It’s always fun to start the racing week on a Tuesday, and that’s exactly what 11 of our members did when they ran in the final fixture of the Harwich 5k series.

Jonathan Mann finished in 11^th place with his first sub-19 minute clocking of the series. We were also represented in this fixture by (in the order they finished): Eileen Shadford (27:07), Stewart Baggs (32:38), Yolande Arnold (28:00), Inga Hayden-Cooper (23:26), Richard Moor (20:13), Tricia Stacey (24:02), Charlie Keitch (18:14), Tonie Wilson (25:55), Gary C (30:35) and Dave Nugent (54:21).

For the series overall, Yolande Arnold was our most improved female (with 718 points and 15^th on the female points table), and Stewart Baggs was our most improved male (with 670 points and 24^th on the male points table). The full overall results for the series, as well as the results for each fixture, can be found here.

Among the 46 of you who made it to parkrun, we had a good smattering of local tourism at Clare Castle (Mark Harris, Laura Cook and Bee Harris), Kesgrave (the Dyers and Davisons) and Alton Water (the Hollidges and Lisa Briggs), as well as the usual good turnouts at Colchester Castle, Highwoods, Clacton and Harwich.

Further afield, Alison Clarke completed Seaford Beach parkrun in East Sussex in 32:15, and Martin and Sammy Cotton travelled to Jersey Farm parkrun, finishing in 30:24 and 32:09 respectively. I hear this is an excellent way to collect a ‘J’ for your parkrun alphabet without travelling all the way to Jersey (and perhaps reduced likelihood of encountering jersey cows – good choice Sammy!)

You can find the consolidated club report with the club’s full parkrun results here.

Sunday saw the 2023 edition of the ‘Finish Line Frolic’, a Hare and Tortoise 6-hour trail event around Hockley Woods raising money for the Finish Line Fund. This was right up the street of our long-distance stalwart Adam Toyne, and he completed 8 laps of the course for 27 miles in total.