A COMMUNITY running club took a break from chasing PBs and medals as it celebrated its first club wedding.
Shinfield Running Club’s Darcie Goulding and Phil West tied the knot at Stokes Barn Farm Wokingham, in a ceremony which featured multiple fellow athletes.
The newly-weds first met in 2021 with both looking for training partners ahead of their London Marathon attempts. A mutual friend put them in contact for an initial 10km run – the couple hit it off from the get-go and haven’t looked back since, running with the SRC group on a weekly basis.
Phil said: “It was incredible, just the perfect day. The venue was amazing and Darcie looked absolutely stunning. We had a small crowd of 60 people attend, 10 of which were from the club.
“My best man, Chris Wicks, and Darcie’s bridesmaid and maid of honour are SRC runners, which meant that five of the six people at the top table were from the club.
“It was just a great day. We even had 35 people come down and do a Parkrun in the morning. The boys made me a shirt, it was a special day.”
He told of the role SRC, a free-to-join community club for runners of all abilities, had played in the couple getting to know each other better, describing its members as “super friendly” and welcoming.
The special day was preceded by a unique, but fitting, proposal last year when Phil decided to get down on one knee at the finish line of the London Marathon.
“My mum was out supporting me and had the ring at the 25.5-mile mark,” he explained. “To be honest, I was panicking a little bit because I couldn’t see her.”
Phil did eventually pick her out with 600m to go and grabbed the ring before heading down The Mall. After taking a moment to process the fact he had completed the marathon, his focus quickly turned to the task at hand. Moments later, the couple were engaged.
As with most running couples, there is a little healthy competition between the partners. Phil said: “When we first started running, she was streets ahead of me, she had been working with running coach James [Suarez].
“I remember doing a tempo run with her where she left me for dead. She was just cruising, it inspired me to get better.
“She’s an incredible runner. It’s nice to have that healthy bit of competition, we sort of drag each other along.”
The pair are eyeing up the upcoming Manchester Marathon, with Darcie and Phil targeting sub-3:30 hour and sub-3 hour clockings respectively.
