Another bumper two week edition to share with you. First of all, we need to celebrate some successful winter training – Gary Cooper has been a regular at track sessions and his hard work paid off with a 29:59 parkrun 5km at Harwich last weekend. Well done Gary! There were many of you out on Saturday at 9am, with some tourism too:

Norwich – Simon Leggett and Emily O’Neill 22:50 and 22:52; Portrush– Alison Clarke has found new parkrun 34:28; Prospect – Gary Howard 31:15; Fulbourn Hospital – Paul Hollidge and Deborah Hollidge 26:23 and 26:24. All the results for 24th February can be found here. Xander Briggs ran Colchester Junior parkrun in 13:35.

The first parkrun of March saw Helene Tyler return to running with a run around Maldon Promenade parkrun. There was also a different Northern Irish parkrun for Alison at Ecos parkrun Ballymena 31:53; Paul and Deborah Hollidge were thankful that Keswick parkrun was on 26:15 and 26:16; Martin and Sammy Cotton, along with Laura Cook and Bee Harris were in Ashford 29:25; 32:25; 32:26 and 38:20; Martin Steinwand ran Hockgraben parkrun, Germany 28:16. All the results for this weekend can be found here.

Adam Waller-Toyne ran the St Peters Way Ultra, starting in Chipping Ongar, the St Peter’s Way is 42 miles of footpath making its through the historic countryside of Essex heading towards the coast, and the ancient chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall at Bradwell on Sea. Adam reported hideous conditions and being unhappy with his time, but well done for completing another ultra distance.

Last Sunday saw Tarpley 10 and 20 – named after a Bury St Edmunds Pacer club president, it takes place around the undulating countryside of Suffolk near Thurston. In the 20 mile race, Paul Davison ran a PB in 2:15:41 whilst in the 10 mile race Caroline Dyer ran a PB of over two minutes with a time of 1:25:05. The rest of the times can be found here.

Bee Harris went off to Prestwold Hall and airfield in Leicestershire to complete the Leicestershire Half Marathon and she was pleased to knock 7 minutes off her PB with a time of 2:22:38. Great running Bee, especially on the road to Brighton marathon.

This weekend, the PBs have kept on flowing. Firstly, Paul Arnold ran Chelmsford Half Marathon with a PB of 1:47:38, another Bentley runner part way through their training for a marathon, well done Paul for removing nearly 4 minutes. Lisa Briggs went Paddock Wood Half Marathon in Kent and also knocked 4 minutes of her PB with a new time of 1:33:32. Gavin Bryne is also busy marathon training and ran the Queen Elizabeth II Park Half Marathon in a PB time of 1:22:10.

Larina Marsh is looking for an Ultra distance a month and for March she went to Amersham to complete the Amersham Ultra which takes in the beauty (and weather) of the Chiltern Hills in a respectable time of 8:17:00 coming home in the top half of the women finishers. Rob Elliott and Simon Leggett ran the Cambridge Half Marathon in 1:49:15 and 1:37:57.

This weekend saw the rearranged inter-club 10 mile race between us and Harwich, held in Great Bromley.
Moving ro a two lap course this year, and measuring 10 miles, this course seemed to bring the best out of lots of you and there were many PBs being reported on Strava, with both first male, Joshua Beaumont and first female, Andrea James, wearing Bentley blue. One in particular brings my report neatly back full circle as Gary Cooper knocked 7 minutes off his Tiptree 10 time, the training truly is paying dividends! Well done to everyone who took part, the results have been shared on the website and we retained the cup by 27 points!