Category Archives: Past Events

Ridgeway Relay 2026

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Chris Moseley & Claire Seymour

We were pleased to be able to fill 4 teams (a total of 40 runners) for the Ridgeway Relay on Sunday 28 June. And after a few last-minute changes, it all came together on the day!

Please read on to find out how the teams got on…

Mostly Ladies team (by Claire Seymour)

After a rather warm week leading up to the Ridgeway Relay, our runners were grateful for slightly cooler conditions and not the 35°C experienced earlier in the week. Although it remained warm and humid from early on and throughout the day, thankfully it was slightly more manageable for our runners.

As always, it was an early start at 7:30am on Leg 1 from Ivinghoe Beacon. Our mostly ladies team included a few first‑timers to the Ridgeway relay this year which was great to see, with the first of these being Tom Knight on Leg 1. Tom had a strong run, getting the team off to a great start, handing over to Sarah Dooley in 13th place.

A regular runner of Leg 2, Sarah had a good run, handing over to Izzy Hester in 17th place overall. Izzy, also a first‑time runner to the relay, had a solid run on Leg 3, handing over to Betsy Palmer on Leg 4 in 18th position.

Betsy enjoyed her first relay run, maintained 18th place, and ran slightly quicker than her predicted time before handing over to Laura Nagi on Leg 5. Laura, a regular on this leg, had a great run and handed over to Anna Balogh on Leg 6 in 19th place. Leg 6 includes a tough climb out of Streatley, and Anna navigated this well and enjoyed her first run at this event, bringing the team to the end of Leg 6 in 23rd place overall.

Next up was Dawn Godwin on the mass start for Leg 7, Dawn finished in 11th place on her leg, while gaining a place for the team and moving them in to 22nd overall. Pete Rennie followed on Leg 8, gaining another place handing over to Pip White in 21st overall.

Pip had a strong run on the long, navigationally challenging, tough Leg 9, handing over to Chloe Lloyd in 23rd place. A regular runner of Leg 10, Chloe finished off the day with a great run, bringing the team home in 22nd place out of 44 teams in a time of 12:36:04! (this was slightly quicker than last year) the team also finished as 5th ladies’ team overall.

The team had great camaraderie between them throughout the day and are already looking forward to next year’s event. A few team members have even hinted that they might tackle the same leg again! 😉 Thank you and well done to you all!

B team (by Claire Seymour)

Following on from last year, we were pleased once again to field a mostly men’s B team, which, like the ladies’ team, included several first‑time runners at this event.

In this years event, Mark Allen led the team out on Leg 1 fully aware of the signage issue experienced last year from another event, Mark enjoyed a great run and handed over to Sam Whalley in 36th place. Sam also ran well, noting the challenge of the final hill (or “ski slope”), and passed to Ben Phillips while maintaining 36th position.

Ben had a great run on Leg 3, finishing 11th on his leg and moving the team up to 30th place before handing over to Peter Higgs. Peter enjoyed his run on Leg 4 and handed over to Harry Smith on Leg 5 in 34th place. Harry, taking part in his first Ridgeway Relay, ran strongly and passed to James Cust, also a first‑timer to the relay in 33rd place.

James continued the team’s steady progress on the tough Leg 6, maintaining 33rd position into the next handover. Gary Clarke took on the mass start for Leg 7, running well and completing his stage handing over to Katie Rennie in 34th place, with Katie having stepped in at short notice travelling from Bristol to run Leg 8 for the team, Katie ran well given the circumstances, arriving earlier than expected at the Leg 9 changeover and gaining a place to move the team into 33rd! much to the surprise of Phil Hine, who fortunately was ready to set off, encouraged by Katie’s “Go, go, go!” 😁

Phil had a strong run on the challenging Leg 9, gaining another place and bringing the team into Leg 10 in 32nd position. On the final leg, David Walkley, a regular Leg 10 runner, brought the team home in 33rd place out of 44 teams, finishing in 13:52:02. This marks an improvement on last year’s time of 15:41:03 and 39th place, and the whole team was delighted with the result.

Vets team (by Chris Moseley)

We had a few new faces in the over 50’s team this year, as some of our regulars were unavailable or injured. But on paper at least, it looked a decent team. Adrian Cull took on Leg 1 for the first time and got the team off to a great start. He handed over to Sam Briggs who successfully ran the short but hilly Leg 2, without having had the opportunity to recce the route. Then it was over to Tony Page, running Leg 3 for the first time in a few years. He had a solid run and gained a few places before handing over to debutant Nigel Ely. Nigel overtook a couple more teams on his run to Swyncombe, taking the team into 30th place.

