CAPTAINS’ NEWSLETTER – FEBRUARY 2025 | Great Bentley Running Club

Hello GBRC! This is the second of the new-look newsletters, no longer split between ladies and men and drafted with the combined forces of all four Captains/Vice-Captains.

Apologies for being a little late with this one… however there is still a chill in the air so it feels like February, even if we are already halfway through March!

NEWS AND NOTICES

XC season ends

The last XC of the season is the re-arranged Gosfield fixture on 23 March. I know that many will be moving on to road races by this time, however I hope to see a good contingent out at the last XC.

More information on NESS can be found here: North Essex & South Suffolk XC league (nessxc.org.uk) and on our website here https://gbrc.org.uk/about/ness/

Let’s finish the season on a high with a massive blue-vested turnout!

Club Kit

A reminder to contact Barbara if you need club kit. You can use the facebook group, or the form on the website here:

Official Kit

Barbara is not going to lug all of the kit around to all training sessions (there is a lot of it!) so please contact her in advance if you need something so you can arrange when to collect your items.

Training

A new training schedule is being put together by Caroline for the Spring and I want to take this opportunity to thank those LiRFs and CiRFs who worked to put the winter schedule together.

A reminder to everyone to sign up on the poll if you are attending a session as this enables the session leader to plan.

AGM – 2^nd April

The Annual General Meeting is on April 2^nd. This is the Committee’s opportunity to update the members about the running of the club, when new club officials are appointed and a chance for members to ask questions of the Committee and suggest ideas for the coming year.

Weather permitting we will have a run prior to starting the AGM – this will be confirmed closer to the time.

You will have seen that Mags has send a reminder that we are looking for someone to be the new Race Director for the Half Marathon (our flagship race). Please do contact Mags if you are interested in fulfilling this role.

As a Race Director for our XC and for the Junior Race in July, I can say that the role will be very rewarding for whomever takes it on. That person will be supported by the Committee and club; and as Mags mentioned in her email about the AGM, we would encourage anyone who does take the role to form a “sub-group” of volunteers to spread the work involved. Teamwork makes the dream work.

I will take this opportunity to thank Mel for her work on this February’s Half, which was of course a great success.

Essex Road Relays – 12^th April

Whilst named the road relays, these are actually at the track and so are a fast course for anyone who wants to give them a go.

Details are:

Date: Saturday 12 April 2025
Time: Ladies (all age groups) – 11.15am, Male vets (over 40) – 12.15pm, Male open – 1.15pm
Location: Colchester Sports Park, Northern Gateway
Distance: approx. 3 miles per person
Cost: no cost to our runners – the entry fee is kindly covered by the club.
More information: ATW webpage

The ladies teams and male vets teams comprise 3 people, and the male open teams 4. We will be arranging the teams to ensure everyone who wants to run gets the opportunity to do so and there are no time requirements on entering. We have noted though that the race schedule is quite tight so it is likely that the next race will start prior to your team having finished.

If you would like to take part, please sign up using this google form.

Friday 5 Series and our race on 4^th July

I find it unbelievable that it is almost spring and we are starting to prepare for the Friday 5 race in July. This is your reminder that the GBRC race will be on the first Friday in July (4^th) and members are asked not to enter this race.

The other races in the series are

23 May – Felixstowe
30 May – Framlingham
6 June – Sudbury
20 June – Bury
27 June – Stowmarket

You can get information and enter the races here: https://friday5series.com/.

For our race, please still keep this free as we will need many volunteers to put this on – Matt will be emailing about that in due course.

Ekiden – 6^th July

Straight after our Friday 5 is Ekiden, one of our main club events of the year.

Ekiden is a relay event where teams of 6 will cover a marathon distance (split into 5k, 7.2k and 10k sections). At GBRC we have a tradition of entering lots of teams and having a little competition between our teams. More information on how to get involved in the race will land in your inboxes in due course but in the mean time please trust me when I say it is a really fun day, you want to get involved (you will have FOMO if you don’t!) and to save the date!

Mickey Edwards

The dates for the Mickey Edwards series are confirmed and can be seen here:

Micky Edwards Series

Mickey Edwards is a 5k series with the intention that members improve over the races, shaving seconds (or sometimes minutes!) off their time each week.

We hope to see a good number of members giving these a go this year, and of course the race team will be looking for volunteers to help put them on so even if you don’t fancy running 5k there is still opportunity to get involved!

Parkrun Socials

The next set of parkrun socials has been planned and will be as follows:

As you can see we have targeted both home and away venues so hopefully there is something for everyone! rayneing

WHAT THE LADIES DID

A warm welcome to new ladies in our squad, I hope you are enjoying sessions with GBRC so far.

