Hello March, and hello a new month of Spring events for our keen Great Benley runners to attend.

Beginning with Saturday’s runs, we first of all had some very well attended parkruns. 

Paul and Deb Hollidge went to Great Yarmouth to face the challenge of sandy terrain of North Beach Parkrun.

The course was, as described by the run director as consisting of “mainly sand, in some places there was soft sand, in others there was very soft sand, some areas of the course were blessed with extremely soft sand and the remainder consisted of excruciatingly soft sand!!”

But this didn’t put our runners off, and Debs finished 11th in a time of 29:59 and Paul followed her home in 12th place, also 29:59. 

Paul wasn’t put off and said although runners are “unlikely to trouble the all time top ten on this course” he “highly recommends it all the same”.

Colchester Castle Parkrun

Paul Connell and Lisa Briggs ran together at Colchester Castle Parkrun, with Lisa nabbing a course PB of 22:58.

Nine other GBRC runners joined them running round the castle, with Tim Clifton, Darrin Sandler, Grainne Hallahan, Mark Harris, Claudia and Charlie Keitch, Scott Young, Danny Draper and Robert Lee putting in good performances too.

Bognor Regis

Bognor Regis didn’t know what had hit it when Sammy Cotton, Donna Harris, Yolande Arnold and Laura Cook arrived following an, ahem, eventful evening. All four put in great effort on the course, followed by four rather excellent fry ups. 

Felixstowe 

Magdalena Komorowska visited Felixstowe – fun fact – the name means ‘happy place’ and this was certainly true for Mags, who ran her best 5k there in 21:54! 

Wickford Memorial

Helen Taylor visited chilly Wickford and ran their parkrun in 33:21!

Raphael’s Park

Over towards Romford, Mel Wismore, Bee Brent and Bev Shortley visited Raphael’s Park for their 5k run – continuing their parkrun tourism streak!

For full parkrun results please do check out the GBRC page on parkrun or download the 5k app. You can see we had runners in Brentwood, Alton Water, Clacton Seafront, Great Notley, Harwich, Highwoods, Marks Hall…as well as Prudhoe, Rendlesham and Seaton! 

Now for Sunday! 

Chelmsford 10k/half marathon

Louise and David Balfour with Alison Clarke and Charlotte Hammond ran 10k in chilly conditions – a delayed start adding to the freeze factor!

Pacian Andrews ran the half in 1:36 and John Ferdinand in 2:05 – excellent result in less than optimum conditions.

Essex 20

Finding a 20 mile road race is a challenge, so when one pops up on our (sort of) doorstep you can see why many found it too tempting to turn down! 

This was certainly the case for Charlie Keitch, who found it a challenge after his recent bout of covid. He was joined by Chris Warren, Paul Davison and Inga Hayden-Cooper and all four found success on the track.

Chris and Inga both came third in their age categories, and were awarded bronze medals. Charlie ran a PB and Paul came fourth in his age category. Excellent running on a cold day! 

Cambridge half

Paul Brazier and Simon Leggett ran the Cambridge half in 1:33 and 1:28 respectively. Paul described it as a brilliant event, and a “mixture of rural and city running”. He recommends it for those hunting for a PB course! 

Grizzly

Now – my race reporter skills are going to be tested – this race attracted eighteen blue vests and all GBRC put in superb performances at this famous (and highly challenging!) race.

Larina Marsh smashed her previous time by 30 minutes to run the 20 miles in 4:47

Phil and Vicky Presland completed it in 3.44 and described it as “a cracking event”.

Mandy Allen ran it in 4:15, Mary Bower in 4:21, Helen Coe in 5:12.

Richard Heath in 2:53, David Jones 5:28, Matthew Laverack in 3:26.

Vicky Law in 4:49, Doug McGillivray in 2:39, Craig Mitchell 3:43.

Melanie Moore 4:49, Tricia Stacy 3:57.

The Grizzly Cub

Barbara Law in 3:13, Rachel Rodgers 2:30, Emma Welham 2:29. 

Fantastic running everyone – the photos look great!