Number 1 Brit no less.

Written by David Jones on 02/07/2025. Posted in News

Adam Linforth – Top Brit !

Well that will teach me to take a two week holiday.

Many many thanks to those of you who have sent reports in during my absence.

There is so much to report on that I have decided to do two newsletters this week, because just the one would have far exceeded the maximum size limits of some email systems.

If you have sent me a report and it is not included in this edition, don’t worry it will appear in the next one, sent out hopefully tomorrow.

I realise there has been lots of other stuff going on that is not being reported on but I have been in the wonderful position of not having to chase up reports.

One thing that will be missing from this week’s newsletter is a report on last weekends ESAA Regional Schools’ Midland Region Combined Events Championships, where many of our junior athletes performed magnificently. Rest assured there will be a report next week.

Because of the size of this newsletter I am not going to waffle on but urge you to read it and make it down to the final item, Lesley Kirk’s report and wonderful photos of the Summer Solstice gathering at 4.30 am on the Welcombe Hills.

Take care.

David Jones

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Job done

Aquathlon at the 2025 Multisport World Championships

Report – Adam Linforth

I had the pleasure and honour to represent GB Age Group for Aquathlon at the Multisport World Championships.

The event was held in Pontevedra the home of Javier Gomez Noya (Spain’s King of Triathlon) and it’s fair to say the organisers really went to town to put on a good show. The organisation was fantastic and the athletes from all over the world were made to feel really welcome.

I was hoping to exorcise my swim demons after the recent Europeans in Pamplona, where I had a dreadful swim, panicking when I got in the water which left me right at the back at one point, but still managing to finish in 14th place and 3rd placed Brit.

Pontevedra however was to be a very different race for me. The swim started as a deep water start rather than on the river bank which suited me, then it was a 1km swim out and back in a tidal estuary. Due to the heat the race was declared a non wetsuit race, so some of that all important bouyancy (for that read help) was gone, but it was the same for everyone.

I really enjoyed the swim and whilst I knew I would be giving away some time to the very quick guys (circa 4 minutes to the eventual winner, whom I think could actually have been a fish swimming at that speed) I was pleased with how it went, exiting the water in 17:18 and in 19th place albeit I didn’t know that at the time, then in to transition for a minute and 19 seconds where I saw one of the other GB athletes who I had spent the day with, giving me something and someone to aim for on the run as he set off before me.

And so it was on to the 5km run for my favourite part and where I knew I could close people down on the 2 lap course which culminated in a finish on the athletics track.

It was really hot, circa 28 degrees and I could see people flagging, so I set about taking as many as I could.

Helpfully athletes should be wearing their age group tattoo on the calf, so you could easily see (when they wore it) who you were taking for position and who was in another age category.

I had plenty of support out on the course which was great,I also met up with someone on the plane on the way out who I used to compete against when I was in my teens back in Lincolnshire, small world.

With 400m to go and before we entered the stadium I spotted a Spanish athlete who I overtook (latterly finding out it was who I had finished the Europeans in an identical time a few weeks ago, but he crossed the line narrowly before me), I was determined to beat him and duly overtook him and comfortably held him off to finish the 5km in 18:41 with an overall time of 37:18.

Having crossed the line, whilst I knew my time, I was unsure of where I had finished as there was no access to results as we crossed the line and socialised with the other athletes and tried to rehydrate.

It was only 20 minutes later when I managed to view the results and found that I had finished in 10th place from a field of 43 athletes and was the first placed Brit, automatically qualifying me for next years World Championships in Abu Dhabi…

My aim starting the race was to finish in the top 20, so you can imagine how pleased I was to finish in the top 10.

So on to a few more races this season and preparing to next years World Championships, now I need to close that 4 minute gap on the swim somehow…..

Triathlete Josh Harrison with his LCW ( long course weekend ) medals.

Blimey what a haul. Josh’s well deserved medal collection after his superb performance.

Phew that was tough.
Not to be outdone by elder brother Josh, Ben Harrison proved that he just goes from strength to strength with another excellent performance.

Stratford-Upon-Avon Junior Triathlete takes on the Junior Long Course weekend.

Report – Richard Harrison

Last weekend Stratford Upon Avon Junior Athlete Josh Harrison took on the Junior Long Course Weekend (LCW), Tenby South Wales.

The Junior version of the 3-day event consisted of a 1.2 mile sea swim on Friday evening, a 42 mile cycle through the Pembrokeshire countryside on Saturday, before culminating in a 10k run on Sunday.

Athletes receive a medal for each race they complete and as is the case with the full Adult LCW, only athletes completing all three days within the allocated time cut-offs receive the coveted 4^th Medal!

