It may have been Colchester Half Marathon this weekend, but that wasn’t the only running to be had and on another busy racing weekend, our runners took on a variety of distances from 5k to marathon distance.

Parkrun

• Anna Lyon (25:39) finished first in her age category at a windy Harwich parkrun;

• Charlotte Hammond (28:30) also finished first in her age category at Mersea Island parkrun;

• Marion Simmons (28:21) was third in her age category at Colchester Castle parkrun;

• Robbie Lee (22:29) was also at Colchester Castle parkrun, where he finished inside the top 20;

• Bev Shortley (26:29) achieved a course PB at Clacton seafront parkrun;

• Bee Brent (30:00) was only 6 seconds away from her parkrun pb at Clacton seafront parkrun;

• Anthea Colsell (28:28) completed her first parkrun since 2020 at Highwoods parkrun.

To see all of our parkrun results, take a look at this week’s consolidated club report.

A few miles more

Why run three miles when you can run five?  That’s what Sue Wright did as she headed to Bishop’s Stortford for the Stort10 which includes a ten mile race, as the name suggests, and a five mile race, which it does not.  Not to be daunted by this dubious designation, Sue finished the race in 49:45, coming first in her age category, despite a swarm of bees that conspired to make the course ever so slightly short.

Scott Young and Claudia Keitch, meanwhile, completed 7.5 miles through the rolling Suffolk countryside at the For Horses, Four Courses narrative trail run hosted by Mid Essex Casuals. Also taking on the trails was Tricia Stacey who ran the first of Tim’s Trail series organised by BLC. You can find out more about the series on Facebook.

Half a marathon

This weekend’s main event was the Colchester Half Marathon, which saw over a thousand runners take to the streets of Britain’s oldest recorded town first city.

Our first male runner home was Craig Slocombe who finished in 24th place overall in 1:23:30, whilst our first female runner was Lisa Briggs who finished in 1:37:44.

However, there were some fantastic performances throughout the field from everyone in a blue vest, as well as some of our runners who paced in pink.

Take a look at the full (ish) club results.

13.1 miles? Pah!

13.1 Miles? In the sunshine?  With your short shorts and your trainers? These are just some of the things John Booty may have been thinking* as he completed the Sabre XXIII weekend. Run by two ex military personnel (one former UK Special Forces and an Engineer), this event sees ‘participants’ tab, yomp and hike over 25k and 1600m of ascent. in boots. With a 25lb pack. And you have to carry your food and water (water stations! Pah! etc.). Not only did John complete this brutal event, but he won it in the phenomenal time of 5hours and 22 minutes.

Finally, Lorna Sharp took on the challenge of walking 26.2 miles through the night around London for this year’s Moonwalk where she helped raise money for Walk the Walk, and support groundbreaking research into shaping how breast cancer is diagnosed.

*I doubt it, he’s a thoroughly nice chap don’t you know?