Club news

Sally and Craig Bamber

On our visit to Wellington in New Zealand in September 2025, took the chance to meet up with some of our previous members Sally and Craig Bamber (Sally was Sally Hale when ran with the club).

Sally and Craig joined the club whilst Craig was on a two year posting to the UK, this was around 2013 so about 12 years ago, Sally joined a lot of the club runs, especially the Friday morning 10 mile run (in the days I could lead it at a decent pace!).

Sally loved these runs and we reminisced, about some of the runs, when we went to Brickhill woods on a very hot day and 6 of us started on the 10 mile route, but only had me and Sally at the end and she had to stop at the pub for a desperate drink of water stop and the time a bouncy castle Stonehenge was on route and we had to have a session, Sally was desperate that we did not miss this.

After returning to New Zealand Sally and Craig married on New Zealand’s South Island and now live with there two boys in Little Hut, near Wellington on the North Island. They fondly remember their time in Milton Keynes and the runs with Redway Runners. Sally says she has not found a club like Redway Runners (yet) in New Zealand.

We managed to catch up with a meal together and visit to the Spring Cherry Blossom at night on the Friday evening and doing the Waitangi parkrun along Wellington waterfront on Saturday morning, Sally even managed to find her Redway Runners top, plus they took us on a walk up to Mount Victoria for lovely views over the Capital City and enjoyed a New Zealand tradition of New Zealand marmite and crisp sandwiches at the top.

Happy to report both Sally and Craig are still enjoying running, Craig did the Little Hutt half marathon last week and they both put in great times at the parkrun and Sally was a very decent 21 minutes.

Fab to catch up.

Nicola Shannon

After catching up with Sally from Redway Runners Wellington, in October 2025 I met up with Nicola Shannon, now living near Auckland, New Zealand.

Nicola ran with the club until 2014, often joining the Tuesday and Friday morning runs. I remember we used to run 10 miles in about 75-80 minutes on Fridays (oooh wish for those days!!).

Nicola moved from Milton Keynes to Singapore, then several other places, before settling in New Zealand with her family.

In Singapore, she started a running group. Nicola fondly remembered her running days with the club enjoying many memorable runs (probably interprets into me getting us lost!!).

We met in Devonport on the outskirts of Auckland, for a run, great to see she still had her Redway Runners club top, Nicola asked if I fancied a couple of ‘Maunga’s (little did I know, this is Māori for mountain, hill or mound!).

The run included World War I and 2 fortifications at North Head Summit, then Cheltenham beach and Mount Victoria Summit. Both the hills were the results of volcanos.

We finished with a post-run cuppa on the wharf. Nicola is still running well, enjoying sea swimming and cycling.