Next up was Belinda Tull, back on leg 5 after a few years absence and running almost to her predicted time. Alan Nesbit went even better on the tough Leg 6, running over 2 minutes quicker than anticipated.  So far, so good and no reports of any major diversions from our runners!

Lance Nortcliff started Leg 7 in a mass start and ran well before handing over to Dave Parton. Dave hasn’t been running much recently, but showed he hadn’t lost any of the competitive spirit as he ran an excellent Leg 8 in the 6th fastest time of the day. Gavin Rennie took on the tough Leg 9 up to Barbury Castle, and showed he’s in good form, running 7 minutes quicker than predicted.

Mike Worsfold did the final leg, also faster than predicted, bringing the team home in an excellent 25th position out of 44 teams, 23 minutes quicker than last year and 3rd placed vet’s team.

A team (by Chris Moseley)

With Matt Kimpton on the first leg for the A team, we knew we’d have a strong start. But it was still a nice surprise when the message came through that he’d finished his leg in 1st place, and over a minute clear.

He passed onto Sarah McDade who we’d finally managed to persuade to do The Ridgeway. She’s in good shape and managed to maintain the race lead before handing over to me on Leg 3.

I had no idea how much of a lead I had (c3 mins), so just ran as hard as I could. I glanced behind a few times and seemed to be clear, only to hear footsteps behind me as I was tiring with 2 miles to go. A Newbury runner flew passed and gained a 2 minute lead before I finished. I gave everything I could, and was bang on my predicted time, but was a bit disappointed to give up the lead.

Nikki Gray was next. She had a great run: the 3rd fastest out of the 44 runners on that leg.

Chris Lucas was back on Leg 5, running the fastest leg 5 on the day. But more importantly he closed the gap on Newbury and gave us a slender 30 second lead at the halfway point.

But then Newbury smashed Leg 6, quickly closing down Matt Sarjent and pulling away to an 8 minute lead by the time Matt handed over to Tom Griffin. Tom had an excellent run, narrowly missing out on another stage win. The gap to 1st place was still 8 minutes, but 3rd place were now 27 minutes behind us.

Despite the best efforts and a strong run from Simon Rumsby, Newbury’s lead increased on Leg 8. Callum Evans brought the lead back down to 10 minutes with the fastest Leg 9 on the day, a challenging stage which included a headwind and a long final climb.

Dave Boulton was on the final leg again and had successfully chased down the lead last year. But this year the gap was just too much. Newbury finished first in a time in a time of 09:39:34 with Reading Roadrunners A team just 5 minutes behind. Fantastic running all day and just a minute slower than last year. Most other years that time would have been good enough for the win. It wasn’t to be for the A Team this year, but it was good fun and we’ll be back!

Thanks to everyone that ran or supported on the day. As far as we know there were no significant detours or wrong turns from any of the 4 teams. This is quite an achievement given how tricky some of the legs can be. We hope everyone enjoyed it and look forward to doing it all again next year!

 

Team Captains – Chris Moseley and Claire Seymour

Shinfield 2026 – A record breaking year

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Although no records were broken by runners, in other ways this year’s Shinfield was a record-breaking day. Not only did the 10k sell out for the first time in a very long time (perhaps ever), the Junior Races attracted record numbers. The Junior Races have become a real feature with numbers more than doubling in recent years. We expect that some of the runners will become our future members.

All told, more than 1,240 runners of all ages took part in the various races. These unprecedented numbers boosted income from the event and the resulting surplus will support the valuable work of both of the event’s own charity Rainbow Trust Thames Valley Branch based in in Swallowfield and the club charity Chemogiftbags.

In the races themselves, while there was a decent sprinkling of club runners, the majority of runners are non-affiliated. I like to think that after running at Shinfield some of them will join a running club.

In the 10k James Lyne was not quite able to repeat last year’s victory, finishing in second. Jamie Darling won the MV40 category and Rita Dykes picked up the FV70 trophy.

Each passing year organising events such as Shinfield and Bramley becomes more complex, which is why this year we needed more than 70 marshals – this itself must be some sort of record. One of the most common comments after the event was how well marshalled the races were and how enthusiastic and supportive our fantastic marshals. With planning for this year’s event starting way back in October 2025, I would personally like to thank Shinfield’s small but perfectly formed and hard-working Races Committee: Ian Giggs; Angela Burley; Tom Harrison; Liz Atkinson; Andy Atkinson; Cecilia Csemiczky, Tim Miller and Kirsty Moulsley.
From its early days back in 1985, Shinfield has always been a community event, which is why we were delighted to accede to requests from various local groups and food vendors to have stalls at both the 10k and Junior Races. Thank-you to everyone who provided cakes, biscuits and other for the club’s refreshment stall.

