📰 December News📰 

Before we recap the last month of 2025, we still have the TRC Christmas party to acknowledge which technically took place on 30th November but was too late to be included in last month’s newsletter. This year our Christmas party took place at the Sporting Club in Thamesmead with a buffet provided. There was a great turn out from TRC members and their family to celebrate together. A special ‘thank you’ goes to Caroline, Sarah and other committee members for organising an afternoon to remember.

Moving into December, our Beginners successfully completed the 12-week course on 6th December with many celebrating their graduation by attending Thames Path parkrun on 15th December. Well done to everyone who completed the course, with a warm welcome to those who have signed up as full members of TRC!

On 14th December, Caroline led our second walking group, this time around Lesnes Ruins. Our walking groups will be continuing into 2026 on a monthly basis – please keep an eye on WhatsApp announcements for further information.

On 21st December, we held our annual Santa Dash 5K in aid of Greenwich & Bexley Hospice Charity. This year was extra special as the event was in memory of our beloved Run Leader & Committee Member, Dave. The event was a huge success with 27 members and friends coming to run or walk the 5K route around Thamesmead, spreading festive cheer amongst our local community. Many more turned up to shake buckets and volunteer at the event. Another special ‘thank you’ to Sarah for taking the lead in organising a successful event, as well as to Bouldr Bar who helped advertise the event and held our post-run social. Together, we initially raised an incredible £821; however, we then received donations post-event, including a late anonymous donation of £250, making the total raised £1091.

On 25th December, a Christmas Day parkrun TRC meet up was arranged at Bexley parkrun with many runners and walkers meeting to wish each other a Happy Christmas and complete a 5K before enjoying the rest of the day. In other parkrun news, TRC was represented at 12 different parkrun tourist locations. They were King George V Playing Field; Greenwich Peninsula; Tonbridge; Worsley Woods; Whitstable; Peckham Rye; Whitecliffe Lake; Congleton; Burgess; Gunnersbury; and Sutcliffe. Kevin also represented TRC abroad with attending Tamagawa Chuo Koen parkrun in Tokyo!

Lastly, as we welcome in 2026, the club will be looking for a new volunteer to write the monthly newsletters. As much as I have enjoyed writing them each month, it was initially as a favour for Dave and was an agreement I wanted to honour until the end of the year. Two committee members have agreed to cover January and February but if you would like to take the lead ongoingly please do let us know.

‼ Dates for your diary ‼

🏃‍**Save the Date** - Our annual club race for 2026 will be 29th March. More information to follow shortly; if you would like to get involved with organising the race or would like to volunteer on the day please speak with Yat or Patty.

🎉 December things to celebrate🎉

Shelley won our club place at the London Marathon 2026 🎉

Patty, Andrew, Tony, Christos and Simon completed the Hurtwood 50K 🏅

Jean chased the festive moon and completed the Olympic Park 10K and Battersea Park 5K 🏅🏅

We welcomed Liam, Ruby, Tim and Bev as new members of TRC 👋

Will, Tony, Danny and Andrew completed the Lesnes Abbey 5-mile race 🏅

Patty, Danny and Tony ran Joydens Wood Cross Country 7.5-mile race 🏅

The club was represented in Japan 🌍

Tony I am afraid the time has finally come to handover your crown with….

⭐️Runner of the Year 2025⭐️

This years Runner of the Year is an integral member of our TRC community.  He has gone from a Weekend Warrior in 2024 to regularly running with the club during the week in 2025. This is not to say he is not running on a Saturday still… he runs most Saturdays in fact with running 38 parkruns plus volunteering 11 times over the year.

This person also helps keep us in check – whether it be a much-needed spreadsheet, knowing what door number to wait by on the Elizabeth Line, or keeping us motivated with a clever monthly club challenge. He also does a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ tasks for the club that most will never see, especially when it comes to our annual club race.

But most of all he is a friend to all, making us smile with his quick humour and sending us videos of squirrels or cats! So long as you don’t mention Liverpool doing badly in the Premier League, you are almost guaranteed to see him smiling!

Of course, our Runner of the Year is…. Yat! Congratulations 👏👏👏