IT will be business as usual next month for the Roadrunners newsletter following the appointment of a new editor.
Club stalwart Peter Reilly is taking over from Chris Cutting, who has quit after a brilliant four-year stint in the hot seat.
Peter said: “They are big shoes to fill but I am happy to give it a whirl. I am a firm believer in ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’, so no huge changes should be anticipated.
“Having said that I do not have the design skills or the software to emulate Chris, so there will be changes to format if nothing else.
“I am keen to complement rather than compete with the club website so I do not plan to repeat everything that has been on the website in the newsletter. There is room for both mediums to co-exist quite happily.
“One change you will see is that I am keen to email the newsletter to all members in addition to making it available on the website and in hard copy for those who don’t have computers.
“The reports from the chairman and team captains are vital to pass on information. However, I hope to be able to draw stories and articles from the membership that are both relevant and interesting.
“I’ve got plenty of ideas of my own but I would be really interested in hearing from the membership what they want to read about.”
The new boss threw in a couple of topics to get the ball rolling. “How about ‘I have a knee/calf/hamstring injury, what can I do to repair/recover?’ or ‘I run like an overloaded wheelbarrow but I want to run like Fergal, what do I need to do?’
“Hopefully suitably qualified club mates or even outsiders can answer these types of questions.
“In the absence of contributions from the membership there may well be thoughts from me… now there’s an incentive to get writing.”
Scotsman Peter has been with the club for six years after meeting many of our members through his involvement with the core volunteer team at Reading parkrun.
He has also been responsible for the start-finish area at the Bramley 10/20 event and will be in charge again in a couple of weeks.
A brilliant photographer at our events, Peter has recently produced a big improvement with his racing form, coinciding with his favourite running genre, cross-country.
His predecessor, Chris, leaves at the end of a year in which he delivered a monumental body of work as production editor of our multi-award-winning book “30 Years Of Reading Roadrunners” as well as continuing to edit the newsletter single-handed.