We start off this week with Mark Barker’s superlative report on his GB Ultra’s Beacon’s Way 100k race. Even if you’re not particularly interested in Ultras, I implore you to read it.
Mind boggling doesn’t get close.
I’m waiting for the film of it to be made. I see Timothée Chalamet in Mark’s role, although I doubt he has Mark’s stamina.
His next challenge is, apparently, 3 marathons in 3 days.
In his report Mark makes the statement “At that point I remember thinking these ultra runners are completely nuts”
Hmmm….no comment.
There is then a lovely report from Rowena Hogg, her first of many I hope, on the 40thy Anniversary of the Hooky 6, with 8 of our senior members competing.
Three of our Vets were selected to represent Midland Masters in the English Masters Inter Area Challenge at Yate last weekend. Paula Williams, Andy List and Paul Hawkins helped the Midlands to victories in the men’s, ladies and combined categories.
One of our younger athletes, 9 year old Thomas (TJ) Atkins, competed in the UK Triathlon Race Series event in Birmingham, where his recent training was successfully put to the test. He was joined by his 5 year old sister Roxana, who’s too young to be a club member yet.
I know it’s only early August but that’s not too far from the XC season, and so this week we have the Senior’s XC fixtures dates, alongside the news that long term XC runner and team captain Malcolm Bowyer has decided to hang up his spikes. You will be greatly missed Malcolm. His replacement is Ned Campbell, ably assisted by his father Nick.
Finally, there have been a few Open meetings happening over the last few days, with several club members performing admirably.
Job done.
Mark Barker
Not sure how he can still manage a smile after what he had just been through!
The GB Ultra’s Beacons Way 100k.
Report – Mark Barker
Last weekend I took on this event, a self-navigated, point-to-point mountain ultra crossing the full length of the Brecon Beacons (Bannau Brycheiniog).
The route packs over 4,000 metres of climbing into 100km, taking runners across some of South Wales most iconic and unforgiving terrain, including Pen y Fan, the Carmarthen Fans, vast expanses of exposed moorland and some very remote mountain wilderness.
This was my longest race, biggest elevation challenge, first through the night ultra and, perhaps most ominously, Ultra No. 13!
What could possibly go wrong?
Well, I did begin to wonder a few days beforehand when the organisers emailed competitors offering a deferral due to wildfires in parts of the Beacons. Fortunately, the fires were safely away from the route. As it turned out, the mountains had plenty of other ways to keep things interesting.
The race started at midday under warm blue skies and the route wasted no time reminding us what we’d signed up for.
Pen y Fan, the highest peak in South Wales, arrived only 12 miles into the race. Standing on the summit, already feeling the effects of the climbing and realising I still had another 50 miles to go, the confidence gained from completing 12 previous ultras started to feel a little misplaced.
Still, the plan was working. Keep checkpoint stops short, eat constantly, don’t start too fast and cover as much ground as possible before darkness arrived.
With around 170 runners spread across the course, there were long periods of solitude. At times it felt like it was just me out there with 10,000 sheep!
I reached Checkpoint 4 feeling strong, enjoying the spectacular scenery and pleased with how the day was unfolding. However, I knew the toughest section was still to come, the wild and remote Carmarthen Fans, which are a group of peaks along the ridge of what is known as the Black Mountain.
The climb up to the first peak seemed endless. As daylight faded, the Beacons came alive. The temperature dropped, strong winds battered the ridges, cloud swallowed the mountains and visibility became increasingly difficult. Even my expensive headtorch was struggling, its beam simply bouncing straight back off the fog.
The route followed exposed ridges, I recalled from the recce the sizeable drop on one side. My highly technical navigation strategy at this point was simple, Stay left.
Eventually, I dropped below the cloud and reached the Youth Hostel checkpoint around midnight. I’d lost more time than planned, but none of that mattered when I was handed a hot plate of pasta and a cup of tea. At that moment it felt genuinely Michelin star-worthy.
As runners swapped stories about the conditions on the mountain, we were informed that the section we’d just crossed had since been diverted onto a lower-level route. Typical!
After a brief stop, I headed back out into the darkness. The next climb led straight back, into the fog, wind and now persistent drizzle. The terrain became a miserable combination of boulders, bog and gorse. Finding the path in daylight would have been challenging, in those conditions in the darkness, it felt impossible.
Then things started to unravel.
The GPX track on my watch appeared to be slightly off, and before long I had lost the route. Every attempt to relocate it seemed to take me further away. Time disappeared. I retraced my steps repeatedly but just couldn’t find a way through. Slowly, I became more disoriented and increasingly concerned about the cut-offs. After coming this far, the thought of timing out of the race was hard to accept. I kept telling myself not to panic. Surely another runner would appear soon, unless I was thatfar off route.
