HEREFORD COURIERS RUNNING CLUB

It was another celebration of all things red on Saturday 11th March as Hereford Couriers Running Club held it’s 2023 AGM at The Left Bank Village.

In the Couriers Cups we had the following well deserved winners;

Winter 22/23
John Norton Trophy
🥇 Abi Knight
🥈 Christina Pinto-Pearson
🥉 Bronwen Tyler-Jones

Woodford Green Cup
🥇 Ryan Knight
🥈 Andy Tyler
🥉 Will Morris

Summer 22
Alison Cooke Cup
🥇 Ellie Smithers
🥈 Christina Plant
🥉 Laura Hands

David Preece Cup
🥇 Ryan Knight
🥈 Ryan Lawrence
🥉 Will Morris

🎊 The Chairman’s awards were awarded to 10 Couriers who had gone above and beyond for our club along with awarding certificates to Couriers who had subm

itted performances on our new club standards 👏

For the individual awards the below members were voted by fellow members:
🆕️ Best Newcomer – Will Morris
🦺 Volunteer of the Year – Graeme Walker
🏅 Performance of the Year – Ryan Knight (Berlin Marathon)
🔴 Club Member of the Year – John Noonan
🏃‍♂️ Male Runner of the Year – Andy Tyler
🏃‍♀️ Female Runner of the Year – Addy Carter
📈 Most Improved Runner – Lucy Jarvis
📝 Hall of Fame & life membership – Nicola Tyler

✅️ The clubs members overwhelmingly approved a new rule change that will see an additional London Marathon place which will be a charity funded place by the club – In memory of former Courier Jon Ward and will be called the Jon Ward London Marathon Place.

The current Club Committee were all re-elected to the Committee in the following positions:
🏅Chief Welfare Officer- Bronwen Tyler-Jones
🏅Run Leader Co-ordinator- Izzie Seal
🏅Head of Media- Gitta Ferguson
🏅Club Membership Secretary- Clare Mallender
🏅Club Treasurer- Graeme Walker
🏅Club Secretary- Ben Skinner
🏅Club Chairman- Jon Edwards

Congratulations to everyone, what a night of celebration 🍾 👏 🙌

We are back in April for the start of our popular 5k series sponsored by Holmer Park Spa & Health Club

All races for £ that’s less than £ a race!

FAST & FLAT COURSE | BESPOKE FINISHERS MEDAL | CHIPPED TIMED RACE

As part of your entry we will be donating £2 to the Save Hereford’s Athletics Track campaign.

Race 1 Weds 5th April.

Race 2 Weds 3rd May.

Race 3 Weds 7th June.

Enter now here: https://www.entrycentral.com/Couriers5kseries23

Just week until we have

to close bookings for the AGM.

Only tickets are available, that’s less than half of our membership.

When we say AGM, it’s very little official business with more about the party and celebrating the last 12 months!

On the night we will have :

Drink on Arival

A recap of 2022

Celebrate our 2023 award winners

Small bit of official AGM business

Goodie Bags

Random on the spot prizes

3 course meal

Party until early hours!

Don’t delay, get your ticket today!

Saturday 11th March.

6:00 for 6:30pm Start. (TBC)

The Left Bank Village.

Dress to Impress.

Get your tickets here: https://www.entrycentral.com/COURIERSAGM2023

Tickets are £25 a head, again the event is heavily subsidised by the club.

Not one to be missed!

On Monday 2nd January, over 150 runners from 15 running clubs in Herefordshire and beyond laced up their trainers and took part in a Dawn til Dusk run to support the county’s athletics track. 

The event, that was organised by local running club the Hereford Couriers saw athletes from all age groups take part in the event which consisted of 5 8-mile loops around the city throughout the day, the event started at 8:19am just as the sun came up as runners continued to rack up the miles throughout the day until the sun set at 4:15pm which finished with a ‘don’t let the sun go down on the Hereford athletics track’ community lap for everyone to take part in. 

On the day the event saw many runners run further than they had ever done in a day before with 6 runners; Kieran Merrick, Graeme Walker, Kim Saunders, Alex Knowles, Darren Gibbons and Ben Skinner taking on the full 5 laps and racking up an incredible 40 miles of running during the daylight hours. 

