Southville RC Newsletter December 2024
Hi Everyone,
The autumn race season may have wound down, but there's still loads going on at SRC as we look forward to Christmas!
Christmas Party tickets on sale - and Volunteer Awards nominations are open
Get your tickets for the SRC Christmas Party now! 🎟️🪩🕺🏽
🎵 DJ Rich Pearce will be back
🥪 Food provided by Sandwich Sandwich
👗 Dressing up encouraged!
The party will kick off at the Cock & Trail on Commercial Road at 7.30pm on Saturday 21st December.
Tickets are available via Headfirst.
At the Christmas Party we'll be holding our annual Volunteer Awards, where we recognise the people who keep SRC going. As the Nightingale Nightmare is taking a break this year, this is an especially good year to recognise the less visible volunteers.
To nominate someone for an award, email us. The final winners will be chosen by SRC's Directors (Andrew Ventham, Bindal Shah, Chris Hopes and Sam Blanning) who are ineligible for nomination. You can nominate any of our other volunteers for any efforts on SRC's behalf. Nominations close at 11.59pm on Friday 6th December so make sure your favourite SRC volunteer gets the recognition they deserve.
In other social news, stick around after running on Tuesday 10th December as Happy Shot will be giving out free samples of nutritious health drinks.
Annual General Meeting
The next month will be time for our Annual General Meeting, which will be on 14th January(the second Tuesday night of 2025) after running in the back bar of the Southbank.
Items for the agenda should be submitted to the Secretary.
The first item on the agenda will be the election of the club's Directors. SRC is a limited company and while we are a volunteer democracy, our Directors are elected to take legal responsibility for the club's ultimate decision-making. The current Directors are Andy Ventham (Treasurer), Bindal Shah (Membership Officer), Chris Hopes (Chair) and Sam Blanning (Club Secretary).
Andy is stepping down this year after a phenomenal record of service to the club, as is Chris who continued his long history of volunteering for SRC by steering the club through 2024. At time of writing, Dave Unsworth has been nominated by Andy to stand for the vacant post of Treasurer, and the current Deputy Chairs, Kayleigh Doherty and Liam Coleman, have been nominated by Bindal and Drew McLellan to jointly fill the vacant Chair. Sam and Bindal will stand for re-election in their current roles.
All SRC members are also welcome to stand for any of the above posts. Details of each Director role can be found in the Constitution. Anyone wishing to stand for Director should be nominated by another SRC member; both nominator and candidate should email Sam. Nominations will close on 31 December.
The final details of the election and the agenda will be circulated in the weeks leading up to the AGM.
Vacancy for Quartermaster and Kit Wrangler
We are also in need of someone to organise the club's kit orders (shirts and vests), and maintain our club storage and equipment (gazebos, flag, Nightingale Nightmare decorations) and replacement thereof, as Sam Lewis is stepping down. A huge thanks to Sam for everything he has done for us over the years.
The kit orders and the storage could easily be done by separate people; if you are interested in either role, please let us know. (This role is appointed by the Committee and does not require an election.)
London Marathon club ballot - 12th November
Congratulations to Carrie Eichstedt and Dave Thorpe who won the club's spots in the 2025 London Marathon!
10 names went into the hat and Carrie and Dave were the 2 lucky winners. This shows your odds of winning a place are considerably better in the SRC ballot than in the general ballot (less than 5%). It's a great motivation to volunteer for SRC, as all entries to the SRC ballot must have volunteered for the club in the previous 12 months. Volunteering can include group leading, organising a social or helping with an SRC parkrun takeover.
James Green and Olly Reader are first and second reserve.
Race roundup
Despite the cold November rain, it was still a month full of success for SRC runners. At the Sodbury Slog Penny Guess won 1st lady, Simon Cardnell hopped over the line to claim 1st vet 40, and the rest of Southville's men claimed the 2nd team prize.
Jane Faram also claimed first lady at the Gower Marathon, Dave Braithwaite was 2nd in his age category at the Mo Run 5k, and Sophie Patten was 2nd lady in the Dock to Dock Ultra from Gloucester to Sharpness.
A big congratulations to everyone who made it through Storm Bert to run at Brent Knowle Trail Race and the truncated Stourbridge Lock 10k. We also had a strong Green Army presence at the Bath Skyline.
The third week of December is a busy one for racing in Weston, with the fancy-dress-tastic Christmas Cracker on Sunday 15th (still open at time of writing) followed by the next Weston Prom on Thursday 19th. Head to our members-only WhatsApp community if you're looking for a lift or willing to offer one.
Don't forget to tag our Instagram or Tiktok when you've been racing, so we can celebrate everyone's achievements.
And let us know what you have planned for 2025 so we can add it to our diaries!
Parkrun
Parkrun is a free weekly timed 5k run that takes place every Saturday all over the country and all over the world. There are also 2k Junior Parkruns for those 14 and under.
Most of Bristol's many parkruns will see an SRC presence most weeks, but on the first Saturday of each month we make an extra special effort to get a big SRC turnout to support each other at our nearest parkrun, Ashton Court, and share a coffee in the café afterwards. This month that's Saturday December 7th.
Once a month we head to a parkrun further afield, so on December 14th we're off to Tetbury Goods Shed parkrun. (This parkrun was previously scheduled for September's tourism before its cancellation.) Tetbury is a two lap course with a mixture of grass and tarmac with some incline, and is suitable for dogs and buggies.
After the success of last year's January trip to Zuiderpark, some of us will be making an extra special tourism trip to Berlin for Hasenheide parkrun on January 18th.
An extra big thank you to Sophie Patten for organising last month's trip to the birthplace of parkrun at Bushy Park, London.
Christmas break
The Southbank will close over the Christmas break and our last running nights of 2025 will be Tuesday 17 and Thursday 19. Tinsel and fancy dress is encouraged!
There are likely to be unofficial runs organised via Facebook and WhatsApp, but the Southbank facilities will be closed during this time. Ashton Court parkrun will also be holding special parkruns on Christmas Day and New Year's Day.
The first running night of 2025 will be Tuesday 7th January. This night is likely to be extremely busy, so we encourage our experienced members to take a group if they can.
These dates have not yet been confirmed by the Southbank, but we will let everyone know via this mailing list / WhatsApp / announcements if we hear something different.
Dates for your Diary
🧡Sat December 7 - SRC @ Ashton Court parkrun
🧡Sat December 14 - Tetbury parkrun tourism
🏁Sun December 15 - Weston Christmas Cracker
💚Tue December 17 - Last Tuesday run night
💚Thu December 19 - Last Thursday run night
🏁Thu December 19 - Weston Prom Run
🥳Sat December 21 - SRC Christmas Party
💚Tue January 7 - First SRC run night of 2025
🏁Thu January 9 - Weston Prom Run
🙋Tue January 14 - Annual General Meeting
🧡✈️Sat January 18 - Hasenheide Parkrun
🏁Thu February 20 - Weston Prom Run
🏁Sun February 23 - Ironwood Challenge
🏁Thu March 20 - Weston Prom Run
🏁Sun March 23 - 20/20 Fission
🏁Thu April 17 - Weston Prom Run
🏁Sun May 11 - Great Bristol Half / 10k
🏁Thu May 22 - Weston Prom Run
🚌Sat July 5 - Cotswold Way Relay
All the best,
Southville Running Club
info@southvillerunningclub.co.uk