Thankfully, through the fog I spotted another headtorch.
It belonged to Anna, who I’d met earlier in the race. Thankfully, her navigation skills were considerably better than mine. Together we fought our way across the plateau, scrambling over boulders, battling through gorse and repeatedly correcting our mistakes before eventually stumbling into the final checkpoint at 3:30am, just an hour ahead of the cut-off.
The weather was still throwing everything at us.
There was another 90 minutes until daylight and we still had a challenging descent from the high ground ahead.
At the checkpoint we met Darren, a seasoned ultra-runner nursing a swollen knee after an unfortunate encounter with one of the many boulders scattered across the moorland. Despite the injury, he was determined to continue. At that point I remember thinking these ultra runners are completely nuts. Then again, I was standing in the middle the Brecon Beacons, in a storm at 3:30am preparing to run another 17 miles, so perhaps I wasn’t best placed to judge.
After the night we’d endured, the three of us decided to stick together and support each other all the way to the finish. Sunrise struggled to break through the thick cloud, but finally switching off our headtorches felt like a major victory. Gradually, the mountains gave way to rolling farmland and trail paths which, after the night’s adventures, felt positively civilised.
The final miles were slow. There was plenty of walking, plenty of tired legs and aching feet but also plenty of laughter.
Somewhere during the night, the race stopped being about times and positions and became about getting each other home.
Eventually, the village of Llangadog appeared ahead. After 100km, over 4,000 metres of climbing, countless battles with the weather and a fair amount of unplanned navigation disasters, the three of us crossed the finish line together in 22 hours and 13 minutes.
It wasn’t my fastest ultra and it certainly wasn’t my smoothest, it was however, for so many reasons ,undoubtedly the most memorable and rewarding adventure I’ve experienced in an Ultra event.
As every ultra runner knows, if you come away having learned a few lessons, got slightly lost and sworn never to do it again, that’s usually the sign of a good one.
The Stratford 8 at the Hooky 6
Ade Mason, John Butler, Keith Jewett, Lisa Stevens, Sandie Owens, Rowena Hogg, Kate Sergent, Sarah Odell.
Hooky 6
Report – Rowena Hogg
It was a select group of SuAAC runners who ran the Hooky 6 on Sunday 2nd August.
This was a special one, being the 40th Anniversary of The Hooky 6. It did not disappoint.
It was a very well organised event, with a friendly, community feel. Before the event started we had a few words from a founder member of the Hook Norton Harriers, acknowledging this momentous anniversary and the work of all involved over the years. There was even a runner present who had attended the first event in 1986!
The marshalls were very encouraging at every stage, including our own Donna Allen whose shout out of ‘Well done Stratford’ kept me going half way round.
Having two water stations at mile 1 and 4 was welcome, as it was a hot day. The course was an undulating two-laps, running through the village and on to the neighbouring country roads.
The hills seemed to appear quite regularly. I took these steadily, aware of the hot conditions. The final mile was hard going, in the full sun, but I was happy I still had it in me to sprint towards the finish line.
It was such a highlight to see the magnificent brewery shire horses out for a canter, crossing the road some way in front of me. I don’t believe there are many places where I would see this at a running event – and what a reminder of Hook Norton’s rich history.
Being the Hooky 6, and its association with the brewery, there were a number of beer prizes for different age categories. We were not lucky enough to win any of these but we were all pleased with the limited edition 40th Anniversary medal and T-Shirt, this year it was a tasteful black fabric sporting gold lettering.
It was a pleasure and a privilege to be able to enjoy the event with like-minded people.
Thank you SuAAC.
Hopefully see you at the Hooky Christmas Canter!
The Dynamic Duo
Paula Williams and Paul Hawkins
Paula with Andy List and Kathryn Woodcock.
I really tried to find a photo without Paula in. Not possible.
The final scores for both men’s and women’s team showing themvictorious by 24 and 29 points respectively
The combined scores with Midland Masters’ top of the pile
England Masters Inter-Area Track & Field Challenge.
Report – Paula Williams
Sunday 2nd August saw 3 Stratford upon Avon AC athletes travel to Yate, having been selected to represent The Midlands at the England Masters Inter-Area Track & Field Challenge.
8 clubs took part in the competition for the 3 trophies:
Women’s Trophy
Men’s Trophy and
Overall Winner’s Trophy.
Eastern Masters, Northern Masters, Midlands Masters, Scottish Masters, South West Veterans, Southern Counties Veterans, Veterans AC and Welsh Masters all had teams consisting of athletes across the age groups 35 to 75 yrs old and beyond.
Andy List, Paul Hawkins and myself were all ready to compete. I am co-team captain for the ladies team. We won the indoor competition and outdoor challenge last year – so we were aiming for all three trophies.
