County times

· by · in Race Reports. ·

This weekend’s racing began on Friday night with Springfield Striders Friday Night 5, which included this year’s five mile county championships. Charlie Keitch and Chris Warren were the sole representatives of Great Bentley at the race, which saw a superfast field taking on the two lap course around the village of Pleshey. 37 runners beat the 30 minute barrier and, despite running a PB, Charlie just missed out on joining them, finishing in 30.02 to claim ninth place in the V45 category.  In the V50 category, Chris finished in sixth place in a time of 31:17 to add to his impressive tally from the first two races of the Grand Prix.

Showing the gents how it’s done, Meera Rajoo-Oakley, took home a county bronze medal at the Essex AA 1 Mile Championships at Chelmsford’s Melbourne Stadium on Saturday. Meera ran a track mile PB to finish in third place amongst a strong field and earn her place on the winner’s podium.

Elsewhere on Saturday, we were represented at parkrun’s across the world including:

  • Belton House parkrun in Lincolnshire, where Caroline Searle ran two laps of the sheep filled parkland in 31:01;
  • Clover Point parkrun in Canada, where Debs (25:17) and Paul Hollidge (25:18) crossed the finish line together;
  • Felixstowe parkrun, where Bee Brent smashed through the 30 minute barrier to finish in 28:42;
  • Gunpowder parkrun near Waltham Abbey, where Caroline Dyer clocked her fastest parkrun to date in 24.12
  • Harwich parkrun, where Robbie Lee finished ninth in 21:49
  • Highwoods parkrun, where Josh Beaumont was the first to cross the line in 18:29;
  • Sale Water parkrun in Manchester, where Scott Young ran alongside the River Mersey in 30:43.

You can see the club’s full parkrun results in this week’s consolidated club report.

Passing on parkrun for something a little different, Jon Mann was in Sheffield for the summer edition of the Round Sheffield Run. This unique event covers 24.5km but breaks the route down into 11 timed stages totalling 20km, You can walk, run or jog between these timed sections and there are individual, pair, team and special stage prizes up for grabs. Your race reporter is quite envious!  Jon completed the 11 stages with his friend, James Winter, in 1:36:77, which placed them 35th in the male pairs category.

Sunday saw the annual Maisie Fun Run taking place along Clacton seafront. This five mile race is organised by our very own Brian Telford to raise money for the Brain Tumour Society in memory of his best friend’s daughter. This year saw over 130 runners take part, raising over £900. If you want to help support this cause but were unable to run, you can still make a donation through Brian.

Our runners at the Maisie Fun Run.
Our runners at the Maisie Fun Run.

The husband and wife duo of Phil and Vicky Presland zipped up their walking boots for the Hertfordshire Hobble, organised by the Essex & Herts Long Distance Walkers Association. This event gave you the option of walking either 26.25 or 15.2 miles, but the Presland’s opted for the full marathon distance despite the heat, finishing the course in 8 hours and 52 minutes.

Also covering some serious mileage were Tomasz and Magdalena Komorowski, who were in Poland for the Leśna 5 Ultra near their hometown of Koszalin. The pair competed in the 12 hour event, running as many 5k loops around the forest as they could within the time limit. Magdalena was the 1st lady home covering 90km in total in a time of 12:17:05, whilst Tom finished 6th in the men’s race covering 100km in 12:32:40.