Oh gosh, what a jolly week of running we’ve had. Our blue vests have been off running round islands, the grounds of Stately homes, and round and round the University gardens. It feels as if we’re just a bottle of ginger beer and an Irish Wolfhound away from a Enid Blyton novel.

Starting with the Parkruns, 14 Great Bentley runners collected their tokens at Markshall Parkrun to celebrate Laura Cook’s 50th Parkrun. To make the event even more special, Laura ran her best time this year at 32:13.

Joined by Sarah, Paul, Kathy, Deborah, Scott, Paul, Bev, Simon, Martin, Donna, Sammy, Natalie and Bee – all put in great performances, with special mention to Bee who took almost two minutes off her time through recovery with 32:27 and is nearly back to her pre fracture performance. Well done, Bee!

We also had blue representation at some exotic parkruns this week with Hunstanton, Swansea, Fell Foot and Faelledparken Parkun clocking up some tourism from our corner of Essex!

We also had the usual suspects with Alton Water, Highwoods, Mersea, Harwich, Great Notley, Clacton, Chelmsford, Maldon, Colchester Castle Parkruns all had GBRC representation this week.

Now onto the race events.

At Essex University there was a special 6-hour event with the Hare and Tortoise team. Runners were able to complete one lap for the 5k, two for the 10k, or as many as they wished within the time frame.

This set up clearly attracted our GBRC runners, and there was a good blue vest turn out for the event.

Larina Marsh ran 15 miles in 2:27, Tim Clifton ran 27.2 miles in 5:16, Darren Patrick and Adam Robey ran 10k, Patrick Marsh 5k and Josh Beaumont was first finisher on the 10k with a sub 37.

Over in Dedham, the 10k (don’t mention the hills) presented an appealing challenge for our Sunday racers. The course took the runners out into the countryside, where our resident photographer, Eric Shaw, was ready to snap our blues storming their way round the course (do NOT mention the hills!).

David Allen, Ray Baggs, Louise Balfour (were there hills, Lou?), Debbie Smith, Alison Clarke, Cherie Hipkins and Sue Wright all collected their well deserved finisher medals. Special mention must go to Alison, Cherie and Louise, all coming 3rd in their age categories. Also to Dave Allen, who was second in his.

The Mersea round the island race is a challenging route taking you over beach, track and trail. This didn’t deter our intrepid runners, who arrived ready for the tough terrain and to put in some great performances.

There was great running from Craig Mitchell, Matthew Stuart, David Wright, and special shout out to Doug McGillivray who was third man home.

Some interesting calculations meant we missed out on a club prize – and this is a good time to remind everyone to make sure you give your club name when signing up to races (and get your valuable discount!) and also to add it to your Parkrun profile.

Claire Poole also put in an impressive performance at the Ironman event finishing in just over 6 hours. The event included an ocean swim and ‘rolling’ bike route and finishes off with a run that ends at the beach. Well done, Claire!

Great running everyone – worthy of an adventure story and everyone deserves lashings of beer (ginger optional) to celebrate.