What we did

February is a short month, and a cold one, so perhaps it is unsurprising that the blue-vests were not quite as out-and-about as they usually are. However there are definitely some performances to note:

Magdalena took on the Tarpley 20 as part of her marathon preparations and shaved a minute off her prior year’s time. Mags managed to place 31^st out of 115 females in what appears to be a competitive field, kudos to you!

Also taking on the longer distances was Larina who took on a self navigating trail of over 27 miles. Looking at the map at the end, it clearly looped on itself and I suspect was very confusing; particularly when you’ve been running for hours. Larina describes the event as “amazing” so I am assuming she had a fab day out.

At half marathon distance, a PB was achieved by Maddy. We miss Maddy when she is away at university, however being away means she gets to travel to new races with her uni chums. This PB was at the Leicestershire half marathon and she described it as “hilly/muddy” so I look forward to seeing what she might do in the future on a course that is “fast and flat”.

Also with a PB this month was Donna at the London Winter 10k. I have actually run this race in the past and can tell you it is not the easiest course so a personal best on it is quite the achievement. It looks like you get quite a nice t-shirt from the race too so maybe I will look to sign up next year. Well done Donna!

Taking on a different 10k was Karen who was at the Hare + Tortoise event. This event seems to have had various distances to try and even had a morning and afternoon race across some of those distances, so something for everyone. Also at this event was Tim (but I will leave that for the men to mention below)

Out on the trails again was Claudia, taking part in the Dark Rose Essex Trails event. Claudia is a regular at these events, which take place around Essex and always seem to have a pub involved… Well done Claudia for another trail conquered.

Also off-road in Essex was Meera (me!) I went to the last Essex League fixture in Hockley which was really enjoyable despite the rain. The course was surprisingly entertaining and I really relished the challenge it created. I did not relish washing my shoes afterward.

In better weather was Caroline who took on the Seville Breakfast 5k. Caroline made the sensible decision to pull out of the marathon distance that weekend following a prolonged period of illness but she still made the most of her trip to Seville with a 5k and some sight-seeing. Well done on your run Caroline and I hope recovery after your illness is smooth.

Finally there was one day where many club members attended, but no one was running… our Half! Thank you to everyone who came and helped out. The half is so important for our club (it’s the thing that generates income to pay for the track, the trail t-shirts, entry to Ekiden and Xc etc) so it really is fab to see people there helping.

Ladies Runner of the month

This month’s runner of the month is someone who is just getting better and better. She has been on Lisa and my short list many times over the past few months, and I suspect will make it again next month as well given the way she is running.

Her parkruns are consistently strong, she seems to excel at finding an Essex pub when out in a field in the dark, and she has also been spotted working hard at the track and other training sessions.

So it is with great pleasure that I award this month’s Runner of the Month to Claudia Keitch. Well done Claudia.

WHAT THE MEN DID

(guest writer, men’s captain)

It’s been a great month of running for our men.

Doug McGillivray and Gethin Hughes headed overseas, showing the locals how it’s done at Mura di Lucca parkrun in Italy and Sunshine Beach Parkrun in Japan
Staying closer to home many of you turned out for our first parkrun social of the year at Alton Water parkrun, where Craig Mitchell was second finisher in an impressive 20:29
Adam Toyne took on the Peddars Way Ultra, a 48 mile route through historical Suffolk and Norfolk, which he completed in 10 hours and 48 minutes.
Tim Clifton covered the marathon distance in 5hrs 25mins 50secs at the ‘Rayne’ing Medals Anniversary run, celebrating six years of Hare & Tortoise running events.

With so many great performances you lot once again made it hard for Jon and me to pick our Runner
of the Month.

Men’s Runner of the month

Earning, this month’s ‘close, but no cigar’ award was Ashley Coles who set a half marathon PB of 1hr
35mins 5secs at the Hampton Cort Half Marathon on Sunday 16 February and followed this up with
his first ever 20 mile race at Tarpley the next weekend, crossing the line in 2:55:54. Great running,
Ashley, keep up the good work.

However, just pipping Ashley to this month’s Runner of the Month award is David Allen who has had a
fantastic year so far, including a great run at the WIX XC in January and a top time at The Grizzly in
March. However, this award is for February where he put in a fantastic run at the St Peters Way Ultra,
a 43 miles cross country race from Chipping Ongar to Bradwell-on-Sea, finishing in 12th place overall
and first in his age group. It’s great to see him mixing up some pure running events with all the
swimming, cycling and triathlons. Inspiring stuff.