On Sunday I took part in the Riverbank Rollick, a 9.6 mile trail race, organised by Thornbury Running Club. This was the first race in the Thornbury RC Race Series and is run on trails, bridle paths, across fields, in woodland, through a stream and along a riverbank. Kinisi Run Hub were proud to be supporting the event along with Merrell!

The race HQ is at the sports hall of the Castle School in Thornbury which is where number collection was. We also had a pop-up shop and joined forces with Merrell to deliver a demo event for the Agility Peak 5 which runners were allowed to race in to test out the shoe! This was really well received and around 20 people raced in the shoes and enjoyed them. I also raced in the shoes and think they are great!

The start was a 10 minute walk from the school so we were all escorted to the start line for the mass start. The start was on a relatively narrow trail but everyone got away and we were pretty much straight into muddy fields. We ran west towards the edge of Oldbury-on-Severn and then along the banks on the River Severn which had some great views of the bridge. Then it was back east towards Littleton-upon-Severn with the finish back at the Castle School. On the way back we had to run through a small stream which was a bit cold but cleaned our shoes after all the mud!

The course was well marked and there were plenty of volunteer marshals on the course to guarantee no one got lost. Everyone received a wooden medal which is actually a multi-layer medal that can be linked with the remaining two races in the 2025 Thornbury RC Race Series to create a larger medal.

I managed to take the win in 1:00:20 with Stephen Kenyon (Severn AC) second in 1:03:39 and Alex Sewell (Unattached) third in 1:04:11. Annabel Granger (Bristol & West AC) won the women’s race in 1:11:13 followed home by Caroline McAleese (Vegan Runners) second in 1:12:07 and Catherine Treble (Westbury Harriers) third in 1:13:39. In total there were 393 finishers. Full results of the Riverbank Rollick here.

Well done to everyone who raced and thank you Thornbury Running Club for hosting a great event!