Firstly I would like to say well done to our NESS cross country league trophy winners Mark Jasper and Meera Rajoo-Oakley and to the junior cross country league winners Charlie sharp and Angel Jasper. Also thanks to everyone who came to the presentation. Now down to business once again there’s lots going on at GBRC and it’s all (hopefully) in here.

GBRC trail runs return

The eagerly awaited GBRC trail runs are back and once again Rodger has devised four more glorious and hopefully not too challenging trail runs for us to enjoy over the coming months.

The details for the first one are now available to download off the website and will be until the end of the month when they will be replaced by next month’s instructions.

 On completion of all four  you will be able to claim a free “I trailed them all” T-shirt. To be eligible to get your hands on one of these shirts then you must text Rodger at the beginning and end of each run with your time taken and the answers to the questions he sets for each route. These trail runs aren’t just for Bentley members either so if you have friends or family who aren’t Bentley members (and if not why) then get them involved as well. They too can claim a T-shirt on completion of all four runs in the same way but there will be a charge for theirs.
If you wish to add a competitive edge to these runs, then there is a trophy and champions t-shirt up for grabs for the fastest time achieved over all four courses. More details can be found with the link below.
https://gbrc.org.uk/our-races/great-bentley-trail-runs/

Micky Edwards 5K

There has been the baseline race, and two heats completed for this year’s Micky Edwards handicap series, and there has been some impressive running achieved so far.

There are still two races left of the series so good luck to those of you that are steadily bringing those 5K times down, and to anyone whose yet to have a go come along and get involved even if it’s just a chance to have a crack at a fast flat 5K with fellow members on a summers evening.

If you don’t fancy running one of these races but still want to get involved, then Charlie is always on the lookout for willing volunteers to help marshal, to offer your services please contact him at charlie.keitch@gmail.com  or via the GBRC Facebook page.

The remaining two dates are:

Wednesday 11th June – 3rd handicap

Wednesday 25th June – Final handicap

Geoff Day memorial 5K
Last year the football caused us to reschedule the race from its usual Wednesday evening (club night) slot to a Sunday, which worked rather nicely.

So, this years the race will take place on Sunday 17^th of August, this should hopefully make it possible for as many of you to attend, this year we also plan to have fun and games afterwards.

Friday 5 series

This popular Friday evening series is now underway with three races remaining the last of these being ours on Friday 4^th July, definitely saving the best till last!

Please don’t enter this race as we need as many volunteers as possible to make this race a success, race director Matt will be putting out a call to arms in the not too distant future.

Ekiden Relays

The entry dater for this event is now closed, but Lisa and Meera (the Ekiden elves) are busily working away on arranging the teams, please keep an eye on your inboxes for an email from them.

GBRC Parkrun tourism

 With A,B,C and D done it now time for the ‘coastal socials’ to start, so the next four venues for the next GBRC Parkrun socials are as follows,

• 28 June = Felixstowe parkrun
• 12 July = Maldon Prom parkrun
• 30 August = Clacton seafront parkrun
• 13 September = Harwich parkrun

These are always great fun and we always manage to find somewhere for coffee and a catch up afterwards, please come along and join us.

Essex Way Relay

Once again Lisa and Meera will be organising a team for this popular event, the date for it is Sunday 7th of September, don’t worry you won’t need any fake tan or pearly white teeth to join in, details will hit your inboxes soon.

Bentley men in May

The men have been in full force in May so please see below an overview of some of the incredible running the chaps have been up too,

• Ipswich Twilight 5K saw some fantastic runs from Craig Slocombe 18mins 19secs, Craig Mitchel 18mins 39secs, Tom Higgins 23mins.
• Two Castles trail half marathon Craig Mitchel came joint 5^th on this quirky half marathon in 1hr 39mins.
• Witham May day 10 Steve Bullen with a 10 mile pb of 1hr 4mins 55secs.
• Colchester 10k was a wash of Blue but here are some notable pb’s from Matt Illisey 38mins 57secs, Steve Bullen 39mins 18secs, Billy Hamilton 39mins.
• Charlie Keitch and Malcom Statham both took on the hot hilly Halstead marathon.
• Chris Warren ran the scenic Zig Zag half marathon with a time of 1hr 27mins 51secs
• The test track 10 on the Ford Dunton test track not a pb but first for his age and a nice trophy.
• Rimi Riga marathon in Latvia was in it’s 35^th year and Alan Johnson got his fastest marathon finish in 35 years with a time of 4hrs 8mins 38secs.
• Friday 5- Kirton saw Bentley Boys all completing the race in spectacular times. Steve Bullen 31mins 2secs, Justin Hayhoe 31mins 42secs, Martin Cotton 44mins 46secs, Mark Harris 44mins 59secs.
• Friday 5 – Framlingham Race two saw some more strong performances,

 Gavin Byrne: 28mins 18secs, Steve Bullen 31mins 4secs, Justin Hayhoe 31mins 28secs, Craig Slocombe 33mins 15secs, Chris Smith 34mins 39secs, Danny Draper 37mins 13secs, Martin Cotton 43mins 20secs (PB), Mark Harris 44mins

A big well done to Gavin Byrne who finished in 9^th place which places him in 9^th position in the GBRC all-time Top 10!

