Southville RC Newsletter August 2025
Hi Everyone,
Quarterly General Meeting and Pass The Buck review
Thanks to all who attended the Quarterly General Meeting on Tuesday. The minutes are available to read here. Please let the Secretary know if there are any errors or omissions.
A huge thank you in particular to everyone who volunteered for, promoted and ran our inaugural Pass The Buck summer relay race. A full report by Race Director Chris Hopes, along with feedback compiled by Liam can be read here.
At the QGM we agreed that Pass The Buck will return in 2026 at around the same time next year. We can all be proud of the success of the event and look forward to the next one!
SRC Gromit Run this Tuesday
This Tuesday 5th August there will be a special Gromit-themed running night, where groups across all paces will compete to find as many Gromits as they can within an hour, while completing other fun photo-based challenges.
There will be groups available across our usual range of paces, from 8 minute miles to run/walk. To keep it even, faster groups will have to find Gromits further away, so any group can win!
Any SRC-registered member is free to lead a "normal" run if they prefer.
A big thank you to Dave Liddament for organising once again.
SRC Club Championship concludes
Well done to everyone who took part in our 2025 Club Championships! This is where we run local races and try to improve our times over a few months, with the winner being the most improved (so anyone can win!)
A huge shoutout to Hayley who was this year’s well deserved winner, and kudos to Sophie and Andy for coming 2nd and 3rd respectively.
A big thank you as well to Liam for organising this year's Championship and all the effort he put into compiling results and setting targets for everyone.
London Marathon draw to be held earlier this year
Every year we receive two places in the London Marathon to allocate to our runners who do not qualify via the general ballot or good for age. Traditionally we have raffled these off in November, but this year we will be holding the draw earlier, and have pencilled it in for Tuesday September 16th.
To be eligible for the draw, you must have:
Proof of having entered this year's general ballot
SRC and EA membership (the full £23)
Volunteered for Southville Running Club in some capacity in the last 12 months (organising socials, parkrun takeover, Pass The Buck, leading groups, etc etc)
Not received an SRC London Marathon place within the previous five years
Entry into the draw is in person on the night of 16th September, unless you physically cannot make it, so save the date! If you would like to enter but don't currently have EA and SRC membership, or haven't volunteered for SRC since last September, you have six weeks to change that...
More details will follow in the next newsletter.
Social news
Thanks to Hayley, Clara, Kayleigh, Sophie and everyone else who helped to put on our Summer Party at the Rising Sun in Windmill Hill. It was great to see so many people there.
We already have the date for the big event of the Christmas season: the SRC Christmas Party will be on Saturday 6th December. Save the date for now as tickets will be on sale later in the year.
We are looking to recruit a Social Secretary to help us put on regular SRC socials and make sure that we are regularly holding events at which all our runners can get to know each other better. If you are interested, please let us know. There will be plenty of support from everyone on the committee.
What better way to follow an evening's drinking and dancing than... a bleep test picnic! Due to popular demand, Liam will be hosting a bleep test in Victoria Park on Sunday 3rd at noon.
The bleep test itself is a session where you run 20 metres back and forth time and again aligned with bleeps that get closer and closer together. At the end of it, you get a score, which gives you a useful quantifiable current fitness benchmark. The test itself takes no longer than 20 minutes, so bring some picnic food along and we’ll have a little club social in Victoria Park afterwards. The test is also not compulsory, so feel free to just join for the picnic and to cheer on your fellow club runners.
The test and picnic will take place in the south corner of Victoria Park at the end of Stanbury Road, aka the Junior Parkrun start/finish. See https://what3words.com/lived.police.suffer.
Two weekends later there will be the return of the Jurassic Coast extravaganza, our very own camping weekender, leaving on Friday 15th and returning on Sunday 17th. For details, see the dedicated channel of our WhatsApp group.
Race roundup
July kicked off with the Cotswold Way Relay, which saw record high overall finishes for both our teams, with our Open team finishing in 7th for the category (and 10th overall) and our Mixed team finishing in 14th for category (and 58th overall).
A big thank you to Liam Coleman for organising the teams this year.
Other noteworthy results include Ali's first ultra at the Ham to Lyme 50k, several runners donning wetsuits for the Bristol Triathlon (including our Southbank host Jess who raced for charity), and a gold for Jane in the ladies' race at Purdown Pursuit.
There were further ultra heroics from Daisy and Sharon at Lakeland 50, Andy at Ironman Leeds, and James, Sam and Ed who competed in the Kennet & Avon Canal race, in which Ed made it the full 147 miles from London to Bristol.
This month's highlights include the Green Man and Green Boy ultramarathons. There will also be the last of the Towpath races (a 5k this time), and the last in the Bitton 5k series.
The Crook Peak Cake Race takes place on Wednesday 13th, featuring a famously brutal but beautiful climb (with 2 Nightingales of elevation in a 3 mile course) followed by a charge downhill to the finish, where the winners receive (and traditionally share) home-made cake. August also sees the last Two Tunnels event of the year in Brickfields Park, Bath, featuring the "City Ticket" half marathon and marathon, taking you up the railway path and then winding along Bath's picturesque canals. There are also junior colourburst, 5k, 10k and 50k events.
See "Dates for your Diary" below for more details and links.
Parkrun
Parkrun is a free weekly timed 5k run that takes place every Saturday at 9am all over the country and all over the world. There are also 2k Junior Parkruns for those 14 and under. You can sign up for free on parkrun's website, where you will get a barcode that can be taken to every event (physically or on your phone); you just turn up, run and then have your barcode scanned at the end to get your result.
On the first Saturday of the month we have an extra-large turnout at our local parkrun of Ashton Court, which will be tomorrow on Saturday August 2nd.
There is no official SRC parkrun tourism trip in August as so many of us will be absent for the summer holidays. Please keep posting your photos of far-flung parkruns to the Parkrun channel of our WhatsApp community, and tag @southvillerunningclub on Instagram. If you're in Ashton Court on August 16th, please give Dave Braithwaite a high 5 as it will be an incredible 250th volunteer role for him.
Keep an eye on the parkrun channel of our members-only WhatsApp community for any unofficial parkrun tourism that may be happening.
Dates for your Diary
🧡Sat August 2 - SRC @ Ashton Court parkrun
🥳Sun August 3 - Bleep Test Picnic, Victoria Park
🐶Tue August 5 - SRC Gromit Run
🏁Wed August 6 - Bitton 5k
🏁Wed August 13 - Crook Peak Cake Race
🏁Fri August 15 - Towpath 5k
🚌August 15-17 - Jurassic Coast Extravaganza
🏁Sun August 17 - Two Tunnels, Bath
🎽Thu September 11 - Last track session
🏁Sun September 14 - Burnham Half Marathon
🥳Sat December 6 - SRC Christmas Party
All the best,
Southville Running Club
info@southvillerunningclub.co.uk