Southville RC Newsletter January 2026

Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year to everyone at SRC! We’re looking forward to welcoming everyone back on Tuesday 6th January for our first running night of 2026.

Our first running night of the year always sees an extra-large turnout and a high ratio of new SRC runners, as everyone gets to work on their New Years Resolutions. If you are a registered SRC member and are confident in leading a group, please put your name on the board - no matter how many are there already - to ensure we can offer a wide range of paces and keep the group sizes to a safe and manageable level.

Please also make an extra effort to follow SRC etiquette, give way to pedestrians, call out “Keep left Southville / Keep right Southville” as cyclists and other path users approach, and pass these calls down the line. By doing so we ensure that our new runners can see how we run, and maintain our good relations with the local community.

Annual General Meeting

The week after our first run night will see our Annual General Meeting on Tuesday January 13th. 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 following members are standing together for election as Directors:

Amy Webb, Club Secretary, nominated by Sam Blanning

Bindal Shah, Membership Officer, incumbent

Dave Unsworth, Treasurer, incumbent

Kayleigh Doherty, co-Chair, incumbent

Liam Coleman, co-Chair, incumbent

Amy is a regular run leader and brings her experience as a former Finance Director to the role of Club Secretary.

As the election is (as usual) uncontested, a show of hands will be taken at the start of the meeting to confirm whether the SRC membership wishes the above candidates to be appointed as Directors of Southville Running Club Limited and hold legal responsibility for the club’s decision-making.

The rest of the agenda will follow shortly via this mailing list.

Cotswold Way Relay

This year, we will once again be entering some Southville Running Club teams for the Cotswold Way Relay.

What's the Cotswold Way Relay I hear some of you ask? Well, it is a day-long event on Saturday 4th July, where between you as a team you cover the full length of the Cotswold Way footpath - from Chipping Camden in the north to Bath in the South. There's 10 legs which vary between 7 and 12 miles - all with beautiful scenery and some great trail running.

We usually have a couple of teams, share lifts throughout the day and all finish at Bath Abbey at around 6pm to cheer in our final runner, then head for food and drinks. If you fancy being part of a Southville team, please fill in your details on this form by the end of Saturday 17th January.

Everyone's welcome to enter; it's not just for the super-fast runners. Depending on who is interested, we may do teams for varying categories - such as a vets team of over 40s, an all-women team and an open team for our fastest runners.

We may also need to provide a couple of volunteers to support with stewarding or water points on one of the stages, so if you're not interested in running but would like to get involved with the event, let me know. Also any questions generally about the event and getting involved, please drop me a message.

Social news

A huge thank you to everyone who helped to put on our Christmas Party last month, especially Kayleigh, Ed and Laura.

At the Christmas Party we gave out the 2025 Volunteer Awards. The following SRC runners received a certificate and will have their SRC and EA fees paid by the club for 2026/27, as a token of our thanks for their efforts.

Katherine Thomasset - for consistently leading runs at a range of paces, for the enthusiasm with which she has led our groups, and for the good cheer she has instilled in everyone she runs with.

Drew McLellan - for transforming how we all pay for our weekly runs, saving the lining of our running shorts, and even kitting us out with our new hoodies during his incredible work as our new Kitmaster.

Oli Haynes - for consistently leading groups at whatever pace needs to be covered to ensure that everyone is catered for, and that we can continue saying to prospective runners that there is always a group for them.

Tony Myers - for continuing to lead varied and interesting groups, for the tips he gives to help everyone improve, and for the support he’s given to so many runners, especially those pushing themselves towards spring and autumn races.

Ross Opie - for being one of our most consistent group leaders, who received many nominations  due to his constant support, his enjoyable sessions, and for keeping runners turning up week after week.

Deserved honourable mentions were given to Kayleigh, Ed and Laura for the aforementioned party organisation, to Chris Hopes for his work on our new summer relay race Pass The Buck, and to Sam Lewis for his regular group leading and behind the scenes work.

On Friday 6th February we will be hosting our Skittles Social in the Southbank. If you're new to the club, it's the perfect event to get to know your fellow runners. Teams will be randomly assigned on the night; friends and family are welcome but you don't need to bring anyone. There will be prizes for the winning teams. Entry will be £2 in cash and we recommend bringing a third pound coin for the post-tournament game of Killer.

Vacancy for a male Welfare Officer

We continue to look for a male volunteer to be 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 do not need to seek election. If you are interested, do let us know.

Race roundup

We had lots of great results in December as we closed the year, with Chris getting a 30 minute PB at the Valencia Marathon and Adrian, Ross and Toby finishing the year with marathon PBs in Malaga. We also had a 1-2-3 on the podium of the Patchway Santa 5k, with Will, Charlotte and Olly taking all three top spots between them.

There’s already some great races coming up in January, including the next Weston Prom on 8th January, Storm the Fort at Brean Down on the 17th and a range of distances at the Chepstow Running Festival on the 25th.

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 tomorrow on Saturday 3rd January, and we’ll look forward to seeing lots of SRC runners there for the first regular parkrun of the year.

Our UK-based parkrun tourism this year will be close to home at Three Brooks parkrun on Saturday 24th January. It’s an attractive course through the nature reserve. The going is on compacted paths throughout, which can get wet and muddy depending on the weather.

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 January 3 - SRC @ Ashton Court parkrun

💚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

🧡Sat January 24 - Three Brooks parkrun tourism

🏁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

All the best,

Southville Running Club
info@southvillerunningclub.co.uk