Witney Road Runners

Witney Roadrunners turns 40 💙🤍💛

5th December 1985....20 people keen on getting involved in the relatively new mass participation sport of running, gathered in the Old Court Inn in response to the idea hatched by Martin Crabb and Jan Johanson.

Within a year the club had over a hundred members. Over the 40 years since then the club has grown and grown and provided a gateway for novice runners to enter the wonderful world of running.

The club now has 350 senior members and 120 junior members.

Today was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the club’s history by sharing stories and going through the archives.

Happy 40th Birthday Witney Roadrunners 🎂

As the nights draw in all too many people are aware of what the darkness brings.

What route should I take? Should I go on a run? 🤔

This year we are joining in the campaign, calling on wider society to acknowledge its role in making getting active outdoors safer for women.

So join us on Thursday 30th October for a social run, this is open to anyone, walkers to runners, and you don’t have to be a member of the club.

Meet on the Leys, OX28 4BA at 6:50pm ready to run at 7pm

We also hear there will be glow sticks so who doesn’t love that?

Any questions please drop us a message ☺️

Last night saw the final of the 3rd Witney Roadrunners Time Trial.

Congratulations to this year’s winner Chloe Yelland with a PB of just over 2 minutes on the course.

We had 52 runners qualify this year for the final and there were 21 PBs on the night. Trophy presented by last year’s winner Lee V.

Top 3:
🥇Chloe Y
🥈Jade B
🥉Sara W

On the night, Holly PR was fastest lady, Paul T fastest man.

For the 2025 season, Isabel S was fastest lady, Matt L fastest man.

Congratulations to everyone who ran over the series. Same time next April.

Tonight saw the return of annual Club Handicap.

This is our annual competition where you are not permitted to wear a watch. The route and distance is only revealed on the night. So this relies heavily on knowing your pace.

The winner is the runner who is the closest to their predicted time. One second over and you’re out. The runner who is furthest from their predicted time but still under their predicted time, receives the coveted Wooden Spoon.

Congratulations to this years recipients:
🏆 Winner: Tracey M
🥄 Wooden Spoon: Chloe Y

Well done to all 45 runners who took part 👏🏻

🤍💙💛Happy Global Running Day 💙💛🤍

Last Thursday was the 2nd Mota-vation race over in Oxford followed on Monday evening with the 3rd race in the Sri Chinmoy series.

These two races take the club league entries to 174. Congratulations to all those who ran both or either races.

It is great to see so many runners out representing the club at local races and further afield. Racing in a variety of distances - 5K to Marathon.

🤔 Have you thought about joining a running club but not quite sure how it all works? Have you enjoyed running at parkrun or on your own, and want to improve, enjoy summer months running with others or find some motivation to go out over the winter and meet new people.
Here's some information to answer some popular questions. Feel free to get in touch to find out more.

👍🏼 We are accepting new members. We can offer three week trial period to see how you find the club, but of course you can make that decision sooner. We can give you access to our Spond group, which is an app that allows us to manage the sessions, share information about the location and we can look out for new runners and make sure they’re looked after. Please do approach us if you have any questions or want to know more - we’re happy to help. We’re also a very social club and there are various social events throughout the year.

📆 Witney Road Runners run two sessions a week for runners of all abilities.

🕖 Tuesdays Option 1 - Speed Work in various locations in and around Witney. Meet at the relevant Witney location ready to start for 7pm. Details of each weekly session is shared via Spond a couple of days before for you to sign up to.

🕖 Tuesdays Option 2- Loopback 5km Route in various locations in and around Witney. Ideal for new runners, runners coming back from injury or if you don’t fancy a hard effort at the Speed Session. Meet at the relevant Witney location ready to start for 7pm. The route of each weekly session is shared via Spond a couple of days before for you to sign up to.

🕖 Thursdays - Group Social Runs. We typically offer 3 different distances a week (short 3ish miles, medium 4-6miles, long 7+) across a range of paces. We just ask that you can run 3 miles without stopping as your base, so if you’ve done Couch to 5k, you’ll be fine. Again, routes are circulated via Spond and runners sign up to the group for the distance and pace they wish to run at. It’s good for new members as you’ll know the names of those you’ll be running with in advance, which makes it a bit easier that first time! We also go for a post run social drink.

🏃🏽‍♂️Runners are free to arrange weekend longer runs or joint runs together, and this is common amongst the club members. 🏃🏾‍♀️

📄To join: We will ask you to complete an Application Form (available on our website) and return this to Paul Rushby ([email protected]) who is our Membership Secretary.

💷The annual membership subscriptions are as follows for 2025/26: –

£25.00 Single

£48.00 Husband/Wife or Partners

£20.00 Student (in full-time education)

£3.00 Juniors

£70 3 x Family Members

£93 4 x Family Members

If you wish to compete in certain competitions (e.g cross country, some race series), you will also need to be a member of England Athletics and pay an additional £20 per annum per person. You get a £2 discount on entry to most races under EA rules.

Come along, enjoy running with others and see your running improve. 🏃🏃🏾‍♀️🏃🏾‍♂️🏃🏻‍♀️

It’s been a busy month at the club with a full calendar of racing, making for another competitive league this year.

During May, we were pleased to present the WRR Cross Country trophies.

Congratulations to all those winners in their individual age categories. Well done also to everyone who ran and thank you to those who helped marshal or volunteered at Cotswold Farm Park during the 2024/25 season.

It was the return of the Pairs Handicap on Tuesday night! The first club trophy of the year to be awarded to the winning pair.

30 pairs of runners battled it out to be the first team back. Each runner of the pair go in opposite directions and meet in the middle three times before racing back to the finish.

Well done to this years Winners: Michelle & Louis 🏆

🥇Michelle & Louis
🥈Jason & Matt
🥉Hannah & Luke

After a hard winter of training together, these Spring Marathon WRR chaps were out celebrating their achievements this evening.

Congratulations to you all:
⭐️ Louis - Brighton Marathon 2:51:37
⭐️ Tom - Newport Marathon 2:49:07
⭐️ Ollie - Boston Marathon 3:33:56
⭐️ Paul - London Marathon 2:44:30
⭐️ Stephen - Tokyo Marathon 2:57:32 (and achieved his Six Star Marathon Medal as well!)

Great running chaps and well deserved beers 🍻

A brilliant morning for the fourth round of the Oxon XC League at Cotswold Farm Park, hosted by the club.

Well done to all of the runners who ran today from the Juniors through to the Seniors - great running everyone.

Thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers who helped set up on Saturday and to those who marshalled today. In addition, grateful thanks to the team of
co-ordinators who were organising the logistics of the event to ensure it ran smoothly and safely.

Thursday 9th January:
Official Club Runs cancelled due to widespread patchy ice ❄️

Bumper crop of WRR, friends and family turned up for the annual Boxing Day run around the grounds of Blenheim palace 🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️🏃

What a lovely run and to see so many of the club out this morning despite the misty conditions! We look forward to more run’s next year in 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣5️⃣