A big thank-you in particular to the following organisations, who supported this year’s event. Our sponsors, Honeysuckle Day Nursery the main sponsor, Parkers, and eCapital. Lidl for the chocolate bars, water and bananas, Shinfield Scouts for the water station and their extreme weather shelter. Volker Highways for the barriers. A special thank-you to Ellie Barnes from Barnes Fitness, who stepped in at the very last minute to do the PA. Vistry for allowing us to close Beke Avenue. Reading University for allowing us to use the car park at Thames Valley Science Park, for removing concrete barriers and for the use of Langley Mead.

But above all a big thank-you to you Reading Roadrunners’ members, without whom Shinfield would not have been possible.

Colin Cottell
Race director
Shinfield 10k 2026

She’s back… but where has she been? Inside story of the shock return of a Roadrunners superstar

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Long-serving members of Reading Roadrunners were stunned — and delighted —to learn of the return to racing of Sarah Gee after an extended sabbatical
of 14 years.

Basically the absence of the club’s best-ever lady competitor can be explained by the old problem of life getting in the way of running.

Now Sarah, who has held RR records at all distances from 10k to marathon since 2010, has made a winning return.

First she knocked 41 seconds off Jane Davies’s club V60 record for parkrun. Then she led our V50 squad to silver medals at the SEAA relays at Aldershot.

So what has she been up to all this time? Let Sarah tell her own story… 

“A big hello and thank-you to everyone who has made me feel so welcome on my return to RR after so many years.

“I hung up my running shoes in October, 2010, having had my most successful year at the age of 46. I had started running at 40.

“Following winning the Edinburgh Marathon in May that year I achieved my goal of being selected for the full England team at the Toronto Marathon, and received my full England kit. My Edinburgh Marathon time had missed the Commonwealth Games qualifying time by 16 seconds.

“However, both my personal and professional life took new directions at the end of that year and my daughters — then aged eight and nine — needed more input and help in their school work.

“So it was the right decision to step back from running, but a difficult one. I loved my time at RR and I adored running; however, it was becoming very time-consuming.

“Now, 14 years on, having turned 60 and retired, and with daughters focused on their own paths, I have thrown myself back into the fun, addictive and exciting world of running. It was always on the bucket list to return at some point.

“In the 14 years of being away I carried on jogging five miles in the mornings, on my own at easy pace, but completely stopped running for five years from 2019, through Covid, and to 2023.

“During this time I was working long hours in medical writing in the Biotech world, including a Covid medicine.

“The stimulation to start running again was twofold … to do with my own health (high blood pressure) and being involved in a Uni project for my youngest daughter, who is studying veterinary medicine.

“Alyssa added a sixth year to her Uni life by doing a intercalated year at Loughborough in sports science and needed to do a psychological profile on an athlete preparing for an event.

“We live in the same road in Warfield as the GB marathon runner Charlotte Purdue but she was away and not available for interview at the time. My daughter panicked and tweaked her plan and said the profile had to become an (old) athlete preparing for a return to athletics. That was me!

“I did my first-ever parkrun a couple of weeks ago — I never recorded a 5k time in my 40s. Then I joined one of the teams at the relays at Rushmoor.

“A big shout-out to ladies’ captain Chloe Lloyd, who sensed my initial reticence when I suggested I should be a reserve. She insisted I “get out there!” And she was right.

“I enjoyed my leg of the relay and everyone from RR was welcoming, chatty and supportive.

“I wouldn’t have expected anything else, as I have always had fond memories of the club and its great members.”

Next target for Sarah — who back in the day was ranked age-group No.1 in England at 10k, half marathon and marathon — will be representing the club in the Hampshire League when cross-country resumes next month.

Other targets include British Masters championships at both 5k and 10 miles in December.

Don’t rule out England Masters vests next year… her training times at both 10k and half marathon are comfortably inside the national qualification marks.

Welcome back, Sarah!

  • Pictures show: Sarah finishing the 2009 Reading Half Marathon; with daughter Alyssa; representing England in an XC international; at the Aldershot relays; and in England kit again at the Toronto Marathon.

