With temperatures in the UK this week rising higher than parts of Europe, I sit here with the fan on writing about yet another week of excellent racing from the Bentley Blues!

I am always in awe when I get to write about a milestone parkrun, it’s dedication to get up each Saturday and run a 5k at 9am! This week is the turn of Paul Hollidge who has clocked up his 250th parkrun. He was joined by many Bentley Blues at Highwoods, lured by a run followed by cake! Paul started at Colchester Castle parkrun and has clocked up 42 different locations. He joins Scott Young and Inga Hayden-Cooper in the 250 club (for GBRC runners that register our club with parkrun). Malcolm Jarvis, Meera Rajoo-Oakley and Robin Oakley are closing down on 250 parkruns, whilst Richard Heath is on 99 parkruns. Leoni Harvey and Kathy Bishop are within reaching distance of 100 too! We look forward to celebrating these achievements in future race reports!

We had a few tourist parkruns, staring with Rob and Caroline Dyer completing Bracknell parkrun in 29:00 and 29:01. Chris Warren was in Pembrokeshire and ran at Colby parkrun in 20:10, one of the parkruns held at a National Trust property. Meera Rajoo-Oakley and Robin Oakley ran at Gladstone parkrun in north west London, in 25:03 and 21:15. Matthew Grant was in Somerset and ran at Frogmary Green Farm parkrun in 27:40. The consolidated results can be found here. On Sunday, Ella Simpson ran home first girl at Colchester junior parkrun in 9:24.

On Friday night, Active Training World held a 5k and 10k race at the Northern Gateway cycle track. Their Friday Night Run enticed Gráinne Hallahan and Matthew Grant to run 10km, whilst David Wright ran the 5k. Well done to Gráinne for running home in 3rd place in 51:39 earning herself a place on the podium! Matthew ran in 51:41. David Wright finished the 5k in 19:44.

This Saturday was host to the Stour Valley Path (SVP) 50k and 100k ultras. The 100k started in Newmarket at 7am and the 50k started in Sudbury from 12:30pm in a staggered start. All runners were aiming to finish at Brantham Leisure Centre. Well done to everyone that put the hours of training in to get to the start line. The conditions were extreme and some runners had to make decisions along the route as to whether they carried on or stopped, not an easy task as your mind and body battle with each other.

Doug Mcgillivray ran a superb 50k to finish second in 4:15:54, with the winner less than two minutes ahead of him. Adam Waller-Toyne finished in 6:49:31, Simon Leggett in 7:09:07 and Tim Clifton in 7:49:40. Hats off to all of you, I was out on the course at Bures and Stratford St Mary and conditions were tough.

Although this isn’t a race to report, please check out the email sent out this week about our trail run in memory of Davina Swindell on Sunday 21st August 2022 at Stutton Village Hall. A donation of £7 (or whatever you’re able to give) will get you the trail instructions. No times will be taken, it is all about joining together as we know GBRC are brilliant at.