Southville RC Newsletter December 2025
Social news
There is still time to get your ticket for the SRC Christmas party!
We will once again be hitting The Cock & Tail on Saturday 6th December for one of the big events in the club social calendar.
Party food from Sandwich Sandwich, DJs spinning tunes, the finest peeps in the Bristol running community - we've got it all.
Full information and tickets now on sale via our website.
You can also put Friday 6th February in your diary which will be our Skittles Social. There will also be another Tuesday meal social in January; date to be confirmed.
Christmas closing dates
Our last running night of 2025 will be two sleeps before Christmas on Tuesday 23rd December. Christmas outfits and Strava pictures of robins are all likely to feature. We will then be on holiday, and our next running night will be the first Tuesday of 2026 on 6th January.
The first running night of the year is always extremely busy, so we are especially grateful to any registered members who are willing and able to come and put their name on the board that night. No matter what pace you lead or what kind of run you want to do, there is certain to be demand, so please don't think that the pace you run at is "already taken".
If you fancy some company for your runs in the interim, you can still use our WhatsApp group to find likeminded people, but bear in mind that the Southbank's facilities will not be available. There are also likely to be extra parkruns on Christmas and New Year's; keep an eye on Parkrun's website and Facebook pages for details.
Annual General Meeting
A week after the first Tuesday of 2026, we will hold our Annual General Meeting on January 13th. As ever, all our runners are welcome to attend the meeting, have your say in how the club is run and find out how you can contribute. The meeting will be in the back bar of the Southbank after we return from running.
The first item on the agenda will be the Election of Directors. SRC is a volunteer-run democracy, and each January we elect between three and five people to be the Directors of our legal entity (Southville Running Club Limited) and take overall responsibility for the club's decision-making. Bindal, Dave, Kayleigh and Liam will all be standing for re-election as Membership Officer, Treasurer, and co-Chairs respectively. Sam will not seek re-election as Club Secretary and will therefore be replaced in that role as part of the election. For more details of each Director role, see our Constitution.
All registered SRC members are welcome to be nominated for any of the Director roles, whether vacant or incumbent. In the event that there are two candidates for a Director role, a vote will be taken at the AGM, and details of the candidates will be circulated via this mailing list in advance. In practice, the club has never held a contested election, as our custom is to divide up the roles whenever there has been more than one person willing to volunteer.
To be nominated for a Director role, the nominator and nominee need to email the Secretary by the end of Tuesday 30th December. Please email the Secretary by the same date if you have any items for the agenda.
Vacancy for a male Welfare Officer
In addition to the Director elections, we are still looking to recruit a male volunteer as one of our Welfare Officers, in line with our policy and England Athletics' recommendation of having both male and female officers.
The role of the Welfare Officers is to ensure that all our members have a safe and positive experience at SRC. Welfare Officers are the people members can speak to if they have a safeguarding, discipline or conduct concern, and manage lower-level club issues and disputes to prevent escalation and ensure everyone has an enjoyable time when out running. Thankfully, due to our friendly and social culture, the role has been a very low-key one in recent years, but our Welfare Officers still play a crucial part in keeping us that way.
Welfare Officers take online courses from England Athletics in Safeguarding and Adult Welfare, which the club will pay for, so this role is a great way to give back to SRC while receiving some valuable training and life skills.
Welfare Officers are appointed by the Directors and does not need to seek election. If you are interested, do let us know.
Race roundup
We had a great turnout this month at the famous Sodbury Slog (pre-race photo pictured, hence the lack of mud). A number of us also took part in the Mo Run at Ashton Court. Special well done goes to Teresa who ran the Nice to Cannes Marathon, and Liam who finished the Point to Pinnacle race, billed as the world’s toughest half marathon, in an impressive sub 2 hour time.
There’s still plenty of racing left in the year: the next Weston Prom Run is on Thursday 11th December, and the Sunday after is the Weston Christmas Cracker, a great race along the seafront with universal fancy dress.
The Dates for your Diary section has now been expanded with lots of races to look forward to in 2026. Thanks to everyone who contributed races in the WhatsApp chat (with a special thank you to Dave for his list).
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.
Our designated parkrun on the first Saturday of every month is Ashton Court. This month that's Saturday 6th December, so join us on Saturday for a big turnout and coffee in the manor's café afterwards.
Every month we pick a parkrun further afield for our monthly parkrun tourism. This month’s tourism will be on Saturday 13th December, with the venue yet to be confirmed. (This is due to us checking some details with a parkrun which may feature either this month or next month.) More details on this month’s parkrun tourism will follow via the WhatsApp community and Tuesday/Thursday announcements; if you aren’t in WhatsApp and aren’t coming to club nights, you can email us nearer the time for the details.
And on Saturday 31st January we’ll be doing some overseas parkrun tourism in Milan, Italy. Head to the Parkrun channel of our WhatsApp community for details of where we’ll be staying.
If you need a lift or can offer one, head to our members-only WhatsApp community, where we'll also be exchanging details of any post-parkrun coffee meetups.
Dates for your Diary
🧡Sat December 6 - SRC @ Ashton Court parkrun
🥳Sat December 6 - SRC Christmas Party
🏁Thu December 11 - Weston Prom Run
🧡Sat December 13 - Parkrun tourism (tbc)
🏁Sun December 14 - Weston Christmas Cracker
💚Tue December 23 - Last SRC run night of 2025
💚Tue January 6 - First SRC run night of 2026
🏁Thu January 8 - Weston Prom Run
🙋Tue January 13 - Annual General Meeting
🏁Sat January 17 - Storm The Fort, Brean Down
🏁Sun January 25 - Chepstow Running Festival (5k, 10k, Half)
✈️🧡Jan 30 - 1 Feb - Milan parkrun tourism
🥳Fri February 6 - SRC Skittles Social
🏁Sun February 8 - Doynton Hard Half
🏁Thu February 12 - Weston Prom Run
🏁Sun February 15 - Dursley Dozen
🏁Sun February 22 - Ironwood Challenge, Long Ashton
🏁Sat March 7 - Green Man Ultra
🏁Sun March 8 - Chippenham Spring 10 Mile
🏁Thu March 12 - Weston Prom Run
🏁Sun March 15 - 20/20 Fission
🏁Sun March 15 - Bath Half
🏁Sun March 22 - Gloucester Half and 10k
🎽Sun March 29 - Clocks go forward
🏁Thu April 9 - Weston Prom Run
🏁Sun April 12 - The Big Cheese, Cheddar
🏁Sun April 19 - Frenchay 10k
🏁Sun April 19 - Newport Marathon Festival (10k, Half, Marathon)
🏁Sat April 25 - Butcombe Trail Ultra
🏁Sun May 10 - Great Bristol Half and 10k
🏁Thu May 21 - Weston Prom Run
🚌Sat June 6 - Classic Quarter, Cornwall
🏁Tue June 9 - Clevedon Midsummer 10k
🚌June 20-21 - Giants Head Weekend (10k, Half, Marathon)
🏁Fri June 26 - Beer and Banger 10k, Nailsea
🚌Sat July 4 - Cotswold Way Relay
🏁Sat August 22 - Green Man Ultra
🏁Sun September 13 - Chippenham Half Marathon
🏁Sun September 27 - Forest of Dean Half Marathon