Click here to sign up to the beginners' course.

The Westbury 5k road series and the 5x5 off-road series are now open for entries.

https://race-nation.co.uk/register/avon-valley-runners-1/avr-westbury-5k-may-2022

The 5x5 will take place on Thursdays: 7^th April, 5th May, 2nd June, 7th July. Information and entries available here.

Westbury takes place on Tuesdays: 10^th May, 14^th June, 12^th July. Entries available here.

https://www.entrycentral.com/AVRRelay2022

Following our Wiltshire Half Marathon event in November 2021, club Chairman, Richard Newman and Assistant Secretary, Sally Frawley visited the Semington base of the Wiltshire Air Ambulance to present the lifesaving charity with a sizeable donation. We raise money for the charity every year and recognise the importance of the ambulance for the residents of Wiltshire and beyond.

They met with Hollie Perryman, the charity's Community and Volunteer Co-ordinator who says, "We need to raise £4 million a year to keep the air ambulance flying and saving lives. We receive no regular direct Government funding or National Lottery grants, so rely solely on generous donations from the public. Events such as Avon Valley Runners Half Marathon help to generate vital funds for our lifesaving work and we are very grateful for their support, with the most recent donation of £2000.”

Richard and Sally were shown around the inside of the helicopter by Paul Rock, Critical Care Paramedic, on their visit and were shown why the service is so important to Wiltshire. The helicopter, which on average flies 3 times daily and needs around £11,000 each day, visits local areas but can travel up to Oxford in around 12 minutes but has also been called as far south as Southampton and Dorset too.

Entries for the 2022 AVR Wiltshire Half Marathon opened this weekend and will once again be raising money for the Wiltshire Air Ambulance through the proceeds. Sign up for the event on the 27^th November here.

The AVR Awards took place on 5th February to celebrate our achievements from 2021.

Congratulations to all of our award winners:

AVR Race Series

Ladies

3rd lady Paula Farrell

2nd lady Jo Farion

1st Dian Hier

Men

3rd Male Peter Campbell

2nd Male Stuart Arguile

1st  Male Tim Burrell

 Subjective award winners

Adewale Kadiri - Most Improved Male

Laura Beardsley - Most Improved Female

Ed Knudsen - Outstanding senior Male

Bethan Francis - Outstanding Senior Female

Rich Harding - Outstanding MV40

Jo Farion - Outstanding FV40

Tim Burrell - Outstanding MV50

Jackie Rockliffe - Outstanding FV50

Phil Harding - Outstanding MV60

Pauline Bradley - Outstanding FV60

Stuart Arguile - Outstanding MV70

Rosemary Barber - Outstanding FV70

Anthony Hickson - Outstanding MV80

Terri Duddy - Tony Bartlett Perseverance award

Vicky Bodman - The Bomb

Carrie Almeida - Volunteer of the year

Samantha Parry - Club Beginner of the year

Chris Redshaw - Most Promising Athlete of the year

Club Champs

MV40 - Rich Harding

MV50 Tim Burrell

MV60 Andrew Jefferies

Senior lady Emily Dye

FV40 Annalie Ibison

FV50 Jackie Rockliffe

FV60 Pauline Bradley

FV70 Rosemary Barber

AVT Inspire and Motivate award - Chris Walford

Stan Farr Boxing Day run - First Male Mike Towler - First Lady Jackie Rockliffe

Goofy - Kat Taylor Laird

Race Face - Martin Russam

David Griffiths "Members Member" - Sean Price

Club co-founder Judy Farr recently celebrated her 80^th birthday.

Encouraged by her brother, John, into race walking and joining Trowbridge Athletic Club as a young teenager, Judy soon excelled at racing in various distances on track and road. In 1960, at the age of 18, Judy won the 1.5 mile national title on the track at White City in 12m 31s. She went on to win a total of 10 national championships, 9 of them consecutively. She is especially proud of her 1 mile world record set at Chiswick in 1965 in a time of 7m36.2s, and of representing England and Great Britain in many international events.

Judy had always run cross country as part of her training and then also in time, turned more of her focus to road running. She took part in the first ever Women’s National Marathon Championship on the Isle of Wight in 1978 finishing in 4^th place in 3:27.57. She was then picked for England, much to her surprise, for the Milton Keynes International Marathon finishing 5^th in 3:23.39 in the same year.

