Saturday morning saw a successful trip to Harwich parkrun for Craig Slocombe and Jacob Horton. The pair picked up the first and second finishers’ tokens on the fast and flat course where they both crossed the finish line in 17:22, a fantastic time that also earned Craig a new 5k PB. Elsewhere, Mark Jasper picked up the first finishers token at Clacton Seafront parkrun, where he clocked a time of 18:25, and Jon Mann finished second at Alton Water parkrun in a time of 20:13. Our runners were also in action at parkrun’s up and down the country and you can see all the results in the consolidated race report for Saturday 16 December.

Meanwhile, our ladies trio of Lisa Briggs (35), Magdalena Komorowska (66) and Meera Rajoo-Oakley (72) were in action at the Essex XC League, where they finished ninth out of eighteen ladies teams despite not fielding a full team of four. Take a look at the full results.

On Sunday Sue Wright and Vicki Law embraced the festive season at the Elves 11 narrative trail race, which follows a circular route between Maldon and Mundon. Sue and Vicki finished in position 74 and 75 out of 133 other elves and a Christmas pudding. Gethin Hughes, Charlie Keitch, Jon Mann, and Mike Vincent also hit the trails at the Let it Stow Half Marathon in Stowmarket. Conditions were perfect, and mud guaranteed, for this half marathon which offers idyllic views of the mid-Suffolk countryside. First across the finish line for GBRC was Jon Mann (1:36:47) who finished the race in third place to earn his first-ever finishers trophy.  Jon was closely followed by Charlie (1:37:30), who came home in fifth place, Gethin (1:45:06), who just missed a sub 1:45:00 by taking a wrong turn towards the end of the race, and Mike (1:52:38), who smashed his two-hour target by almost eight minutes.

The week before Eileen Shadford (2:04:39), Tricia Stacey (1:48:33), Mel Moore (2:14:58), and Toni Wilson (2:02:27), who finished second in her age category, inexplicably chose to forego the wintery conditions by heading to the Medio Maratón de Málaga.  All four enjoyed the coastal route, which sees runners taking in such highlights as ‘the lamppost of Malaga’ and ‘cruise terminal roundabout’. 

Horses for courses, I suppose!  Happy Christmas everyone.