The event was the kickstart of the Save Hereford’s Athletics Track Campaign which is being led by the Herefordshire Athletics Association, working with Halo Leisure as It is feared that without major investment, the only track and field facility in the county of Herefordshire will not obtain a permit to host events and meetings in future years. 

The athletics track and field facility at Hereford Leisure Centre was first laid in 1988, is now in need of major investment with recent surveys estimating something in the region of £350,000 will be needed to resurface the track along with investing in the jumps and throws areas to bring the much-loved facility up to the required standard.

The athletics association have begun a crowdfunder fundraising page for donations  https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/herefordathleticstrack working alongside Halo both parties would be happy to speak to anyone who can offer any funding opportunities on this project please contact herefordshireaa@gmail.com

Make your new year’s resolution to join the original Hereford Running Club, with over 250 members why not join one of the counties largest growing clubs.

With our annual membership being just £20 for the year, running is one of the cheapest ways of keeping fit.

Our membership includes:

 Full club membership until April 2024.
 Full England Athletics affiliation.
 Various training options from our weekly club runs to structured endurance sessions.
 FREE entry to Winter & Summer cross-country leagues.
 A great social scene with events being held through the year.

To join just visit www.entrycentral.com/Couriers2023 or for more information please head to our website www.herefordcouriers.com/membership.

Ben Jones, of Cambridge & Coleridge and Courier Addy Carter showed they were top of the Christmas tree by clinching victories in the 10-kilometre Christmas race, hosted by Hereford Couriers.

The race, in its 4th year saw 300 runners take part in the event around the rolling country lanes of Breinton on Wednesday 28th December.

Jones had an impressive run leading from start to finish crossed the line to set a winning time of 32 minutes and 47 seconds, ahead of Eric Apperley of Croft Ambrey, who finished in a time of 34 mins and 25 with Dan Geisler close behind to finish in 3rd place crossing the line in 34 minutes and 36 seconds. 

In the female race the ever improving-Courier Carter won in a fantastic time of 40 minutes and 20 seconds, ahead of Black Pear Joggers runner Megan Judge who finished strong for second in a time of 40 minutes and 49 seconds ahead of Builth & District Runner Sophie Cook who finished in 41 minutes and 39.

The Couriers took the female team prize after a great set of performances by Carter, Joanna Eddy, Jess Sulivan and Laura Hands who took a clear victory in the female team competition, with the impressive Croft Ambrey men’s team of Apperley, Gareth Leek, Mark Lamonby & Sam Juson help the team in blue clinch the men’s team award.

There was also a host of category prizes for the veteran and junior sections, these can be found here: Christmas 10k Categories

The Club would like to say a big thank you to our race sponsors, the DM Lab and our race partners Ready Set Go Timing, Point to Point Services & Hereford Rugby Football Club along with our fantastic volunteers for all of your support in delivering another festively fun race. 

The full results for the race can be found at:

Christmas 10k race 2022 results / https://www.readysetgotiming.co.uk/2022results

For race photo’s please head over to our facebook page, thank you to Chris Smart, Nick Lattey and Kelly Bowen for taking photo’s of the event https://www.facebook.com/HerefordCouriersRunningClub

We look forward to seeing everyone next year as we return for our 5th race, entries are now open at  https://www.entrycentral.com/Christmas10k2023

The Club are pleased to announce that this year the following Couriers have been selected to represent the Club at the London Marathon in April 2023.

In keeping with the club rules the club committee have decided that the first club place is to be awarded to Clare Mallender due to her commitment to the club over the years, not just on the road and trails where Clare is always so willing to turn out and support the team, but the way Clare has made the newly created Club Membership Secretary role her own, Clare has the ongoing task of keeping up with registering over 200 club members annually along with advising on all matters in relation to membership including club transfers and for this reason we are so pleased to award this place to Clare.

The 2nd club place had so many people deserving of the place and for this reason and in line with our club rules we decided that it was only fair to draw this one by ballot, we are pleased to share that Kate Morris was drawn out the hat and will represent the reds in London, Kate who has been a member since 2019 is a great asset to the club, always on hand to support with races and is a regular ‘scanner’ at parkrun and if you didn’t know Kate’s Dad Brian was also a founding member of the Couriers back in 1981.

