ERC's Annual Awards

We’re already 8.3% of the way through 2026 (how?), so a belated Happy New Year to you all

from Easingwold Running Club.

Let’s look back at 2025. What a year it was! On Thursday 22nd of January, ERC held its annual awards night. A keen run before (what else?), back at base (The Galtres Centre) for a quick change or freshen up, grab some food and drink and settle in to celebrate our friends’

achievements.

Throughout the year, ERC holds what is known as the Club Championship. This includes a

selection of races that can be entered and officially recorded, providing healthy competition

throughout the club.

Sounds tough? Well yes, it is. You’ve got to show guts, determination and commitment! The best thing about it, however, is that all results are age-graded, meaning that, the older we get, the more generous adjustments will be, so a 65-year-old for example, can realistically compete against a 25-year-old.

A minimum of 8 events must be completed in order to compete for the prizes on offer, with some races being official events held throughout our region, in-house events put on by the club and to mix it up a bit, people can submit their best Parkrun and marathon times over a set period.

During the year, 28 members managed to rack up 8 or more events. The winners for 2025 were drumroll… Megan Remmer and Neil King!

Snapping at their heels were Nicola Convy, Pippa Hutton, Brendan Anglim and Julian Olive.

Looking ahead, the 2026 Club Championship officially starts on Feb 22nd in Myton. This is an in-club, off-road event and finishes at the back end of the year at our very own Sutton-on-Forest cross-country.

To give you a taste of other events that will be included throughout 2026, we

have the Thirsk 10 mile, Haxby 10k (a new event), the Ilkley half-marathon, our very own

Easingwold Community 10k and the Sutton Bank Sizzler, an 8-mile slog put on by Hardmoors. Many other events are also included.

Each year, an award is presented for the Improver of the Year. There was ever really going to

one winner. Cath Skinner took the accolades and they were incredibly deserving. I’m not going to say much more here. In the next article from the club, we’ll hear from Cath. I, for one, can’t wait to read about her journey.

30 members are at least LIRF (Leadership in Running Fitness) qualified, most having been put through the qualification by ERC. As for Head Coach, taking over the role from Nige Ramsden in recent years, Andy Throup has made some radical changes to the way in which run leading is managed. We’ve arrived in 2026 with a fully operational, super-slick app-based system which makes life for all so simple.

For coaching and leading, it’s an amazing collective of folks who have made themselves available to the club, with the main driving factor being that of leading groups of runners both in Easingwold and away on club nights throughout the year, devising routes, delivering varied sessions and looking after everyone’s health, safety and wellbeing.

The winner of the 2025 award went to yours truly, a very unexpected surprise!

However, that’s not the point here. A huge amount of effort and commitment is put in by a large collective of people to make this happen, week in, week out. As ERC has developed and grown, the whole club has pulled together, with so many people taking on jobs small and large to make it happen.

With Colin Fletcher at the helm and a dedicated team within all doing their bit, these are really good days for the club!

Rich Freeman, Publicity Secretary