One for the archive: Day to cherish as Roadrunners do the honours

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Roadrunners’ ‘takeover’ of the 570th running of Reading parkrun was a big success, with a huge turn-out on a glorious day. The special occasion has been marked by an in-depth report from the front line by one of our own, DIMITAR GOSPODINOV. 

I have to admit I am not much of a parkrunner. Living in Burghfield Common, in order to get to a parkrun I have to either drive, which feels wasteful, or run on the side of the road down to Prospect Park looking at all the things people have discarded from their cars, plus an uphill run back adding up to over 10 miles in total distance. 

So, most Saturdays I opt for a solo run on the lovely trails of Englefield Estate I have on my doorstep. Parkrun is usually a social event for me and this week I have a really good reason to make it down to Thames Valley Park — Reading Roadrunners ‘takeover’. 

I joined Roadrunners in between lockdowns back in 2020 looking to try something new and improve my running. I had been thinking about going to the track sessions for a while before joining but the idea of going around in circles didn’t sound like something I would enjoy. I was so wrong. 

The club offers so much more than track sessions, from couch to 5k, pub runs, cross-country, day trips and social events. But what grabbed me straight away was how friendly and supportive everyone was. 

If you are looking to improve your running or just make some new friends, I would encourage you to come to Palmer Park on Wednesday evenings and join one of the groups. 

At TVP, it is just after 8.30am and the place is already buzzing. I say a quick hello to our run director Fergal Donnelly and I am off warming up and chatting with friends. 

There are green Roadrunners vests everywhere and I am going from conversation to conversation until I hear that there is a briefing for first-timers happening. This should apply to me but talking to people is more exciting and I decide that getting lost is a low risk. 

We clap for all volunteers giving up their time every Saturday to make the event possible. Next, we are on to parkrun tourists. We start from Bracknell and finish all the way to Australia. The thought that maybe living in Burghfield Common is not a valid excuse for only making it to 12 parkruns over the last year crosses my mind and we are off to the start. 

Today I am trying to avoid my normal routine of starting too quickly and slowing down in the last mile. With quite a few sessions in my legs this week already and the Thames Valley Cross-Country league tomorrow I decide to pace myself.
I see Pete Jewell (above) disappearing into the distance quite quickly. I have to admit it is a nice sight to see. Pete has struggled with injuries lately but is quickly getting back into shape, so I am sure I will be seeing his backside more often and many people will be losing their VM60 course records in the area.

The first two miles are steady running alongside Tony Page (right) chatting and thanking the marshals, but with a mile to go Tony picks up the pace and all of a sudden I run out of conversation.

Once we are done and scanned we are straight back to the finish line to encourage all the other runners and walkers. It is always great to see all sprint finishes and people having fun. 

With 295 runners we had some great achievements today, Thomas Palmer not only finishing first comfortably but also running his 250th parkrun; first female Penny McCrabbe coming in 25th overall, Phil Burke running a PB of 20:11 in his sixth parkrun — I don’t see his PB starting with a ‘2’ for much longer. 

Also, there were some really impressive age-grade results with Jane Davies achieving over 90 per cent in VW60 and Pauline Siddons, Pete Jewell, Chris Webber and Claire Marks all above 80 per cent.

Thanks to the volunteers who made this event happen: Mark Allen, Art Atwal, Pauline Bravet, Angela Burley, Michelle Dean, Fergal Donnelly, Katherine Foley, Elizabeth Ganpatsingh, Nicola Gillard, Jon Green, Sophie Harris-Watkins, David Hodgkinson, Charlie Jackson, Lee Jackson, Elizabeth Johnson, Sue Jones, Jon Kew, Sara Lopez, Hannah McPhee, Kaja Milczewska, Laura Priest, Ruth Rogers, Chris Smith, Stephanie Smith, Bob Thomas, Michael Turner-Hibberd and Sam Whalley. 

Many thanks to KAJA MILCZEWSKA for the pictures.

 

Lets Go Fell Racing

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An Insight Into 1990’s Fell Running– Report by Kathy Tytler

When I first started running in the early 1990s I used to run the Great North Run (GNR) every year.  I was born in Newcastle, so my journey to the north-east had a dual purpose; returning home to see the family and taking part in the 13.1 mile shuffle from Newcastle to South Shields.  One year there was an invitation in my race pack to take part in ‘The Great Mountain and Marathon Double’, running up and down the Simonside Hills in a Fell Race from Thropton, Northumberland the day before the GNR – a new experience for me that was too good to miss.

