To begin with I would just like to briefly introduce myself although I’m sure that I would have crossed paths with most of you reading this. My name is Jon Mann and I have been a keen runner for over 10 years now and 5 of those with GBRC. I am now writing this, my first and hopefully not my last monthly newsletter as the new men’s vice captain. I would like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who voted for me and to say that I am looking forward to getting involved with everything blue that I can. Those of you reading this might notice that it has a similar format to the lady’s newsletter, but imitation is the best form of flattery.

So here we go…………………..

Training

As we leave a wet winter behind and move into what should be a dryer, brighter spring (once the April showers have passed) we can look forward to a new training block.

The schedule has been planned up to and including the last week in June and can be found here Training | Great Bentley Running Club (gbrc.org.uk)

Until later in the year Thursday sessions will not always be at the cycle track but either on the gravel path behind the sports park or at Westlands country park. Although these locations don’t have a nice smooth tarmac surface, they are still relatively flat and do offer traffic free training and do work well for interval style training. Plus being offroad they offer an extra angle to your training as they are slightly more technical than a standard track, definitely worth checking out if you haven’t in the past.

Please also note that if one of the Mickey Edwards handicap races is on the Wednesday then the Thursday session will not be on that week something to bear in mind when planning your weekly running. Finally, can you please remember to enter your name into the google poll for the sessions you are planning on attending each week. It really helps the leaders know how many runners they have and to make any last minute changes to the session depending on the number of attendees.

Membership subscriptions

Subs are due this month and all of you should have received an email from Nick our membership secretary with a link to pay via STRIPE. This is a very easy way to pay and if you have used this method before it even remembers your details making it even easier to rejoin the best running club in Essex (possibly the world).

There has been a slight increase in subs to £30 this year due to a fee increase from England athletics of £2. The club is still only keeping £11 of the total, the same as the previous year as they wanted to keep the cost to you as minimal as possible, the rest goes to England Athletics. 

I think as members of Great Bentley we get an awful lot for £2.50 a month!

Race Reporting

Three of our star race reporters (Lisa, Caroline and Charlie) have stepped down from their reporting duty. The club are now on the lookout for willing volunteers who feel they can spread the good news of what our runners have up to on a regular basis. I will certainly be getting involved with this myself and think it would be great if a couple of you out there could join me. It seems like quite a nice way to finish the week gazing at what amazing achievements our runners have been up to. 

If you are interested then please contact Lisa, Caroline or Charlie and I’m sure they will offer some great pointers to get you started.

Mickey Edwards – 1^st May

I mentioned the Mickey Edwards briefly in the training section of this report. The series begins on 1^st May and will be on every other week until 26^th June. It would be nice to get as many of you as possible to enter this series as it’s a great way to improve your 5K time in a different format to a standard training session, also the more that enter the more there are to chase down. Also, even though these are short races they take as much planning as their longer counter parts it would be good to show your support for the guys and girls that plan tirelessly in the background to make these races happen.

Ekiden –7^th July

I did this event for the first-time last year, and I can say it truly is a great day of racing and one where you get to compete with your teammates against running clubs from all over Suffolk and Essex.

I don’t think the email for this event has gone out yet but when it does, I will certainly be signing up again, keep a keen eye on your inboxes!

What have we been up to?

Well, it’s safe to say that there have been countless achievements for the Bentley boys in the month of March. There has been plenty of Parkrun tourism up and down the country from as far North as Fell foot on the banks of lake Windermere where Paul Arnold achieved his 100^th Parkrun, if you’re going to do it, do it with style. To the South coast at Seaton where a couple of you thought it was a good idea to get a Parkrun in the day before taking on the Grizzly, one of the toughest events on the racing calendar, great effort chaps.

The same weekend as the Grizzly was the Colchester half marathon where plenty of you showed up in blue and tackled the tricky 13.1 miles in what can only be described as constant precipitation of varying strengths. Not only were several pb’s achieved but a few of you took on the responsibility of pacing at the event which I’m sure helped plenty of other runners achieve their goals which must be incredibly rewarding.

Before these events we had the Inter-club 10 event where we took on the black and white might of the Harwich runners. We did of course retain the cup and as with the Colchester half more pb’s were achieved and the first male home that day was Joshua Beaumont.

The Dave Wright 15 and 7.5 mile race was on the third weekend in March, and this is hosted by our very own Craig Mitchel. The course winds through the rolling countryside of Langham and Boxted, it’s the first time I had run this race and although it is hilly in places, I can say that it gives and takes in equal measure, and I would encourage anyone thinking about entering to give it a go, even if you  dip your  toe in with the 7.5 mile  distance. Bentley shone well at this event, getting the mens first team and two times in the Great Bentley all-time top ten for the 15 mile distance those runners being myself and Craig Slocombe, Craig managed this whilst recovering from a nasty bout of shin splints’ sterling stuff Craig.

Speaking of injury, I know some of you reading this will be nursing injuries and are at various stages on the road to recovery. Being injured as a runner no matter how severe can be tough as it ultimately stops you doing what you love to do the most which is run. I know when I have been injured in the past at times, I couldn’t even bear to look at Strava but all I can say is know that you will heal and your fitness will return. Take your time, do what you need to do to recover and ease back into things gently and you will be back where you were in no time. Oh, and don’t stop looking at Strava just embrace what your fellow runners are getting up to.

Runner of the month (R.O.M)

Well, it’s that time, and finally the gravitas of naming runner of the month is upon me.

It came down to, two runners in the month of March both of them getting great results in two races a piece. The first is Matt Illsley who got huge pb’s in both the Inter-club 10 and the Colchester half. The second is Steve Bullen for also getting a big pb at the Inter-club 10 but also finishing in the top 10 of Dave Wrights 15 mile race the longest distance he’s ever run and still got top 10 even after taking a tumble on the course.

There can only be one runner of the month and as you can see the choice is a tough one and this time it is Matt Illsley for his two mega pb’s well done Matt!