In June 1995 we had a memorable club trip.  A 52-seater coach, bearing hordes of Carn Runners, supporters and flags, travelled to the Bovey Tracy Half Marathon.  Glyn Davis won the race and set the standard for the day as the club ‘cleaned-up’ the silverware.  Glyn followed that up with a 2nd place at the Bridgwater half in 30 degree heat.  The club had further success at the Tavy 7.  Glyn won the race, Paul Chesterfield came 3rd and Martin Eddy (15th) and Kev May(17th) made up the four team counters to ensure we went home with the 1st Male team trophy as well.  Another successful trip to Devon!  At the Mob Match at the end of November, our Men’s team came fourth behind Cornwall AC, Mile High, and Newquay.  We had no Ladies team.  Eight of our ‘racing machines’ decided to have a ‘crack’ at the Mayflower 4 x 3 mile relay race in Plymouth.  Only 2 other teams turned up!  We came 2nd and 3rd teams behind Exmouth Harriers and in front of the Fire Service!  The first ‘Xmas Hangover Handicap’ took place over a 5.5 mile course starting and finishing in Leedstown.  Club Captain, Dennis Burrell held off the chasing runners on the last half a mile hill up to the finish.  The year was rounded off with the Dinner and Dance at the Porthminster.  

Racing got off to a start on the first Sunday of 1996 at the Bideford cross-country.  Once again this year the club was well represented in the Westward Cross Country League.  The following weekend the club chartered a coach again and we headed off to the Wyvern Tough Ten at Weston-Super-Mare.  We entered a Male team and we all raised the roof at the presentation when it was announced we are 3rd.  The race was a 1000 runner sell out with clubs from all over the country so the beer tasted even better as we stopped for a pub lunch on the way home.  The second coach trip of the year took place at the beginning of June to the Tiverton Half Marathon.  Glynn returned to winning ways in the Truro Half Marathon in 1:17:11.In October, a Male team victory was denied us as Treve Stoddern, who had rallied the team to turn up, neglected to put the club name on his entry form.  As we had only 3 registered runners, we lost out to a weaker, 4 man Hayle Runners.  Treve was inconsolable!  The Mob Match arrived again and we managed to put out 14 men.  No ladies again.  In a re-run of last year, we came 4th.  The Westward Cross Country started yet again with good support from the club.  St. Austell was the venue of the County Cross Country Championships and we fielded 9 men, which made up over a third of the field.  The second ‘Hangover Handicap’ took place on a cold Saturday morning in December.  We had 13 entrants and Terry Clark held off Tommy Polglase by a second!  After the traditional post-race sherry and mince pies it was off to get our glad rags ready for the evening’s dinner and dance at the Porthminster.  The winter continued with the club well represented on the cross-country scene.

The first Sunday in January 1997 had our ‘mud-pluggers’ heading to Bideford for the next round in this winter’s Westward League.  At the end of January, the club made its first appearance at the South of England Cross Country Championships at Parliament Hill in London.  In February, opting to compete in the Half Marathon instead of the 20 miler, the club had a great result at Liskeard.  Andy Caldwell won the race in 1:19:53 and Kev May was 3rd in 1:21:19.  Martin Eddy finished in 5th place (1:21:58) to wrap up the Men’s team trophy.  Glynn kept up the pressure in the Cornish G.P. series with second place in the hilly Withiel Half.  Eleven of the club ran the Newquay 10 in May and Glynn, Andy Caldwell, and Paul Chesterfield took the 2nd Men’s team prize.  Ten of the eleven knew the race started at 10.30 am.  Barrie Lugg turned up for an 11 am start and ended up chasing after everyone, 30 minutes adrift!  The first running of the Hayle Lions Beach 10K saw us winning the Men’s team race.  The annual coach trip this year was to the Torbay Half Marathon on 29th June.  The result of the Hayle 10 on the Sunday of August Bank Holiday was a 1-2-3 for Carn Runners.  Glynn won followed by Paul Chesterfield and Martin Eddy.  Graham Waters won the 3rd ‘Xmas Hangover Handicap’ at Leedstown.  The annual Christmas Dinner and Dance took place at the Land’s End Hotel with the club members proving they are as ‘nifty’ on the dance floor as during a race!  To round off the year Glynn, Chris Harper, and the two Pauls travelled to the Exeter ‘Last Chance’10K for a final race to see the year out.

