What a weekend of races – it really was jam packed with a combination of the usual parkruns, remembrance runs, full and half marathons, last minute attempts at Club Champ places and much more besides. What has become clear is how much our GBRC running family has grown since I wrote my first report and its lovely to hear about achievements from members new and old.

I’m going to start with the longest distance covered by members last week and work my way down to 5Km. So this kicks us off with a full marathon which was a LDWA organised course through the Peak District and was conquered by Mags and Tom. Incredible result by the pair with Mrs K being the 1^st lady home and them achieving the 3^rd fastest time of 5.04 which is fantastic on such a tough route. Feedback from Tom was that it was stunning but challenging. In typical LDWA style, checkpoints were plentiful with very helpful marshals and a hot meal at the end. Another great LDWA adventure one that they highly recommend.

Then we had international representation at the Malaga half marathon. Clearly Anthea Colsell didn’t feel she could just chill on her holiday and wanted to earn her cocktails! This was her first race since 2019 (Dedham 10k ) and she treated it as a long Sunday morning run rather than a race finishing in 2.14.

Lisa Briggs also covered half marathon distance at the Debden Airfield Remembrance run and totally smashed it knocking off 8 minutes from her PB for that distance (1:44.10) and 5^th lady home – bravo!

Stebbing 10 Mile is next on the list with 5 blue shirts on display. This is a regular favourite despite it being somewhat undulating. Malcolm Stratham was the first home on his first official race outing as a Bentley runner (1:12.32). He was followed by the Davisons who ran together with Paul pacing Sarah to a 1:22.10 finish time. Kathy Bishop was next in a short while after (1:25.14) and then Emma Welham completed the GBRC contingency (2:01.58).

We then have an unusual distance of 7 miles for the Stowmarket Scenic 7. Louise Balfour and Alison Clarke took part and Lou described it as a great route with a lovely medal although more hills than she had expected. Louise crossed the line in 1:07.13 and Alison in 1:15.00

We had 6 (I believe!) Bentley blues taking part in the Brightlingsea Hare & Tortoise Remembrance Run, all opting for the one 6.5 mile lap. Those who I managed to find out about were Tim Clifton (1.05), Leoni who was accompanied by her husband and nursing an injury opted for jeffing (1.17), Sammy Cotton still with last week’s marathon in her legs did it in 1.26. Apologies for those of you I have missed off!

Now back to Debden Airfield where we had Meera and Josh covering the 10KM distance. Both did themselves and the Club proud (as you all do every time you put on a blue vest and represent the club). Meera was the 4^th female with an impressive time of 46.48 and a PB to boot. Josh was 3^rd in 36.38 which is so close to an all time top 10 club performance.

Another runner taking on the same distance was Bee Brent.  She raced the Alton Towers 10k which must have been so cool! She described it as ridiculously hilly and was over the moon with 1:12.20 – well done Bee!

Now we finally make it down to 5KM and the old faithful parkrun…due to the amount my fingers have had to type already to keep up with you busy lot I am going to stick to the highlights and you can click on the link here to analyse the full set of results at your leisure.

Firstly I want to give a big shout out to my 3 lovely juniors who took on the Harwich (adult) parkrun and put on sterling efforts. The young Sharps (Connor and Charlie) were new to the 5Km distance and somehow maintained their usual, nippy 2Km pace over the course, sprinting it out at the end to see which brother would win. Connor finished in 23.28 (hello club champs!) with Charlie hot on his heels with a time of 23.31.  Ivy-Rose got a PB (30:03) and was 8 minutes faster than her first adult parkrun – high fives all round.

We had some tourism of course with Robin Oakley running at Lochend Woods (24:07) and Richard Moor at York parkrun (20:32)

Mark Jasper led the field at Clacton something he has done more than 30 times now (18:15) and Inga Hayden-Cooper was 2nd female at Harwich parkrun (23:58)

Sarah Davison surprised herself at Felixstowe running her fastest parkrun in about 3 years (24:13) and first in age category – even with a hangover!

Keep sharing your experiences and keep up the good work everyone.