A Festive Feast of Fantastic Feats!

· by · in Race Reports. ·

You might have had your fill of food and drink this festive season, but hopefully you’ve still got some appetite for racing because there’s a veritable buffet of events to report on this week!

Parkruns

We were lucky enough to have the opportunity for bonus Monday parkruns on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day this year.

46 of you went to a Christmas Day parkrun, and some highlights were:

  • Darren David got a new PB of 25:36 at Harwich parkrun;
  • Anna Lyon visited Street parkrun in Somerset (26:10);
  • Simon Leggett and Emily O’Neill touristed at Sloughbottom parkrun (near Norwich) for the first time, finishing in 20:17 and 24:44 respectively;
  • 32 of you gathered at Colchester Castle Park for parkrun with Run Director Meera.

55 GBRC members ran on Saturday 30 December, including:

  • Robin Oakley visited an icy Windy Nook parkrun in the North East (23:44);
  • Magdalena Komorowska and Tricia Stacey got new PBs at Highwoods parkrun, with Mags unexpectedly paced by Craig Mitchell to finish as 2nd lady in 23:34 and Tricia finishing as 4th lady in 25:45;
  • Lisa Briggs was 1st lady at Clacton Seafront parkrun with a course PB of 21:01;
  • Rob and Caroline Dyer both achieved PBs at Great Notley parkrun (20:16 and 23:55), and Caroline was also 2nd lady;
  • Sammy and Martin Cotton and Mark and Donna Harris visited North Walsham parkrun in Norfolk.

52 members celebrated the new year with a NYD parkrun on 1 January. I can’t see any PBs or tourism, but I think it’s safe to say everyone achieved their fastest time of the year so far!

Races

Two long-standing fixtures on the local racing calendar took place on Boxing Day. In Friday Wood, Craig’s Events delivered a fun-filled mud spectacular in the annual ‘Runners vs Riders’ event. The race was won by the runners this year, and GBRC was represented by David Wright, Justin Hayhoe, Tom Komorowski, Meera Rajoo-Oakley and Kelly Hayhoe running, plus Dave Allen riding. Bethany Reynolds also bravely completed the junior race. There was lots of slipping, sliding, a few falls and spectacular photos!

For those who like to keep their shoes a little cleaner, Witham Running Club challenged runners to ‘beat the pudding’ at their ‘Boxing Day 5’. GBRC had 12 entrants in this 5 mile road race. You can view the full results here.

On 27 December, Craig’s Events held the self-navigating ‘Twixmas Trail’ event. There was a strong blue turnout, with 17 GBRC runners completing the 4 mile version and 12 completing the 9 mile version. Charlie Keitch and Chris Warren were victorious over the 9 mile distance, despite a small detour, and the Allen family finished third over 4 miles. It was disappointing to see the fancy dress prize going to a non-GBRC runner though – you can draw lots for who gets to dress up as a giant sprout next year.

Finally, on New Year’s Eve, Tim Clifton was our sole representative at the Flitch Way NYE marathon, finishing in 5:46:14. Well done Tim, I hope you weren’t too tired to see in the new year!

Well done to all runners, and Happy New Year to you all!