1998 arrived and preparations were afoot for a club trip to the Bath Half Marathon and the first staging of the club’s new race ‘The Blaythorne 10’ in June.  June 14th arrived and the first ‘Blaythorne 10’ got under way.  The race attracted 80 runners.  It was whilst on one of their long Sunday runs from Bassett’s Cove to Godrevy and back that the idea for a club monthly newsletter was born.  A few club runners were training for Autumn marathons.  Chris decided to write an article on their training for the Robin Hood Marathon.  The first hand-written edition was produced in September.  The Westward League Cross Country League’s first race of this winter was at a rain-drenched St. Austell.  On one of the long Sunday runs along the North Cliffs it was decided to change the scenery and up the distance by entering the ‘Exmoor Stagger’, a 14.5 mile off road run at the end of October.  Three runners entered with the logic that a 14.5 mile run wouldn’t take more than 2 hours at the very outside!  How wrong they were, but that’s another story.  The club’s affliction with off road races had begun.  The pre-Christmas cross-country races were as hard as usual, Tiverton being a mudfest yet again.  The ‘Hangover Handicap’ at Leedstown has another close finish as last starter Glynn worked his way through the field and pipped Brian Wildman by a second.  The Queens Hotel in Penzance was the setting for the dinner and dance. 

1999 began with the club organising another trip up to London for the South of England Cross Country Championships at the end of January.  The use of the BT minibus was secured and soon the programme was extended to include a visit to the Luppitt Lollop on the way home on Sunday.  The senior men’s race at Hampstead Heath was 9 miles long, made up of three muddy, slippery, heavy-going laps.  All our 7 runners finished, the only Cornish club to do so!  It was back to the bus and off towards Bath where an overnight stay at a Travelodge would hopefully help the runners recover enough for another 14 miles of mud and hills at Luppitt, near Honiton.  Everyone survived to tell the tale of a heroic weekend of running and set the tone for the coming year.  On the horizon was the ‘Grizzly’ and after that the London Marathon.  The long runs were ground out in preparation.  The tradition had become to take it in turns to host the ‘long run’.  Each Sunday a runner would invite the rest round to his/her place and take them on a long run.  The host would set the route (which inevitably got longer and harder as each host tried to out-do the previous one!) and would lay on the tea and cakes once the run was over.  Thus the long runs became a very social affair. Carn Runners visited a lot of races for the first time including the Keswick Half Marathon, Princetown Triangle race, Exmoor Doone run, Templer Ten, and Bicton Blister among them.  All these races were featured in the newsletter, which celebrated its first birthday in November.  The Xmas Hangover Handicap was due to celebrate its 5th year but had to be cancelled due to the lack of a spare race day.  The Christmas dinner and dance returned to the Porthminster Hotel.  The lads and lasses organised separate pre-Xmas nights out.  During the boy’s night up Camborne, Barrie devised a new festive club event, which he christened ‘Luggies Lollop’.  This was to be our version of the ‘Luppitt’ and held between Christmas and New Year.  In true ‘Lollop’ tradition it was muddy and wet and involved running up and across many raging rivers.  The event cemented the clubs affliction with off road ‘running’. 

Y2K. The new millennium and the racing started on the 2nd January in unfamiliar guise.  Paul Chesterfield, Martin, and Chris entered the Kernow Cycling Club Duathlon at Polstrong.  The event involved cycling down the A30 to Hayle then back via Roseworthy.  This was followed by a 3 mile run.  Competitors were started at 1 minute intervals and Martin was the first Carn boy to go.  If fact he was also the first back – 2 minutes later after his chain broke on his borrowed bike before even getting on the A30 slip road!  A week later it was off to the County Cross Country Championsips at Redruth.  Carn Runners took the men’s team bronze medal and a shocked Chris Harper was first veteran and received his county gold medal.  The year was certainly starting with a few suprises.  A club Off Road Grand Prix was set up to take advantage of all the good races that could be found in the ‘Rundown’ book.  The first minibus trip of the year took place to the ‘Luppitt Lollop’ at the end of January.  The Hayle Beach Race was run again in early May and the team trophy was won by us yet again.  The trophy is still held as the race was never held again.  The Off Road races were going well with great runs including the ‘Oke Croak’ and ‘Burrator Horseshoe’.  The St. Levan 10K brought a great boost when Barry Bowler won the race and Debbie Nugent was first lady.  This result was repeated at the Blaythorne 10, which had been moved to a new date in September.  Chris West kept the spirit going by winning the St. Agnes multi-terrain 10 miler.  Things were reaching new heights as was proved at the Mob Match in November when 25 Carn Runners ‘Showed the Vest’.  The Hangover Handicap returned with a new course based at Blaythorne.  A record entry of 21 proved how the club had grown in the new Millennium.  The Porthminster Hotel was the venue for the festive celebrations.