Judy met her late husband, Stan, at Trowbridge AC where he encouraged and supported her. As road and distance running was becoming more popular in the late 1970s and 1980s there was felt to be an increasing need for a club specialising in that area. Ten members of the club decided on a break-away and on January 1^st, 1986, Avon Valley Runners was officially born, first of all running regularly from Stan and Judy’s house and then from the Judo Club on Innox Rd (there is an in-depth piece about these early days on the website written by the late Tim Northwood).

The rest is history! Stan and Judy drove the club in its early days and saw its rapid growth. They travelled far and wide competing and encouraging others. Judy still holds the AVR V40 record for 5 miles, 30m 47s set in 1988, and still holds the ladies record for most wins in the annual Boxing Day Run (now the Stan Farr 5K) with 17 wins!

Judy is hugely proud to have played a part in founding Avon Valley Runners and happy that such a large number of people love and enjoy running as much as she has.

Congratulations to all of the runners who graduated at Southwick Country Park parkrun on Saturday 3rd December.

Group leaders Sean Price and Gretchen Tucker attended along with the club's Chairman Richard Newman and Club President Denise Ellis.

These athletes completed the full 12 weeks which started in September:

Drew Holloway

Emma Larkham

Catherine Russell

Danielle Russell

Rachel Saunderson

Sharon Alexander

Nicki Hilliard

Karen Newman

Emma Day

Ceri Sonnet

Sandra Bayford

Tracy Patterson

Laura Clifford

Kathryn Quadling

Caroline Reid-Watts

Samantha Parry

This year, AVR had 3 nominations for awards: 

Innovation in Athletics and Runner - Sean Price

Run Together Group of the Year - David Hyde and the Chickens

Unsung Hero of the Year - Vicky Bodman

Congratulations to Vicky and Sean for being runners up in their categories and especially well done to David Hyde and the Chickens for winning theirs!

RunTogether Group of the Year: Avon Valley Runners

This group was formed at the height of the pandemic, with the aim being to give a small group of runners an opportunity to get out, start running again within the scope of the restrictions, and enjoy the company of other runners, previously forbidden by the restrictions. Word quickly spread and several small groups were formed to cope with demand, enabling people to support and encourage each other, and, thanks to the efforts of their leaders, enable some to take on their first 5k.

The friendly, relaxed atmosphere has made the group very popular, and members keep in touch through a messenger group known as Chicken Chat. Why Chicken? Because the local fried chicken franchise provided free parking, and the name stuck!

The full list of winners is on the EA Website.

The AVR Wiltshire half marathon took place on Sunday 28th November.

"Special thanks to Louise Fearon who did a brilliant job as Race Director and all the volunteers from the club and elsewhere, Sean Price as our resident MC, our sponsors, Ian Tuckett for providing medical cover, those who took some great photos, and James Hart from DB Max. Congratulations to everyone that ran. There were some exceptional performances." - Richard Newman, Club Chairman (pictured below handing out awards) 

267 runners completed the course with the top spots being won by Tom Gurney of AVR in 1:12:08 and Hannah Alderson of Bristol and West AC in 1:18:55 (pictured below).

An amazing story to come from this year's race is that of 72 year old runner, Jenny Mills (below, 206).

Thank you to everyone who bought cake at the finish line. There was a lot raised for our chosen charity, The Wiltshire Air Ambulance but we're still counting the amount so an announcement will be made shortly.

An in-person Over the Hills took part on Sunday 7th November while also raising money for Alzheimer's Support.

The hilly route takes in views of Bradford on Avon, Freshford, Westwood and has the infamous river crossing at Iford which is always the highlight of everyone's run. Photos of the run can be found here courtesy of Martin Pearce.

This year, the race was won with a clean sweep from Team Bath AC: Aidan Daniel in 46:45 and Olympian Heather Fell in 54:16. All other results are available here.

We'd like to say a huge thank you to Jay and the working group for putting on a fantastic event, DB Max for providing the chip timing, the volunteers from Alzheimer's Support for bringing the cake and to all of our wonderful marshals for spending their morning helping with the smooth running of the event.