Gloucestershire AAA Road Race Series 2019

Tewkesbury Running Club once again had great success in this 10 month long road race series held between 12 varying county races - distances ranging from 1 mile to 20 mile. It was always going to be hard to match last year’s success, where the TRC Ladies won both Open and Vet team prizes - but 2019 proved to be a year with more individual medalists - and a surprise but most deserved team prize this year.

Shona Crombie-Hicks has been a regular on the county road race series for many a year and this year was going for an unbelievable 9th consecutive Ladies Open title. Starting her defence late this year, Shona quickly rattled up her points throughout the year to finish up with 78 out a possible 80 points to seal her 9th Ladies Open title - as well as easily claiming her age Group Ladies Veteran 45 title.

Vicky Earls decided to see what she could do in the Ladies Veteran 35 age group competition, having been inspired by the Tewkesbury Ladies team titles last year. At best Vicky was hoping for a minor medal in the title race, but as the year progressed Vicky took the lead midway through he year and there she remained - taking the Ladies Veteran 35 title with 44 points - (a title held by Annabel Roberts from TRC last year)

Tewkesbury Running Club also did very well in the minor placings. In the Men’s V40 competition, regular V40 runner up James Head, once again claimed silver, with 66 points. Simon Meadows claimed an excellent bronze in his first year tackling the County Road Race Series, bagging 55 points.

In one of the most competitive age ranges this year, Jon Mansfield took bronze in the Men’s V50 title race. Nigel Tillott finished joint silver in his Men’s V55 competition, finishing only 4 points behind the winner with 69 points. Mike Ward had a battle for the Men’s V80 title this year and had to settle for silver, just 3 points behind his rival.

Following on from the masterful Team titles won by Tewkesbury Ladies last year, the men were not to be outdone. Having a large amount of competing Veterans within the club, Tewkesbury were always in for a good shout to have a crack at the County Veteran Road Race Title.

Running strongly throughout the year, the team only failed to score in 1 race ( Berkeley 10K, where most the club had raced Tewkesbury Half the day before). Before the 10th race (The Bugatti 10K), it became apparent that one more strong performance from the team would almost seal the title. Tewkesbury Veteran Men then scored one of their lowest points totals of the year, scoring only 19, meaning that the challenging teams of Gloucester AC, Cheltenham Harriers and Almost Athletes now faced an almost impossible task of beating Tewkesbury.

The team performed well in the final 2 races as they won the County Veteran Team prize with 185 points, beating Gloucester AC by 42 points. Mirroring last year's historic ladies team title, the Tewkesbury made history with their first ever male team title.

Gold Medals

Shona Crombie Hicks - Ladies Open

Shona Crombie Hicks - Ladies V45

Vicky Earls - Ladies V35

Tewkesbury Running Club - Mens Veteran Team Prize

Silver Medals

James Head - Mens V40

Nigel Tillott - Mens V55

Mike Ward - Mens V80

Bronze Medals

Simon Meadows - Mens V40

Jon Mansfield - Mens V50