A group of Reading Roadrunners and our supporters (my mum and dad) went to Thropton Country Fair and some of us took part in the race.  Once the race left the village we were soon crossing a river, by running through it, then it was a steady climb.  At the top of Simonside, we scrambled over rocks before running back down, through the river again and into the show ground.  I was a little bit stiff for the GNR the next day, but as the race was always very crowded in my part of the field, there was never any chance of a PB, so it didn’t matter.  We got a special print on the back of our GNR T-shirts and I knew which race I enjoyed the most!

So after this I was on the look out for fell races, if possible within travelling distance of Reading!  I entered the Box Hill Fell Race in Surrey.  Driving there around the M25 it didn’t seem possible that there would be a fell racing landscape nearby, but suddenly the hill was there, rising steeply in front of us.  There is also a series of fell races in the Isle of Wight, which I took part in several years later.

Then there was the Goodrich Fell Race in 1996 which was a day trip for a group of us from Reading Roadrunners, which I reported on for our club newsletter: ‘How Not to come last in a fell race.’  For several years the Goodrich Fell Race was part of a double, with the Blaisdon Jelly Leg the next day.

It was a ‘proper’ fell race in the mountains of North Wales in 1998 which was the scene of my greatest fell racing glory; The Moelwyn Peaks Race.  I had been staying in Snowdonia for a week and I’d noticed that on the Saturday of my return home there was a race in Blaenau Ffestiniog, a 13 mile fell race.  It was soon after the other major highlight of my running career, it was the year I’d won the Compton 40 (first female), so no doubt I was feeling very confident.

I was feeling a little less confident after arriving at the race venue, explaining to the organisers that I was from Reading and I hadn’t done much fell running before, I asked them if I would be OK to run.  “Yes you’ll be fine,” I was assured as they pointed to three peaks clearly visible in a cloudless sky.  “See those three mountains there,” one man said, “It’s those three.”

It had snowed heavily during the week before and although the day was bright and sunny, and not too cold, there was plenty of snow on the ground as we climbed higher.  It was probably this combination of weather conditions that ensured my safety, or at least meant that I didn’t get lost.  The studded prints of a few dozen pairs of Walsh PBs are quite obvious in the snow.

I was at the back right from the beginning of the race, and I didn’t make up any ground at all.  But I didn’t make the same mistake as some runners who went up the wrong side of the first valley and were out of the race.  I was soon on my own, following footprints in the snow.  I did have a map and compass (and I do know how to use them), but I don’t think my brain would have been able to cope with that and trying to run up and down mountains at that time.  Approaching my second peak I had a strange experience; a woman was approaching from the other side and she recognised me.  “Hey, it’s Kathy,” she shouted, turning to a man who was walking a short distance behind her.  “What are you doing here?”  he demanded, “You’ve got a marathon next weekend!”  It was a senior engineer from work at Thames Water.  I was part of his London Marathon team raising money for WaterAid and he didn’t think a fell race was the best Marathon preparation, “You should be tapering!” he shouted.  I completed the London Marathon without any problems a week later.

There was a point where we came alongside a mountain road where there were marshals and drinks.  I asked them if I was last, and they confirmed that I was indeed last.  I them asked them if I was a long way behind everyone else, and they confirmed this too.  “Do you want me to retire?” I asked, almost hopefully.   “No, no, you carry on,” they were all very emphatic.  One of the marshals (an older man) accompanied me for a few hundred yards to make sure.  When I reached the road back in Blaenau Ffestiniog, the car with the marshals was returning and the same man got out and ran with me to the finish.

Although I was last by a very long way, they were all impressed by my performance; “coming from Reading an’ all!”  They said I deserved a trophy, and gave me ‘1st local veteran lady’ for which no finisher had qualified.  On hearing that I was driving back to Reading, the caretaker opened the showers especially for me.  I went into the local shop to buy some sweets for my journey home and I was greeted like a champion; “You’re the woman from Reading who’s just run the fell race!”  My fame had spread.

Later that week, at Reading Roadrunners, someone was studying Athletics Weekly.  My name was in the results!  I may have been last, but I was 4th female; there I was Kathy Tytler, Reading Roadrunners, placed in the Moelwyn Peaks Fell Race!   I’d featured in the results in Athletics Weekly and felt I’d made it as a runner!

 

Shinfield 10K

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Fast approaching is our Shinfield 10K on Monday 1st May 2017. Make sure you get in your entries quickly as they’re selling fast.
See our Shinfield 10K page for more details.