On a chilly but sunny last Saturday in February, 44 of you set your alarms for parkrun and you certainly made the most of it, with a number of milestones and achievements this week.
Debs Hollidge completed her 200th parkrun at Marshall Estate, with not just a course PB but a 5k PB of 23:10 (2nd lady), running with Vicky Presland and Lisa Briggs. Paul Hollidge also achieved a speedy course PB of 22:18 and Phil Presland was really pleased with his time of 24:13, less than a minute off his PB on this course.
Martin Cotton and Tom Komorowski ran together at Highwoods parkrun for Martin’s 50th parkrun and Tom’s 150th parkrun (although it was a surprise to Tom until he received his results email!). Also at Highwoods, Jon Mann was the fourth finisher with a new PB of 20:22.
In other parkrun achievements this week:
- Larina Marsh visited Folkestone parkrun, and came 2nd in her age category in 27:56;
- Helen Coe completed Clacton parkrun in a time of 30:20 as part of a longer training run for London, and was also 2nd in her age category;
- Bee Harris. Laura Cook, Donna Harris, Natalie Martin and Mel Willsmore enjoyed their weekly dose of parkrun tourism at Kesgrave parkrun;
- Grainne Hallahan finished Colchester Castle parkrun in 31:43 with a mixture of running and walking on the comeback trail from injury, and her daughter Ivy-Rose achieved a PB of 28:53;
- Sally Harman was our only international parkrunner this week, completing Kralingse Bos parkrun in Rotterdam in 34:04.
You can find all the club’s results on our consolidated club report.
Up North, Meera Rajoo-Oakley and Robin Oakley represented our club at the English National Cross Country Championships, taking place at Bolesworth Castle near Chester. Unusually for these championships, the course was not hilly, but deceptively tiring with long stretches of mud, long grass and spongey ground. Nonetheless, they did us proud while competing with the best in the country, with Meera completing 8k (and a bit extra, on a long course!) in the Senior Women’s competition in 43:33 (476th out of 774 competitors) and Robin completing 12k in the Senior Men’s competition in 56:30 (1208th out of 1472 competitors). They look like they had fun, and “Spot the Oakley” on the YouTube live stream was a fun Saturday afternoon activity for some of us too!
On Sunday, long-distance stalwart Adam Toyne completed the St Peter’s Way Ultra, on 43 miles of footpaths through the Essex countryside from Chipping Ongar to Bradwell on Sea. The route is based on an ancient pilgrimage route from the 7th century. Adam completed the event in an impressive 8 hours and 44 minutes, giving him a PB of 15 minutes. Congratulations Adam!
The popular ‘Tarpley 10/20’ road race, organised by the Saint Edmund Pacers, also took place on Sunday and both the 10 and 20 mile versions were well-attended by blue vests. Despite a strong headwind (and, for some birthday celebrants, a little too much wine the night before), some excellent times and PBs ensued.
Our finishers in the 10 mile were:
- David Balfour (in his first race as an MV60!) – 1:27:12
- Louise Balfour – 1:38:47
- Debbie Smith – 1:43:26
- Alison Clarke – 1:49:27
Our finishers in the 20 mile were:
- Tim Ballard – 2:07:17 – earning him an amazing 5th place spot in the list of GBRC all-time top 10 performances
- Paul Davison – 2:26:12
- Magdalena Komorowska – 2:43:16 (a 7 minute PB)
- Tomasz Komorowski – 2:47:49
- Hien Hoang – 2:50:26 (an almost 16 minute PB)
- Kathy Bishop – 2:55:20
Fantastic performances all round, and a sign of some exciting marathon times to come this Spring!
Great Bentley Running Club 