After a bit of a summer hiatus, we seem to be back to the race reports of old with lots of events to cover. Despite the sad passing of Her Majesty the Queen last week, a number of events still went ahead at the weekend, amending their format slightly to incorporate a minute’s silence or other mark of respect.
37 of you officially ‘parkran’ this weekend. Charlie Keitch celebrated/commiserated the cancellation of the Richmond marathon with an 11th place finish (19:24) at Colchester Castle parkrun. No doubt he could have maintained that pace for an additional 23 miles had the event gone ahead! Ivy-Rose Hallahan continued to chip away at her sub-30 goal with a time of 34:27 at Mersea Island parkrun, supported by Grainne, and Craig Mitchell and Richard Heath made up 2 of the top 5 at Clare Castle parkrun. However, parkrunner of the week award must go to Anna Lyon, who was not only the sole Bentley runner at Harwich parkrun but the sole runner full stop due to the event being cancelled. Undeterred, Anna completed the course regardless. We all congratulate you on being first finisher, Anna!
At Colchester junior parkrun, Orlaith and Nainsi Hallahan both put in strong performances and were very close to their PBs. Well done girls!
Our runners were spoilt for choice on Sunday with a number of local events going ahead. Pleshey half marathon celebrated its 10th anniversary and we were represented by Jon Mann in a time of 1:29:17 and Inga Hayden-Cooper in a time of 1:55:20.
New member Josh Beaumont had a spectacular run at the Langham 10k, finishing in 8th position in a time of 37:36. The other Bentley finishers were Robbie Lee (45:07), David Balfour (49:46), Steve Walsh (52:06), Louise Balfour (59:11), Alison Clarke (1:03:23) and Sue Wright (1:06:16). Here they are showing off their bananas:
Other more niche events that sounded fun include the Chappel Ale Trail, which is a 5 mile (ish) trail run with a bottle of beer at the end and a beer checkpoint on the route. Our very own Adam Waller-Toyne jointly won the event, which was also completed by Tim Clifton, Martin Cotton and Sammy Cotton.
Leoni Harvey completed the Aliens vs Runners half marathon in Rendlesham Forest, finishing as first lady. A self-described “bling whore”, Leoni has a knack for finding the coolest medals, and this one didn’t disappoint!
Further afield, Sue Wray took part in the iconic Great North Run and achieved a time of 2:20:18.
11 of our runners travelled to the New Forest to enjoy their Marathon festival, which has a choice of events of different distances. Whilst the scenery and ponies were a delight, the heat and gravelly terrain made for a tough morning. 4 hardy souls completed the full marathon (Paul Davison – 3:27:44, Mags Komorowska – 4:05:53, Rob Dyer – 4:10:18 and Caroline Dyer – 04:50:54). Meera Rajoo-Oakley, strong on the comeback trail, was the first Bentley finisher in the half marathon (1:48:24). Jon Briggs was pleased to complete his first trail half marathon and achieve his second fastest half marathon time (1:49:23). Hien Hoang achieved a PB of 1:51:04. and Kathy Bishop and Sarah Davison completed the event together in 1:54:33 and 1:54:55 respectively. Lisa Briggs tried to make up for being a bit lazy and only entering the 10k, with a PB of 48:11 and a top 10 finish out of 449 females.
However, the star of the show was undoubtedly Tom Komorowski, who didn’t even get a medal for running over 22 miles to support all of the Bentley runners. He did, however, earn what I think will be a lasting nickname of ‘Pop up Tom’.
Great Bentley Running Club 