our options. I was tempted to turn back and find a drier route, only for drill sargent Gareth D to say "stop being pussy, man up and lets get going" after which he sent Andy to go first. Andy though this is a right time to let us know that there is a pond and a river in that field as well. Somehow we gingerly navigated to the bridge on the other side of the field which you could just see the top of. We walked over the flooded bridge and again into deep water the other side but soon made to a dry land and headed back to the car. Im looking forward to run the route again but maybe in the summer when not so water logged. Thanks Andy for the route today and thanks drill Sargent Gareth for getting me moving.
From Amanda: 10 mile jeffing, not as wet and windy as expected and delicious brownies afterwards, thanks for the company ladies.
From Rach: 10 miles completed. Great company, lovely pace and just a few puddles to run through (..or around in Sue’s case ) Well done Ladies
From Helen: Sunday 10 miler complete, got off lightly with the rain due I reckon thanks for the company all and well done those adding on extra miles before/after nice social in cafe after with yummy Toblerone brownies (even if I do say so myself!). Thanks for the chai latte Kevin.
From Sharon: Just the 4 (5 if you include Honey) for cavity trays this cold, wet and windy morning. Cutting it a bit short from usual 10k due to weather and lurgy recovery.
Park Runs
From Jo: Not quite the Weymouth parkrun & swim that was planned to celebrate Katie Stokes th park run but the weather had other ideas . With Weymouth cancelled we all headed to The Great Field parkrun, nothing was going to stop us celebrating with Katie. We were actually lucky with the weather as it didn’t rain on us. The wind & the chill factor though did prove a challenge!! Many congratulations Katie, 250 parkrun’s ia an awesome achievement & we all loved celebrating with you.
2026 Club Championships. Races 2026
From Lesley: We are having a slight restructure for the 2026 Club Championships. New rules will be published shortly but they are basically the same as on the website now. However, it is felt that the Champions are slightly biased towards the younger members (this will not change) but there will also be six age group awards which will be an incentive for all ages and abilities to take part. These will be in 10-year groups, ie men and women ages 40-49, 50-59 and 60+. The qualifying age will be your age on 1st December 2025 and you will continue in that age group for the year (if you change age groups within the year you won’t qualify for your new group until December 2026). We realise that a couple races have already taken place but there are still lots more to enable you to qualify.
We hope by introducing these new awards there will some exciting battles within all ages!
Unfortunately, entries for the Longleat 10k race on Sunday has closed, so the next Championship race is Babcary on 22nd February.
PUB RUN – BOWER HINTON – (22ND JANUARY 2025)
From Mark: Thankfully the rain stopped before we left the pub to start the run. Not so fast included Lindsay, Rachael, Mel, Louise, JC, and myself. Fast were Guy, Ann, and Stephen. Phil ran alone, and I think Rob and Alison walked. Fez stayed in the pub.
So, leaving the pub we ran north into Martock, and turned right at the triangle. After two left turns we were running along the Martock road towards Ash. Care was required as the road was closed to traffic, and there were temporary fences along the way. From Ash we descended down to the traffic lights at Stapleton Cross, and continued out to Coat. Turning left we ran back into Martock, and made our way down the narrow pavement back to Bower Hinton and the pub.
It’s a great pub, and the food was good. Thanks Phil for organising.
