This weekend’s racing started on, er, Wednesday when Martin Cotton, Sammy Cotton, John Bush and Belinda Palmer-Barnes took on Essex Trail Events’ Tarmac Twister Trail, a self-navigated night trail run around the village of Chelmer. Our intrepid runners braved the dark to complete the trail in 1:26:57.

Also taking place on Wednesday night were the Chase the Moon and 5k and 10k at London’s Olympic Park, which take runners past the iconic venues from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, including the almighty London Aquatics Centre, London Stadium and the ArcelorMittal Orbit. Could Meera Rajoo-Oakley and Lisa Briggs use their inspirational surroundings to smash out some fast runs? Indeed they could!  Meera completed the 5k course in a season’s best of 23:12, whilst Lisa completed the 10k course in a new PB of 47:03, winning the lady’s race, and earning herself a cheese toastie for the journey home. 

Skipping ahead to Saturday, our runners were in action at parkruns in Ireland, Poland and Dallas Burston Polo Club (Warwickshire).  Our international tourists were Kathy Bishop, who completed Kilkenny parkun in 25:53, and Donna Harris, who completed parkrun Kraków in 30:23. Staying in the UK, but still on the tourist trail, Martin Owen ran his 41^st different parkrun at Dallas Burston Polo Club, completing two laps of the polo fields to finish in 25:39. Closer to home, Dave Jones visited Great Cornard parkrun, finishing first in his age category in 29:01, Gráinne Hallahan ran a course PB at Raphael parkrun, knocking over 2 minutes of her previous best, to finish in 24:20, and Magdalena Komorowska came home as first female at Highwoods parkrun in 24:40.

👉 Take a look at this week’s full parkrun results.

Sunday morning saw a mass turnout at the Capel Five with over 20 blues completing this undulating road race through the village of Capel St Mary. Whilst we may have struggled posing for the pre-race photo, there were some fantastic results including Doug McGillivray, who finished second overall in 28:27, and Lisa Briggs, who followed up her 10k win earlier in the week with another great performance – winning the FV35 category in the equally fantastic time of 37:14.

👉 See all the results from the Capel 5.

Saxmundham Running and Fitness Club were hosting their own five miler on Sunday and Meera Rajoo-Oakley was there to complete the multi-terrain course in 38:03, winning the FV40 prize, and finishing off a great week of running for our ladies’ captain and vice-captain.

Travelling further afield, Paul Brazier and Leoni Harvey went down to Portsmouth and did the Great South Run. Paul completed the ten mile course in 1:13:29, with Leoni following him in 1:50:34. Despite pulling her calf on Friday, Leoni managed to run the first five miles of the race before toughing out the second half to cross the finish line.

At the Chelmsford Marathon and Half Marathon, Martin and Sammy Cotton ran the Half Marathon in 2.10.03 and 2.15.58 respectively, which was a new PB for Sammy, whilst Gerry Gladden also picked up a new PB in 1:34:27. Running the full 26.2 was Alan Johnson who completed his fourth marathon in 22 days whilst raising money for the National Autistic Society in 5:47:47.

Rounding off this week’s results, we’re back in Suffolk at the Endurancelife 10k, Half, Marathon and Ultra. Tricia Stacey took on the Half Marathon distance, enjoying the beautiful views and good weather, to finish in 2:06:35, whilst Tim Clifton completed all 32.6 miles of the ultra course to finish in 7:16:46. Ouch!