In 2001, the Blaythorne 10 was switched to January to ease the summer congestion of Cornish races and to try and boost entries.  The move worked with 130 runners entering the race.  A massive 28 Carn Runners ran including 9 ladies.  Disaster struck the country in February with the onset of Foot and Mouth.  Many races were cancelled and all running was restricted to the roads.  Carn Runners celebrated their 10th anniversary with a function at the Lowenac Hotel in Camborne.  Summer races frequently saw in excess of 20 yellow and blue vests swelling the ranks.  By September the Foot and Mouth restrictions were gone and a backlog of races started to clog the race diary.  The Carn ladies had already taken the County 5 mile trophy at Tree Tops and in September at the Duchy Marathon they took the County title over 26.2 miles.  Claire Nurhonen and Jo Renfree made their marathon debuts and together with Debbie they lifted the trophy.  The Mob Match in November was an outstanding day with a total of 36 Carn Runners completing the race, the biggest turn out of ‘Carnies’ ever.  Clare Baxter made it two wins in a row when she won the Redruth10K and the Turkey Trot .  The Dinner and Dance was another excellent evening at the Porthminster Hotel.  ‘Luggies Lollop’ took place again and was another spectacular journey through rivers, over hay bales, across muddy fields with few bottles of beer thrown in at a well placed drink station.  To round the year off another minibus trip was organised to the ‘Last Chance 10K’ at Exeter.  Due to an accident on the A30, the crew had to turn around and went to the Jamaica Inn for a practice run up Brown Willy.

The 2002 County Cross Country Championships at Redruth School saw the best performance in Carn Runners history.  The strong men’s team came second to Cornwall A.C.  In the ladies race Charlotte Renecle was 2nd and Clare Baxter 3rd.  Frances Farrell made up the team and for the first time Carn Runners had a ladies team finish in the County Championships.  The girls were rewarded with second place behind Newquay &Par.  The Blaythorne 10 took place on the 20th January in horrendous weather conditions.  Despite the howling wind and driving rain, a record entry turned up for the race.  Clare Baxter broke her own club ladies record recording a time of 3:16 at the Cornish Marathon in November.  The Christmas Handicap moved to a new course at Tehidy Woods and was won by Barrie Cardew.

The first few months of 2003 had club runners pounding the roads and trails again, putting in the miles for the London and the Grizzly.  The Blaythorne 10 was now well established as the Grand Prix opening race of the year.  The finish was adjusted slightly so as to avoid finishing in the field that had not been a problem when the race was first held in the summer of ‘98.  Kev May became the Club’s first Ultra runner completing the 32 mile Dartmoor Discovery race 4:41.  The Grand Prix series was gaining in popularity and more and more club runners were taking part. Come November, many of our runners had recorded seasons bests and were amongst the prizes at the Presentations after the Mob Match.  2004 and 2005 saw the club growing with a steady flow of new members as the general boom in running continued.  Club runners continued to churn out PB’s.  Kev May and Chris Harper ran the 2004 Dartmoor Discovery.  Carol Culley ran her debut 26.2 miles at the Loch Ness Marathon.  At the beginning of 2006, the club organised a trip to Torremolinos for the annual Half Marathon.  Dave Mounter ran the Barcelona Marathon.  The club membership was heading to new heights.  Social evenings were as popular as ever.  The Carn Ladies team won the Grand Prix and emerged as a force to be reckoned with at Cross Country.  Denise Cardew completed her first Half Ironman Triathlon.  Juliet Knowles and Kensa Rescorla were winning races around the South West and ladies Club captain, Janet Ritchie was setting PB’s for all distances and the amount of races completed in a year!  A number of newly qualified coaches led by Level 2 Coach, Peter Hillman put runners on the road to achieving new goals.  The new Carn Runners website has been a long time coming so hopefully the club’s future history will be available online!

Keep on Running.