(CELIBRATE GOOD TIMES)

Another two weeks has snuck by us and although we’re not out of winters chill just yet, Snowdrops and Crocuses have slowly started to appear so have Bentley runners at the start lines of some races.

Rayneing Medals Anniversary

The Rayneing medals multi distance race was the first event Colchester based running company Hare and Tortoise running had ever held, and on the 16^th of February they were celebrating its 8^th year. Tim Crimson (sorry Clifton) went along to celibate it with them. Tim casually covered the marathon distance in a cool 5hrs 25mins 50secs and ran the whole thing in just a t-shirt and shorts which left him with a rosey red glow by the end.

Hampton court half marathon

Hampton court palace needs no introduction being home to king Henry VIII with fantastic gardens, which include impressive fountains the worlds largest grape vine and an intricate maze, which you certainly wouldn’t want to get lost in after having run a half marathon distance. Ashley Coals didn’t thankfully get lost in the maze but he did run the half marathon and although the course wasn’t quite what he expected as most of it was up and down the banks of the Thames, he did it in an amazing personal best time of 1hr 35mins 5secs, no beheading for you this time Ashley.

Brightlingsea Winterfest

The winter fest is a month long series of activities held around Brightlingsea these include poetry, live music, comedy, games nights and running to help alleviate the winter blues.

There were both 5K and 10K options for this trail race. Several Bentley runners decided to “chase away the winter blues” tackling the trails of the Winterfest trial run, it must have been very breezy out on the peninsular.

London winter 10K

Keeping on a winter theme Donna-Parker-Evens ran in the London winter 10K. This was her fourth time running at the event but this time she came away with not so frosty 10K pb, well done Donna.

St Peters way ultra

Fancy running 43 miles across country from Chipping Ongar to Bradwell-on-sea finishing at the oldest Chapel in the Uk? The St Peters way ultra does exactly that tracing an old pilgrimage route dating back 1500 years. No stranger to extreme challenges David Allen did just that and he finished 12^th overall and 1^st in his age group in a splendid time of 7hrs 23mins, well done David although that was probably just a warm up for you.

Leicestershire half marathon

The name Allen must be synonymous with great performances as Maddy Allen after a last minute decision ran the Leicestershire half marathon in a pb time of 1hr 48 mins, that’s a time to celebrate. My guess is you haven’t fallen into the more stereotypical student lifestyle to be putting in a performance like that.

Tarpley 20

A slightly smaller Bently than usual Bentley group made there way to the Tarpley 20 this year. This rural undulating course is one I would recommend to anyone and like many early in the year races is a popular one for runners training for spring marathons. This was pretty much the case for us as club secretary Magdelena, men’s team captain Charlie and new Bentley member Ashley Coals were doing just that. I just happened to be there as I enjoyed the race so much last year. Charlie won’t mind me saying that he had a beast of a race last year but like the Phoenix he rose up this year and had an amazing run of 2hrs 19mins 39secs, Mags also had a great run shaving a minute off her last years’ time coming in at 2hrs 47mins. For Ashley it was the furthest he had ever run and he was more than happy with his time of 2hrs 55mins 34secs. I didn’t have the best of runs and really struggled towards the end but came in at 2hrs 21mins 41secs which was my second fastest 20 mile time, so we all came away happy.

Parkrun starts with a P

Parkruns are the staple for many of you, religiously making the 9am start line somewhere at home or abroad to get your weekly Parkrun fix. The other Saturday Daniel Whymark went to Highwoods country park, his favourite and the best apparently to celebrate his 100^th time of making a Parkrun start line accompanied by a few fellow Bentley runners that’s quite a milestone Daniel.

Flying under the radar and off to Italy Mags and Doug McGillivray ran a Parkrun in the city of Lucca. This particular Parkrun is run along the top of the walls surrounding the old town which must have been great experience. The only way to make it an even greater experience would have to come in first, which they both did congratulations on first lady and first man!

Even further afield over in the land of the rising sun Gethin Hughes ran at the Sunshine Beach Parkrun which is an ironic title as it was freezing cold and started snowing just hours later. The cold didn’t slow him down with a time of 21mins 17secs unless that is, he was being chased by a Kaiju.

Saturday 22^nd kicked off the first of this year’s GBRC Parkrun tourism destinations, A for Alton water. This one was the most attended destination so far and there may have been a reason for this as Jon Briggs was celebrating his 50^th birthday, naturally coffee and a birthday cake were consumed after the run. Hands up who was there for Jon and who was there for the cake?

And finally……….

Not everything goes according to plan when it comes to running and it is especially impactful when training for a big race. Head coach Caroline experienced exactly this on the lead up the Seville marathon having been under the weather for several weeks meant that she was unable train properly and chose not to enter the marathon. Although this wasn’t the outcome she was hoping for Caroline still took off to Spain, entered a breakfast 5K run to tick the race box and then went on to enjoy the sights, the Tapas and of course the Sangria.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and by looks of things it could a busy year in the world of race reporting, great running everyone and keep at it!