After reduced training throughout his GCSEs, Josh arrived in Wales for what was his first competition of 2025.
The Friday evening swim was a bunch start with 2,500 swimmers in the start pen. Josh completed the swim in 35:43 minutes and happily received his first medal of the weekend, then began his recovery and refueling for the bike on Saturday morning.

Heading out of Tenby on the bike course, on Saturday morning alongside 342 cyclists, the weather was warm but with some interesting headwinds at certain points on the course. As you would expect from the Pembrokeshire countryside the 42 miles was anything but flat, with the last five miles consisting of two steep climbs, one of which had a maximum gradient of 16%. After completing the course with 980m of elevation, Josh was awarded his second medal of the weekend.

The final element, the Wales 10k, from Manorbier to Tenby started at 1:30pm on Sunday with temperatures touching 30 degrees. Again, not a flat course, it started with a 400m hill straight off the start line, before settling down into an undulating pattern. Running down the red carpet and crossing the line in 43:41 mins and 25^th finisher out of 613 runners, Josh received his 3^rd medal and confirmation that he had completed the Junior LCW Wales.

77 junior athletes started the weekend only 51 completed the whole event, with Josh the 27^th male overall.

That evening he received his 4^th medal along with the other junior athletes who were given a guard of honor by those athletes completing the senior event.

Also representing Stratford-Upon-Avon AC at the event was younger brother Ben Harrison who took part in the undulating, Wales LCW 5K, finishing in a fantastic 37^thout of 377 runners in a time of 23:49. Just over his PB.

Volunteers We Need You!

From Paul Faithfull

Thank you so much to everyone who has come forwards to support us following the recent appeal to fill various positions within our club.

We have been truly overwhelmed by your support and look forwards to working with you.

We are still looking for someone to help with our engagement with the local Press, both physical and online editions.

This is one of those rewarding roles, as you can see immediate tangible results from your efforts as they appear in the press.

It is an opportunity to make the wider Stratford and surrounding districts aware of what we as a club are doing and hopefully leading to new members joining.

Maybe you are a junior looking to enter a career in journalism, or someone who enjoys crafting a bit of wordmanship?

Non Exec Role : Press Officer

Writing/editing reports from the club and conveying to the local press.

The newsletter can be used as a source if required

If you’re interested or just want to find out a bit more please do contact me.

secretary@suaac.co.uk

A very proud Jennifer Cockayne

And a battle scarred Jennifer.
No pain – no gain !

Peak District Ultra Challenge

Report – Jennifer Cockayne

I’m proud to say I completed my first ultra marathon at the weekend.

53km through the Peak District, beautiful scenery the whole way.

I wanted to complete it in 8 hours but I had a few bumps to my face, with some rocks. So it was 10 hours in the end.

Huge thanks to everyone that supported me before and during the race.

I’ve raised £749 for the National Autistic Society.

The day started off really well, it was a well organised event and everyone was really friendly.

Out the starting pen at 8.30am and I had 500m before hitting the first incline.

I felt strong and pretty confident for the first 25km. The aid stations were well stocked and I made sure to stuff my pockets with goodies to eat before I headed out of each one.

We went through the Chatsworth Estate and Millers Dale, both beautiful. I ran the down hills as fast as my legs would carry me and it felt really good. It was super hot all day and I was so pleased we had strong winds else it would have been unbearable.

Millers Dale I fell for the first time. I should have realised at that point that I was getting tired. It was only a little fall, so I got up, dusted down and carried on.

Into the last aid station and I saw the medics about a couple of hot spots on my feet. They strapped me up, which stopped me getting blisters. I stuffed myself with as much melon and popcorn as I could then headed out for the last 15km. Feeling confident and feeling good.

Monsal Dale is really beautiful but the rocks are very sharp!

I fell for the second time, in hindsight I knew I was too tired for the terrain and I should have walked that section. This time it proper hurt. Blood running down my chin (messed up my favourite running t-shirt) and my knee took a right battering. I had to sit down for a good while, and a few times after as well. I was probably a little shocked as I was getting dizzy spells.

Lots of people stopped to ask if I needed help. When I was finally ready to move, a lovely couple got me walking in between them to make sure I was steady and ok. After about 20 mins I’d recovered and then carried on alone.

I walked any rocky bits from then on. Still ran down the non-rocky hills though!

I crossed the finish line and burst into tears 😂. I’d been holding that in since my second fall.

The medics were really lovely and there were lots of them, they sent me for a shower coz I was too mucky and covered in blood for them to see anything. When I went back they told me I needed stitches. They patched me up best they could as the minor injuries unit was closed.

