Daring enthusiasm
And abiding cheerfulness
Can accomplish everything on earth
Without fail.
~ Sri Chinmoy
The Bristol Self-Transcendence Summer Race Series 2015 had the most runners ever competing in the two 2 mile and 5km races. We had exactly 59 runners for each race. Although they are not on a grand scale compared to other races in the region, we do like to think that Sri Chinmoy AC offer something different where we create a family and friendly atmosphere at our races to encourage you to self-transcend and get the joy from running.
The first two mile race was won by Bristol & West AC’s Mark Edwards in a time of 10:15, the women, Louise Cronin (Great Western Runners) in a time of 13:08. That was the only race Mark Edwards competed in which left Soren Adams (Bristol & West AC) to win the Men’s Series with a third and two first places accumulating a total of 19 points. Louise Cronin continued her dominance of this year’s series with two firsts and a second place amassing a total of 20 points, thus retaining her title from last year. Her nearest rivals were Alice Doggrell (Bristol & West AC) and Chloe Potter (Westbury Harriers) with a total 12 and 11 points respectively.
In the Men 50-59 age group, once again Gary Hughes (Team Bath) was dominant and retained his title from last year with two wins in the 2 mile races with times of 11:33 and 12:35 respectively.
In the Women 50-59 Tracy Allen (Bristol & West AC) with 19 points just edged out her fellow Bristol & West AC runner Rosey Mushens by 1 point. Each time in the races they competed in they finished in the top 7 women picking up the extra points.
And once again in the Men 60-69 age group Wilf Burke defied his age with a first and a second in the 2 mile races and a win in the 5km race with a time of 21:13 and 16th place overall in that race. However, Kevin Barton and Carron Downer (Bristol & West AC) made him work hard to retain his title.
Moya Church (Great Western Runners) reclaimed her Women 60-69 title back again after a year’s absence with three wins out of three.
The ever present at our races of Steve Parson (Great Western Runners) won the Men 70+ series with two firsts and a second. All over 70 men were from Great Western Runners with Malcolm Offer and Roger Haynes who won the first 2 mile with a time of 17:05. I hope I’m that fast when I’m over 70; well I think I’ll be happy just to be running at over 70!
At the other end of the scale the Junior Boys title was won by George David (yet to be attached to a club, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he will be with Bristol & West AC sometime soon) with 7 points after his 2 mile time of 11:38 and 4th overall in that race. That has to be the performance of the series. Megan Grimshaw edged out Rachel Potter to claim the Junior Girls title.
A big thank you has to go to Jan Burke and Paul Burgess for stepping in to marshal at the last moment, and tremendous gratitude to Alan Wilcox for galvanising and encouraging so many Bristol & West AC runners to enter our races. This definitely helped Bristol & West AC, both Men and Women win the Club Championship with total points of 86 and 101 respectively. It would be great to see more clubs enter to challenge the dominance of Bristol & West AC. However, it was good to see new runners from Frampton Cotterell Harriers compete in our races this year.
As always a big thank you for all those runners (especially from Great Western Runners) who continue each year to support our races, and all those runners who have been coming for such a long time – Richard Nuell (Portishead) mentioned that he has been running in our races since 1994. At this rate I’ll have to be handing out Self-Transcendence long service medals, lol. And finally a very special thank you to photographer Rich Kenington for capturing the wonderful smiley faces at the race for all to enjoy.
“Sri Chinmoy has shown me that if you just follow the Supreme in yourself and also challenge yourself, then there are really no limits". –Carl Lewis
(p. 93, in Sport & Meditation. The Inner Dimension of Sport; Selected writings of Sri Chinmoy compiled by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team Switzerland. The Golden Shore Verlagsges.mbH; Nurnberg: Germany).
