Claire Hawes had just completed a four-mile run around Leckhampton in Cheltenham when she spoke to The Local Answer.

She enjoys running – she’s chair of Cheltenham-based Almost Athletes so she must do – but she enjoys the social side of the sport as well.

And that’s very important to Almost Athletes because although they boast some very good runners in their 450-plus membership there is also a great emphasis on having a good time.

“We’re a sociable club and we have a lot of fun,” said Claire. “There’s no pressure on anyone to do training.

“There’s training on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, but equally if someone wants to just to do the social run on a Wednesday that’s absolutely fine.”

Claire, who is 65, took over as chair of the club in May last year.

“I’d been on the committee for quite a while and I was secretary before that,” she explained.

So how did she get into running?

“I took it up after running the Race For Life like so many women do,” said Claire. “It’s a not too intimidating way to start running.”

That was about 15 years ago and her next step up the running ladder was to take part in the Linda Franks Race, an event run by Almost Athletes.

And her first impression of a club that was formed in the late 1980s was certainly a good one.

“I thought, ‘They seem a friendly club’,” she said, and since joining them some 12 or so years ago she’s never looked back.

“I would never have raced as much if I hadn’t joined the club,” she continued.

And the club she joined back in the noughties is certainly a very good one.

“We were voted England Athletics South West Region Club of the Year last year,” said Claire with obvious pride. “There were 176 clubs in the running.

“We do quite a lot for charity, over the years we’ve raised tens of thousands of pounds.

“We’re a very inclusive club, we’ve got a wheelchair athlete and a number of blind runners.

“Our ethos is to be all inclusive, you don’t need a qualifying time to join our club.”

Claire, who is training for her first marathon in a couple of months’ time, is proof of that.

The aforementioned run around Leckhampton where she lives was just to keep her “ticking over” and she also enjoys the Thursday morning five-mile runs that the club organises.

She has run up to 15 miles in one go, which is pretty good going, but is aware that running a marathon is a considerable step up from that.

“It’s an off-road marathon around Bath in the Spring,” she said. “It’s quite challenging around the hills of Bath.”

She’ll be fine, of course, and it’s always nice to run somewhere different, not that that’s really an issue for members of Almost Athletes.

“We don’t have an HQ,” explained Claire. “We meet at different places, we’ll meet at one place for six weeks and then meet somewhere else for six weeks.

“We meet at Old Patesians, Cheltenham Town Football Club, Cleeve Hill Golf Club in the summer, Bath Road car park in Leckhampton and we end up in the Exmouth!

“We also run from Witcombe in the summer.”

So why do they like moving about?

“It was originally because when the club started people would run from pub to pub,” laughed Claire.

“Moving around gives us a change of scenery, we’re not running the same routes all the time.

“We don’t have any premises so we don’t have any rent to pay which means we’ve got more money that we can give to charity.”

That all makes sense and from the runners’ viewpoint it certainly seems to make sense as well.

“We’ve got some very good runners,” continued Claire. “We’ve got people who can do sub three-hour marathons.

“Our ladies have won the Gloucestershire AAA Road Championships and the women vets won their category as well.”

That’s all good news, of course, and just goes to show that as a club you can have fun and enjoy success at the same time.

For more information about the club, visit www.almostathletes.co.uk