What have the boys and girls of Great Bentley been up to over the last couple of weeks, read on below to find out.

Witham May day 10

Just a short jaunt up the A12 is the village of Witham and every year Witham running cub hold their May day 10 race there. Inga Hayden-Cooper and Steve Bullen decided that this 10 mile race would be far more enjoyable than a relaxing bank holiday Monday. The course is described as flat, undulating and rural, they forgot to mention windy! Undeterred by the wind Steve stormed round with a pb time of 1hr 4mins 55secs whilst Inga finished strong with a time of 1hr 24mins 25secs, well done both of you for battling the bank holiday breeze.

MK Marathon

Apart from its roundabouts there is another thing that Milton Keynes is famous for the Milton Keynes marathon weekend. Theres a 5K dash, a half marathon, a marathon relay event, a kids super hero fun run and a marathon on the Bank holiday Monday. Andrea Markwick and Larina Marsh another pair of Bentley’s who decided to trade in their bank holiday lay in to take on the marathon that starts and finishes at the MK Dons stadium. Andrea sadly had IT band issues in the later stages of the race and for Larina it was her first road marathon in over 5 years yet both ladies got pb’s with times of 5hrs 7mins 34secs and 4hrs 43mins 5 secs respectively. Absolutely amazing stuff ladies, well done both of you. 

Harwich 5K series (race 1)

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside, and so did 10 Bentley runners who took part in the first race of the Harwich runners 5K handicap series. It’s not all donkey rides and ice cream here though as the route is basically a reverse of the Harwich parkrun so a fast flat out and back course normally accompanied by a severe on shore breeze in one direction or another. There were some out standing times with Steve Bullen and Matt Illsley getting pb’s of 18mins 35secs and18mins 42s secs respectively, well done chaps!

Colchester 10K

It was another scorcher of a day for the ever popular Colchester 10k with cloudless blue skies and wall to wall sunshine. Not only were the skies blue but so were the streets as I counted well over 20 Bentley runners who completed the changed course for this year. Some of you were in supporting roles such as pacers and tail runners, some of smashed pb’s out of the water and all of you ran hard in the unrelenting May sunshine and one of you came 1^st in age category, a big well done to our club secretary Mags! Also a well done to following runners who smashed their pb’s Matt Illsey (38.57), Steve Bullen (39.18), Billy Hamilton (39.00), great running!

Halstead and Essex marathon

It’s generally excepted that after running a marathon you can ease off and let your body recuperate after putting it through a gruelling 26.2 mile race, not our men’s captain Charlie who only a couple of weeks ago ran the London marathon took on the Halstead and Essex half marathon. Most people would have not even considered entering a marathon so soon but in his words Charlie said “it seemed a good idea at the time”

This race took place on the same day as the Colchester 10k and the conditions in Halstead were the same as Colchester hot, with wall-to-wall sunshine not ideal for the open and hilly rural lanes of the Halstead marathon. Charlie still made it round in a solid time of 3hrs 52mins. Charlie wasn’t the only Bentley there as Malcom Statham also took on the heat and the hills, it turns out that this marathon was his 240^th which is an amazing achievement, his time was 4hrs 11mins, well done gents!

Zig Zag half marathon

Zig zag events put on a host of runs each year and most of them quite imaginatively titled, not this one though, it was quite simply called The Zig Zag marathon and half marathon, Cris Warren went for the half marathon option as he had only run London marathon a couple of weeks ago but is slightly more sensible than Charlie. The course starts and finishes at the Suffolk running centre which is just West of Bury St Edmunds looking at the course it looks extremely similar to their Valley of the Owls race which I took part in last year. If so then Chris would have been treated to a hilly yet extremely scenic course, not that he would have taken that much of it in as he shot round it in1hr 27mins 51secs.

The Hudson River path

Whilst on a trip stateside to the big apple John and Bee Bush entered a race on the Hudson River path. This laid-back event involved runners completing as many laps as they wished over a set time limit. John and Bee both completed four laps of the route totalling 10k and the did it in times of 1hr 17mins and 1hr 7mins respectively. The trip was part of Bee’s birthday celebrations, a delayed happy birthday Bee, hope you enjoyed the trip.

Micky Edwards (Race 1)

Wednesday night saw the next race in our Micky Edwards handicap series over 40 of you took place this time round. There was once again some fantastic finish times including more pb’s for some of you. For those of you that don’t know how the handicap works basically runners are set off in staggered timeslots depending on their base race time or estimated 5k time. The idea being that slower runners go first and then the quicker runners start later meaning that most of the participants all finish pretty much at the same time. This is an impressive sight to see and both Tom and I stood wide eyed as we watched you all storming towards us down the gravel path on Wednesday evening. Paul Arnold captured some brilliant drone footage of this which he posted onto Facebook and if you haven’t seen it yet I would urge you to go and watch it. As always several of our members who are quite handy with a camera also took some great action shots of the race these can be found on Facebook. A big congratulations to Sarah Evans who made it into 2^nd place for the Great Bentley all time top ten with her Micky Edwards finish time of 19mins 36secs only a second off the top spot!

Maldon 5k evening handicap race

Craig “lone wolf” Mitchel, hear him howl, was at it again at the Maldon handicap series he was the only Bentley there, but this didn’t stop him putting on a great performance as he zipped round the course in just 18mins 33secs 

Test Track 10

The unstoppable Steve Bullen or “pb” Steve as he should now be known as he has racked up several back to back recently, ran the St Luke’s Test track 10 mile race which takes place, as the name suggests around the Ford test track in Dunton. Although no pb this time Steve did manage to secure 1st place in his age category which earnt him a nice shiny trophy, a great result Steve.

Colchester 10K Stampede

The animals came in two by two as did a pair of Bentley runners, Leoni Harvey and Craig Slocombe both ran the Colchester Zoo 10K Stampede. Craig was more than happy with his race as he is still getting over a long term injury as well as picking up a hip niggle just days before the event but his time of 38mins 36secs secured him 13th out of a field of 1862 runners. Leonis race day experience was different to Craigs as not only was she running late but her grandson threw up on her to add to her lateness and stress levels. Once underway Leoni struggled with a busy course ands some rude runners but still managed to run her fastest 10K in 3 years with a time of 58mins 35secs. Great times both of you, but I’m more impressed that they let you back out.

It’s been an absolutely action packed May so far and as I hand the reporting baton over to fellow race reporter Louise Balfour I know she is going have an equally mammoth yet enjoyable task of seeing what you all have been up to. Well done everyone, until next time……………………………………..