AN INSIGHT TO THE ORIGINAL HEREFORD RUNNING CLUB…….

The club was formed in 1981 just as the national running boom was taking off. Prime mover was Derek Davies, a postman who found that he was not the only Hereford postie whose legs still had a bit of spare capacity after completing his round in double-quick time. A ‘closed’ club to begin with, it took its name from the members’ occupation and was known originally as “The Couriers”, an especially apt handle given that ‘courier’ derives from the Latin word meaning ‘to run’.

The Couriers was a ‘closed’ club to begin with, it took its name from the members’ occupation and was known originally as “The Couriers”, an especially apt handle given that ‘courier’ derives from the Latin word meaning ‘to run’.

However, it was not long before, with the incorporation of running members of the SAS and others, the Club became ‘open’ and adopted its present name. Road racing and, in particular, marathons were the name of the game in the eighties and club members took on prodigious training loads. Martin Daykin, an internationally known ultra man led
the way but there were a number of other athletes registering very respectable times. Some remain active in the Club to this day.

Through the nineties, the Club was steered forwards by Mick and Marge Pearce and promoted a number of successful local events. Cross-country and multi-terrain races gradually became more popular and for the last ten years, Clive Rowberry has been very much to the fore in building a team of both men and women who have performed well on the local stage. At the same time, the Club has, under Brian Jackson’s leadership, continued to organise popular road races, including a 5k series.

At present, we have successful men’s and women’s squads with ages varying from 16 to much much senior who compete on road, country and fell, with the odd track race now and then.

In the late 2010’s and into the 2020’s the club has gone through a big transformation, for several years Mike Link (Chairperson) and Russell James (Club Secretary) led the club and helped the club get back on it’s feet after a decline in club member numbers, the clubs membership based started to grow with the club returning to put good numbers out again at local races. In 2018 Mike and Russ moved onto pastures new and Jon Edwards and Ben Skinner took control of the club, supported by a strong and fit for purpose committee of Graeme, Clare, Gitta, Bronwen and Izzie have all worked tirelessly to steer it to the club it’s now become.