Member of the Month
2023
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January
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Our first Member of the Month of 2023 is someone who has never received the esteemed award before... Tracy Tailford has recently become one of our most prolific club runners, not just joining the evening sessions but also teaming-up for the weekend runs. Just this last Saturday, she took on a half-marathon distance as a training run, entering new realms with mutual support from the club. January saw her helping the Ladies team in the XC at the Cotswold Farm Park and indeed she has bravely ventured into the Gloucestershire XC league - something completly new to her. Already a popular member of the club, Tracy’s quiet and smiley demeanour hides a determination whilst running that is resulting in some fine and notably improved performances. One to watch in 2023 as the seeds of consistent training are being sown. Congratulations Tracy - our MotM for January.
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February
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Running away with our Member of the Month award for February is the outstanding Lucinda Jones. Lucy, having won the award exactly 3 years ago in Feb 2020, has improved month by month and is now the club's quickest lady over a range of distances.
February saw her take on some of the most competitive runners in the area over the Pittville Park cross country course and demonstrated her ability with another confident performance that impressed the most during the latter stages - something that she first showed us last year in the Croome Capability Canter.
In the Bourton 10k, one of the regions most prestigious road races, Lucy showed her best performance to date; breaking the 45 minute mark is known as the speedy benchmark for ladies and with Lucy sitting on her course PB of 46:16 mins, she was perfectly placed to impress and that she did... leading the club's female contingent home in an outstanding 42:47 minutes! A great day for Lucy making her club, family and friends very proud.
Congratulations Lucy - our MotM for February.
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March
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Our member of the month for March has been outstanding in more ways than running. Although his passion to run is evident, his gift of installing passion into our cross-country season was unpresented with pre-race encouragement and warming post-event reporting. Wes Reid has continued where he left off with XC by penning thoroughly enjoyable Parkrun roundups; taking the time to source result, pictures, and snippets of quaint details. Epitomising the best qualities of a great club member, Wes is already getting ready for our next cross-country series and no doubt thinking about his valued motivational announcements. Congratulations Wes.
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April
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The Member of the Month award for April goes to... Emma Ash. Emma had been a friend of the club for a few years before taking the plunge and joining us officially last year. Since then, her running has progressed at a rapid rate.
At the beginning of the month Emma completed the Prague Half Marathon; breaking the 2-hour barrier with a personal best time of 1hr 58 mins.
She then turned her attention to the London Marathon, but not before putting on a couple of well supported fundraising events for her chosen charity, Shelter.
On the day of the marathon, Emma smiled her way around the famous 26.2 mile course finishing with another PB time - 4hr:24:39
What a month, and now to cap it off, she is the worthy winner of our Member of the Month!
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May
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May has been a marvellous month for the club with really impressive reports of personal achievements. Our stand-out achiever is quite simply Emily Meadows. Emily has been a member of the club for a few years now, but she has been known to stay under the radar, however, that certainly changed in May. In typical Emily style, she has been discreetly training for an ultra-distance race this year - whilst still managing to join us for the club training runs. The race she tackled was the famous (infamous) Jurassic Coast Ultra Challenge; 37 miles, with over 5,500 feet of elevations along the South Devon coastline. Emily completed the distance on the 13th May and crossed the finish line, still smiling, in a marvellous time of 9 hours 33 minutes - breaking into the top 10 from a hardy woman's field of long-distance athletes. Now belonging to the elite group of Ultra Runners, she also joins the equally special group of MotM winners. Congratulations Emily, our Member of the Month for May.
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June
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So much has happened in flaming June – with temperatures in parts of England recorded as the hottest for 180 years, Tewkesbury runners were lacing-up their trainers from dusk ‘till dusk and one runner in particular who started to shine brightly was James Gribble.
He started the month with his first sub-20 minute Parkrun, a PB of 19:44, knocking 6 minutes off his 5km Parkrun time in just 4 months! The Bath Two Tunnels 10k was next up in 41:54 mins knocking 5 minutes off his PB for the distance, quickly followed by a stunning performance and another PB of 19:31 in the Hereford 5km.
The former competitive swimmer really found his land legs when he finished first for the club in the Cheltenham 10k and 2nd for Tewkesbury at the Gloucester 10k amongst a strong field before managing another Top 3 finish at Parkrun to round the month off. He really has made a big splash in the local running pool.
James has managed all of this whilst still coming along to our Monday and Wednesday club runs. A top club member and worthy winner of the month’s accolade.
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July
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The Member of the Month award for July goes to... Pete Davies.
What a way to celebrate his Birthday month! Pete has been a Tewkesbury Running Club member for over 8 years and during that time he has been a real supportive gent - whether he’s indulging in the running or behind his camera lens. Pete now receives this prestigious award for the first time.
Coming back from injury has been a long slow progress, however his running this month has been super speedy. Getting the training miles in on the Saturday morning runs helped propel him to a season's best (SB) time of 57.36 minutes at the Evesham 10k. He then followed this up by conquering the hilly Wye Valley Half marathon in a solid 2 hours 24 minutes. Pete then ran a perfectly paced 47.50 in July's Handicap event.
A superb month running - welcome back to race fitness and congratulations Pete.
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August
The Member of the Month award for August goes to Jane Tolley.
Jane has now been a member for three years and duly receives our club's most popular award for the first time.
A regular runner on club nights, Jane has been making steady progress every month and has committed herself to increasing her mileage in preparation for 'The Not The Tewkesbury Half Marathon' in October. All eyes will be on Jane and I'm sure she'll welcome the support over the course that is rapidly becoming the big event for TRC.
Enlisting the help of the club's Saturday morning running mob, she ran her furthest distance this month of 10 miles, a significant milestone for any runner as the initial enthusiasm usually fads after an hour!
Even though Jane was desperately disappointed to find her train home cancelled and consequently missing Wednesday's 5 mile handicap, she still covered a good month of running to be proud of. Congratulations Jane.
