Firstly I would like to say that I make no apology for obvious title as not only is blue the colour of our club but also it is synonymous with this time of year.
So, if you are feeling blue then the best thing to do is pop on a pair of trainers, wrap up warm and get out for a run, failing that the second best thing to do is take a couple of minutes to read this, the first race repot of the year.
Park life
Let’s start at the very beginning as plenty of you begun the year off with a hangover clearing jaunt at one of the local Parkruns that put on an event on New year’s day. Only a couple of days later and it was business as usual as Saturday 4th January was the first official Parkrun day of the year.
Helene Tyler took herself to one of the newer Parkruns at Ingrebourne Hill where the word ‘hill’ in the name apparently meant very much that! There was a nice crowd of Bentleys who took the trip to Maldon Promenade Parkrun to celebrate Franks 100th Parkrun.
Marion Simmons had a great start to the year by coming first in her age group at Colchester castle and Eileen Shadford did the same at Markshall Parkrun with a course pb as well, great running ladies.
Essex XC Champs
Forty miles up the A12 on the same days were the Essex XC Champs, the event was held at Basildon’s Gloucester Park. There are two large parks in Basildon, Northlands and Gloucester and when hills were being given out Gloucester definitely got Northlands share.
Jon Briggs, ladies captain Meera and Tricia Stacey took on this unnecessarily hilly course, to make things a little more interesting someone had decided that adding haybales in as obstacles would be a good idea. This aside they all did really well on such a tough course with Meera finishing 36th, Tricia 43rd and Jon 175th
Bentley Vs Harwich 10 mile interclub race
The very next day we had the annual interclub race between ourselves and Harwich runners, although this year it was more like an interclub swim as the rain was relentless on the day.
Last year the race had to be cancelled due to extreme weather and a new two lap course was devised, the same course was used this year and thankfully rain did not stop play!
There were some great performances given the biblical conditions but this time sadly the race did not go Bentleys way and Harwich won the cup this year, well done Harwich. I’m sure next year we will return triumphant!
Well to quote Porky Pig “That’s all folks” thanks for reading and although there wasn’t much to report on this time round I apologise in advance just in case I have missed anyone out.
Great Bentley Running Club 