New for this year we are pleased to share that the club have funded a 3^rd London Marathon place, going forward this place will be known as the ‘Jon Ward Marathon Place’ in memory of former Courier Jon who was part of the 100 marathon club, this is a new place on offer to a club member who has gone above and beyond for the club and for that reason we would like to recognise Graeme Walker for this place, Graeme does so much for our club, whether it be keeping the club finances in check, organising our weekly endurance session or planning weekends away in the Brecon Beacons for the team, his work doesn’t go unnoticed, Graeme also had the heartbreak of just being 6 seconds outside the good for age qualifying time for London, and for these reasons we are pleased to award another well-deserved place .

Club Chairman Jon Edwards said ‘It’s fantastic to award these places to Clare, Kate and Graeme, they all thoroughly deserve their places on the London Marathon start-line in April. We are also pleased that we’ve been able to create a 3rd place in the UK’s most iconic Marathon for our members in memory of Jon, showing our ongoing Couriers commitment of rewarding our members. On behalf of the club, I wish all 3 of them the best of luck with their training as they build up to the big day’.

Hereford Couriers Dawn til Dusk Run

In support of Hereford’s Athletics Track
A community running event for anyone who can run 400 meters or 40 miles.

Monday 2nd January 2023
Sunrise 8:19 am – Sunset 4:10 pm
Daylength 7 hours 50 minutes and 11 seconds

As the sun rises over Hereford on 2nd January 2023, a team of Couriers (and friends) will begin an ultra-new year challenge to raise awareness of the campaign to refurbish Hereford’s Athletics Track.

Starting at Halo Leisure Centre, their new year’s resolution will be to run as far as possible before leading a mass community run around Herefords’ athletics track at sunset.

The eight-mile course designed for the challenge follows footpaths and quiet roads around Hereford, with shops and even a few pubs en route.

With a social and steady 10-minute mile pace and time for tea and snack breaks, each loop will take roughly 1 hour 30 mins to complete. After each lap, Halo Leisure Centre will treat the ultra runners to free hot drinks and use of facilities.

Run it all, run one or two loops at the beginning, middle or end, or join us for the mass ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down Lap’ on Hereford’s much-loved track.

Approximate start times of each loop.

Loop 1 – 8.19 am
Loop 2 – 9:50 am
Loop 3 – 11:20 am
Lunch 1 pm (ish)
Loop 4 – 1.20 pm
Loop 5 – 2:50 pm
Community don’t let the sun go down lap 4:08 pm

If you would like to get involved, please leave a message below.

We are pleased to announce that we have teamed up with The Little Princess Trust to offer 10 FREE fundraising places for our Hereford Couriers Christmas 10k 2022

If you would like to support this great cause helping them raise some funds by running in the Christmas 10k, all you need to do is to contact Linda at The Little Princess Trust registering your interest and we will liaise with Linda to allocate places for the race on the 28th December 2022.

The Little Princess Trust provide real hair wigs, free of charge, to children and young people who have lost their own hair through cancer treatment and other conditions.

You can contact Linda by emailing: linda@littleprincesses.org.uk

To find out more about the charity & to donate to them please visit https://www.justgiving.com/littleprincesstrusthttps://www.littleprincesses.org.uk/

#thelittleprincesstrust#Christmas10k

CLUB UPDATE | We continue to make great progress as a club, at the half way point in our membership year our club Chairman, Jon Edwards gives us an update through his half yearly report.

Here are a few highlights:

• Club Membership up 11% year on year.
• The club have been instrumental on brining Junior Parkrun to Hereford.
• We’ve invested further into our Run Leader and Coaching progammes.
• £1,500 was donated to mind from the Jon Ward 5k & Relays.

We’ve had so much fun together, subsiding trips to the Brecon Beacons, canoeing down the Wye, track sessions, the beer mile and many other projects, whilst continuing to invest in new kit, props, displays and races. 

In a period when events are being cancelled, the Couriers remain financially strong and our events continue to be successful. 

I’d like to thank the team, our dedicated committee and all of our Run Leaders for your hard work and commitment. You are Hereford Couriers. 

There is so much to look forward to: next month will see the introduction of our new club standards platform, the Winter XC is back, our next race at Hope Valley, the Christmas 10k on 28th Dec and of course I can’t wait to celebrate once again with you at our showpiece AGM (end of year party) in March.