In all it was an excellent experience, I felt quite emotional the day after. I’ve come down from the high and am processing everything that happened and what I’ve achieved.

Time to rest before starting to build again.

London Marathon 2026

Usually Stratford AC has two or three entries for the London Marathon and we raffle them amongst club members who have been rejected in the usual entry system.

There’s no guarantees of how many we get but we’ll run our ballot shortly, so everyone will get to know if they are in or not.

So if you applied but were rejected, send a screenshot of your rejection email to Paul Hawkins at

paul.hawkins66@btinternet.com

There has been a Facebook post from Graham Hill on the club’s Facebook group page, so if you’ve posted on there no need to repeat by email.

I know there may still be Good For Age places to be allocated so if you get one of those please return any club place you may have to be reallocated.

Paul Faithfull

Abersoch 10k 2025

Report – Paul Faithfull

I’ve been visiting Abersoch, on the end of the Lynn Peninsula, for 20+ years. In 2010 my journey back to fitness started with the Abersoch 10km race, the first time the event was run, and I have gone on to do sprint, Olympic triathlons there and the infamous ROC.

The 10km, with 110m of elevation (primarily Tocyn Brutal, a steep hill up the headland) and a final km long the beach is not the most straight forwards 10km but very pretty.

15 years ago I completed the race in 52mins, and was broken for days after. Over the years I have entered the race and last had a go in 2022 when I managed 43.5 mins, and 3^rd in age group.

This year, as I have upped my training considerably from those days I was hopeful of a Personal Best, and dare I even consider a sub 40min time. This looked highly unlikely on the day, high winds and high tide meant the course would be running slow, with lots of groins to jump over and soft sand.

There was a record 980 people at the start line, including for the first time, some pacers. I stood with some friends 100 people away from the line (a mistake when your position is your gun time), and went off with a mindset that I would try and hold the 40min pacer. A bit of a fight through the crowd at the start and I was on his heels. A young chap who was clearly very comfortably trotting along chatting to a friend.

A km in and I could tell breaking or even hitting 40mins was not going to happen, the pacer was making no account for time lost on the climb and the beach so I decided to just run as hard as I could for as long as I could, pulled away from the pacer in the expectation he would breeze past me on the hill.

At 5km (the top of the hill) and no pacer in sight, I was at 20mins and 10 seconds. Game on as it was mostly downhill to the finish, would the legs and lungs hold out?

I noted the people around me were generally considerably younger and set to hold my position, but slowly started to pick people off.

The beach proved to be as challenging as expected but the same for all and spurred on by the sight of the clock ticking through 39 mins, I finished in 39m31s (first time breaking the 40m barrier, arghhh 9.8km!!!).

First in age group (50-54) by 3 minutes, ahead of the lead 45-49 age group runner and 19^th overall (17^thfastest chip time).

Super happy, first time I have come away from an event with some prize money in my pocket. Now for a new pair of shoes…. (well maybe 10% of a new pair).

Team Stratford at Hay-on-Wye

Offa’s Dyke

Report – Sarah Odell

After doing the Tempo Trail Half and realising I would be at home for Offa’s Dyke, I thought why not!

So off we go to Hay on Wye for an 11am start, starting in the town centre and finishing in Kington.

The route was brutal but beautiful the views over England and Wales were stunning.

15.25 miles of unforgiving hilly trails. The final two miles into Kington were slightly downhill and my legs were grateful for.

First Stratford runner was Adams Linforth in 2.05.

For the full set of results please follow the link below:

https://www.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=16418&RId=946

It looks as thought it was worth the 4.30am start. Stunning.

Wow!

The early risers.

Summer Solstice on the Welcombe Hills

Report – Lesley Kirk.

The morning was very successful, with a total of thirteen hardy souls braving an early alarm call. Several of us met at the top of Maidenhead Road at 4.30am, ready for the short jog to the obelisk.

I wasn’t quite sure how many might turn up, so was pleasantly surprised when once we reached our viewpoint, a few more SAC’ers arrived.

A slightly surreal moment, was spotting Andy List pushing his bike up the grassy hill, having cycled most of the way, via the Warwick Road.

Once we were all there, it was only a few minutes before a golden sun started to slowly appear above the horizon and we all just stood and watched in awe.

A special moment was when a Red Kite flew overhead and across in front of the sunrise. If only I hadn’t just put my phone away!

After a few more photos, those who had come to see the sunrise but not run, started to make their way home, while the rest of us went on to cover six miles of glorious Warwickshire countryside, spotting a few surprised-looking deer along the way.

We were all back home by 6.30am, ready for a well-earned breakfast.