The warmest weekend of the year so far, saw the blues out in force for Parkrun on Saturday and a multitude of events on Sunday.

There were a total of 40 Bentley runners taking part in Parkrun at the weekend at Colchester Castle, Bury St Edmunds, Clacton Seafront, Harwich, Mersea Island, Felixstowe, Highwoods, Markshall and Rendlesham Forest.

Craig Mitchell took the number one spot at Mersea Island with a time of 19:10. At Felixstowe, Mark Jasper, took third place with a time of 17:36. Bee Brent, fresh from Brighton Marathon last weekend grabbed herself a PB at Clacton Seafront. Full results for GBRC can be found here https://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=1475

Colchester Junior Parkrun saw Rodger Ferguson taking 6th place with a cracking time of 9:34.

Sunday saw 560 runners lacing up to take part in the Little Bromley 10k. 37 of these were GBRC runners and from the pictures it shows we had a huge blue turnout for this local event. I’ve been informed that the names on the finish list may not necessarily reflect everyone who ran as some places were exchanged. You can find the list of finishers and times here https://www.harwichrunners.co.uk/bromley10k/results/2024.php Hopefully these will be updated soon with the correct names. Those that posted on the pinned Facebook post were:
Gavin Byrne – 36:57; Zoe Reynolds – 1:13; James Eyre (41:11), Flynn Eyre 37:54 (a PB, well done Flynn); Bev Shortley – 53:54.

Taking on the LDWA Essex Walker Challenge on Sunday were Louise Balfour and her two compadres. This was a 27 mile self navigation event starting from Galleywood. Louise said it involves rolling hills, smelly deep mud and stunning scenery! Put that on the poster.

Also on Sunday we had the Camuplodunum. This is a 28.5 mile trail event mainly following an old hiking trail around the outskirts of Britain’s First City. Six blues took on this challenge. First home for Bentley was Adam Waller-Toyne in 4:58:20. This didn’t seem to be enough mileage for Adam as he also an from home to the start of the event and them back home after finishing! Next home was Piers Markwick in 5:47:24. This was an excellent showing from Piers as he also appears to have completed the Little Bromley 10k at the same time! Next we had the trio of Andrea Markwick (6:05:29), Larina Marsh (6:05:29) and Anna Lyon (6:05:30). Last back for Bentley was Tim Clifton in 6:06:51. A shoutout is also needed for Tomasz Komorowski. Tom came out to run with and give moral support to the blues running this event and ended up running more than a marathon distance himself!

As we all know, next week is London Marathon weekend. Good luck to all the blues running and when it starts to get tough, remember – pain is just French for bread.