We were joined by Kathryn Woodcock who spent a sweltering day field officiating and Daphne Hawkins who was supporting and helping with numbers.
Paul and Andy collected some great points in the men’s 3k walk and men’s 100m hurdles before Andy picked up an injury…but then helped with officiating.
I scored handy points in the women’s shot, javelin and discus.
As the day progressed, the top three teams became clear and every point counted.
The last hour consisted of MMAC and SCVAC leapfrogging each other with each set of results submitted.
Finally with two events’ results to go there was a clear winner … Midlands Masters Athletic Club (MMAC).
We won the women’s, men’s and overall winners trophies!
We are proud of our MMAC team – they gave everything and, most importantly, still had a fun-filled day.
Team management isn’t easy but having flexible, talented athletes, great officials and supporters makes it fun and rewarding.
It’s always a privilege to represent at regional level and spending the day with like-minded individuals makes winning just a little sweeter.
#wearethechampions
Thomas (TJ) Atkins
UK Triathlon Race Series
King Edward school in Edgbaston.
Report – Jimmy Atkins
On Saturday the 1st of August my son TJ competed in the inaugural Birmingham leg of the UK Triathlon race series at King Edward school in Edgbaston.
There was a field of over 400 junior competitors. TJ (9 yrs) competed in the Steel category (50m swim, 2k off road bike, 1k off road run) completing it in 00:15:10.
His sister Roxana (5 yrs) competed in the Tin category (15m swim, 1k off road bike, 500m off road run) and came home in 00:15:20.
I would highly recommend the UK Triathlon race series for juniors.
I would also like to thank the coaching at SuAAC staff and let them know all that all their hard work is being put to good use.
It won’t be long !
Ned Campbell, our new senior men’s XC team manager, enjoying (!!) the mud of last season.
Seniors Cross Country
Dates for next season
As we have been enjoying the recent cross country weather, naturally I thought about the upcoming cross country season.
Not all the fixtures have been confirmed yet but the dates for your diary are
Senior Leagues are all on Saturdays and are
14 November 2026
5 December 2026
16 January 2027
13 February 2027
The venues should be confirmed soon. Note Senior leagues include all age groups from under 20 upwards.
Younger age groups are in the junior league (West Midland Young Athletes League)
After doing so well last season, the Warwickshire Championships are provisionally on 12 December 2026 but details to follow. It would obviously be great if we could repeat our success.
We will also have the Midland and National championships available for you in January and March, more to follow.
All the fixtures will be on Spond shortly
Men’s Team Manager
After many years of racing in the cross country league and team managing I’m sorry to say that Malcolm Bowyer is hanging up his spikes and clipboard.
Many thanks Malcolm for everything you’ve done.
However, I’m pleased to say that the new team manager is Ned Campbell assisted by Dad, Nick. I’m sure you will all support the new regime.
There’s no change to the women’s or junior team leadership.
Thanks, Paul Hawkins
Before and after.
Group photos from Wednesday’s Shakespeare Race.
Photos courtesy of Hannah Osborne
Shakespeare Race
The Kineton Classic
Wednesday night was the Kineton Classic Shakespeare Race, a race that had twice been cancelled, due to the extreme heat in July.
The overall winner was James Lake in a time of 36:35. If I’m not mistaken this was James’ first victory in a Shakespeare Race. He was followed by Paul Faithfull (38:41). Paul having only recently returned from competing in the European Triathlon Multi Sports Championships in Spain.
3rd finisher and first lady finisher was Kate Wright in 39:09. The 2nd placed lady and 4th placed finisher was Sarie Weaving (39:37).
The other top 5 male finishers were Seth Turner (5th – 40:08) , Ade Mason (6th – 41:21) and David Smythe (7th – 41:57).
The remaining top 5 lady finishers were Santa Pavlika (10th – 43:28), Helen Platts (17th – 46:41) and Emma Vickers (19th – 47:41).
44 runners completed the race.
For the full results please follow the link below:
As the outdoor T&F season starts to draw to a close, there are still quite a few open events happening.
On Tuesday, at Leamington, our U16 Latisha Akintomede threw 3.80 metres in the shot put and ran her 100m in 16.84, both just outside her PBs of 3.92 and 16:46 respectively.
Matt Burdus-Cook, having just entered a new age category, added to the couple of club records he broke in Brierley Hill last Wednesday by running 17:47.72 in his 5000m race.
On the same night, in Corby, U16 Carter McKenzie ran his 800m in 2:05.89 as he edges towards a sub 2:00 time and In the British Milers Club (BMC) 1500m race in Loughborough on Wednesday, U23 Tom Cox knocked over 5 seconds off his PB to go sub 4 minuted for the first time. His time was 3:57.83. In the same race, another of our U23s, Alex Pester, was less than a second off his PB, recording a time of 4:06.13
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