Welcome to your April newsletter and my first as your new men’s Captain. I’d just like to echo Jon’s words from last month and say ‘thank you’ for letting me take on the job. It’s one I’ve thought about putting myself forward for a few times, but this time it just felt right, so now you’re stuck with me, at least for the time being.

Summer runnin’

Jon and I have been speaking quite a bit about some things we’d like to do moving forward.  One of the first is reintroducing our monthly parkrun get togethers, so we’ve scheduled in a few dates over the summer. Anybody who can join us on these dates (yes, that includes any women who fancy joining us too) is more than welcome to do so. It would be great to see you there for a bit of parkrun tourism and a spot of breakfast if you fancy it. For anybody who likes their cycling, there might also be a plan afoot to cycle to a few of these and back as well. I’ll keep you posted.

Here are the dates:

• Great Notley parkrun: Saturday 25 May
• Brentwood parkrun: Saturday 29 June
• Rendlesham Forest parkrun: Saturday 27 July
• Clare Castle parkrun: Saturday 31 August

See what we did there? 

Men’s XC runner of the year

Following Rendlesham Forest parkrun, we’ll also be heading out on the evening of Saturday 27 July for a meal, a drink, and to announce our men’s XC runner of the year.  We’re thinking of going for a curry because if it’s not broke why fix it?

Keep your eyes peeled for an email which will include voting details and information about how to sign up for the meal. I’ll get this sent out ASAP.

Micky Edwards

OK, OK, I know it didn’t happen in April, but I couldn’t not mention our First Micky Edwards race. It was great to see so many people there. Please do continue to turn out in numbers for this event and, remember, if you can’t run we are always on the lookout for volunteers so each race can go ahead – we still need volunteers for next week’s race so let me know if you can help.

Upcoming dates are:

• Wednesday 15 May
• Wednesday 29 May
• Wednesday 12 June
• Wednesday 26 June

Ekiden relays

You should have had an email about the Ekiden relays on Sunday 7 July. This is another great club event, so please take a look at the email for all the details, including the link to sign up.

Runner of the Month

April is mental, isn’t it? For one day of the month (and the year) running is everywhere. It’s on the telly! ‘Normal’ people are talking about it! And it’s all thanks to the London Marathon. For me, marathon day was especially weird this year as having finally got a ballot place after 15 years I had to pull out of the race at the last minute with an enflamed tendon. The only thing that made it bearable was seeing so many of you doing so well, so a big shout out to all our London Marathon finishers.

As we all know, London isn’t the only marathon that happens in April and we also saw people completing marathons (yes, non-runners, they’re all exactly the same distance) in Brighton and Boston (UK). Whilst London might get all the headlines, Brighton is also a great race and Boston is renowned for being a super-flat course. However, this year the conditions on race day were truly atrocious and everyone there just did a good job getting around. Well done.

However, April is about more than just one distance and this month’s runner of the month bagged the award after getting two PBs in two consecutive weekends over two very different distances. Firstly, he ran the Brighton Marathon in 3:16:43 despite the race not going exactly according to plan. Secondly, he absolutely stormed around Little Bromley 10k, where he led the Bentley Runners home in the fantastic time of 36:58.  Congratulations Gavin Byrne, you are our Runner of the Month for April.