Finally the hat trick of heroes of Paul Davidson, Rob Dyer and Tomaz Komorowski completed the LDWA Flower of Suffolk 100 mile in an impressive 34 hours, did you all do a Parkrun first for a warm up I understand that’s standard practice before these events.

Runner of the Month

Well onto the hotly anticipated runner of the month for the month of May.

I took the below snippet from a race report I wrote last September a

“Sadly, Steve Bullen who started the race strong had to pull up just after three miles as he was suffering from suspected Plantar fasciitis, I hope this doesn’t stop you running for too long Steve”

Ok so that gives runner of the month away but I am sure you will all agree that Steve has had one incredible come back since that fateful day at the Langham 10K. I have actually lost count of the number of PB’s and trophies Steve has racked up this month and I am sure there is more to come from him. So an incredible well done to the come back king, PB Steve, May’s  men’s runner of the moth.

WHAT THE LADIES DID

(Guest writer: Ladies Captain)

With two bank holidays and some wonderful weather the ladies have really sprung into action in May! 

At parkrun, Caroline reached her 100 milestone, and Donna P bagged two more Australian parkruns to add to her collection. We also had runners at the usual local haunts, and less-locally a lovely trip to Dartford was had. Well done to all who continue to put their shoes on and head out on a saturday morning. Don’t forget we have our regular parkrun socials so look out for information about the next one of those. 

Sticking with 5k races: battling a strong wind as well as higher than desired temperatures was Lisa at the Ipswich Twilight 5k. And over by the sea was the start of the Harwich 5k series where Inga, Anna, Donna and Daniella are all taking part. Not quite the sea, but a large body of water nonetheless, Lorna, Vicki, Rachel and Claire took on 5k around Lake Bled.

Speaking of series… don’t forget that you can still come along and have a go at the Mickey Edwards 5k route. During May, 19 ladies have run at least one of the Mickey Edwards races, and for those who have run more than one some great improvements are being made. Full results are on the website, however shout out to Sarah and Leoni whose improvements have them sitting in the top 5 on the leaderboard. It looks like there is much to play for in the final two rounds!

Trying something different this month was Claudia who ran the Maldon Mud Run, raising money for a good cause and managing to finish in the top 10% of finishers! A good day all round I would say.

The month also saw Bee helping people to PB’s as a pacer at the Run Through events in the Olympic Park. That sounds like a lot of fun Bee and I am sure those you are running with appreciate it. 

On the longer side of things, we had Andrea and Larina both bagging PBs at the MK Marathon, and Mary-Ann completing London-Marathon-MyWay as an introduction to the 26.2 mile distance. Well done ladies. Fiona was also going the distance at the Flower of Suffolk 100: what an amazing achievement!

On to the 10k distance, and there were a few of these this month. Sarah was at Bewl 10k finishing 2nd in her age category and Leoni at the Stampede 10k (where it sounds like some runners behaved like absolute animals so well done getting through it Leoni!).

The Colchester 10k was also held this month where we had quite the showing of blue vests. In this one were Lindsey, Inga, Sarah, Maddie, Bev, Leoni, Karen, Mags and Kelly. Bee, Lou, Debbie, Claudia and Sammy also took on roles as pacers. Kudos to Mags for an age category win as well as cheers for Kelly on her PB time.

Pretending to be 10 but actually coming in at 11, was the Toppesfield 10, where Vicky and Debs encountered an unexpected footbridge on the trail, but managed to find a beer garden in the end!

And if all that hasn’t exhausted you…there were two Friday 5’s this month, Kirton and Framlingham. Both had Kelly, Donna and Sammy in attendance. 

RUNNER OF THE MONTH

So after all that, who was our runner of the month? This person bagged PB at the Colchester 10k as well as running both Friday 5s, a Mickey Edwards 5k, a charity 5k in Mersea and adding two new parkruns to her list. You have had a fabulous month of running, congratulations Kelly Hayhoe!