It’s Calippo season and the blues have been out in force to beat the heat. Personally I’ve been laying face down on the kitchen floor and scrolling my phone whilst sitting in the fridge.
Friday 5 series
The Friday 5 is a series of six races, each approximately five miles long, in case the name wasn’t enough of a clue.
Sudbury Friday 5 was held on the 6th June with a start time of 7.30pm from the Great Cornard Sports centre. Running for the blues were:
Gavin Byrne – 28:23
Justin Hayhoe – 31:26
Christopher Thornton – 36:02
Danny Draper – 36:37
Kelly Hayhoe – 39:08
Martin Cotton – 42:06
Daniella Harris – 52:28
Mark Harris – 52:31
The Bury St Edmunds edition of the Friday 5 also kicked off at 7.30pm on 20th June with many of the same runners lacing up.
Gavin Byrne – 28:43
Stephen Bullen 31:39
Justin Hayhoe – 32:50
Kelly Hayhoe 41:57
Martin Cotton 46:07
Mark Harris – 49:21
Sammy Cotton – 50:28
Donna Harris – 53:46
Summer Wolf Run Leicestershire
Leoni Harvey was on her travels to visit Stanford Hall in Leicestershire for an obstacle run. I’ve had a look at the website and it sems like a great event. https://thewolfrun.com/events/summerwolf/
Cateran Yomp
David Balfour completed the Cateran Yomp – a 54 mile endurance event with almost 8,000 feet of elevation in Perth, Scotland. Completing the course in 18:27:36, David earned himself 70th place out of the 539 who managed to complete the full 54 mile course which started on 7th June.
Suffolk Back Yard Ultra
The Backyard Ultra, also known as the “last man standing,” is a unique ultramarathon format where participants must run a 4.167-mile loop every hour on the hour. This pace equates to 100 miles in 24 hours. Runners who fail to complete a loop within the hour are eliminated. The race continues until only one runner is able to finish a loop—the sole official finisher and winner. All others receive a “DNF”. The runner who completes the second-highest number of loops is called the “assist,” as their performance ultimately determines how long the race goes on. There is no set distance or time limit—so long as two or more runners keep completing loops within the hour, the race continues.
Challenge Running’s SBYU is the largest of these events in the UK and was held at Brandon Country Park with the event starting on 7th June at 12pm.
Adam Toyne and Tim Clifton took part in the event with Adam completing 10 yards before timing out on his 11th (45.4 miles). Tim completed eight yards for a total of 33.34 miles.
The overall winner, Jan Voorspoels from Belgium completed 49 laps for a total of 204.19 miles. The current Backyard Ultra world record is held by Łukasz Wróbel, who ran 116 laps (777 km) at Legends Backyard Belgium in Retie, Belgium. He completed this feat in almost five days, running 4.167 miles every hour for 116 hours straight.
Harwich Triathlon
On the 7th and 8th June, Harwich held it’s annual triathlon series with Olympic length and sprint options.
Olympic length triathlon results were:
Richard Allen 3:08:16
Piers Markwick 3:11:12
Donna Harris 3:11:25
Tom Higgins 3:12:14
Katie Collin 3:21:07
And for the sprint triathlon:
Amy Young – 1:28:00
Martin Cotton 1:38:24
Mark Harris 1:39:09
Boxted 10K
It was a popular weekend for events with the annual running of the Boxted 10k put on by Boxted Runners.
Billy Hamilton – 40:06
Chris Warren – 40:53
Malcolm Statham – 47:35
Dean Pepper – 51:52
Anna Lyon – 54:04
Karen O’Grady – 1:24:37
Southend Half Marathon
Another event on the 8th June saw the Southend Half Marathon. This event has a reputation for being warm. Crag Slocombe completed the event in 1:24:25 earning himself 46th place in the process with Robbie Lee coming home in 1:48:08.
High Easter 10k
Stephen Bullen raced up his racing shoes for the second time in three days to complete the High Easter 10k in 38:52 earning himself 1st place in his age category.
Endure 24
I’m starting to feel like Jimmy Cricket here (ask your grandparents) – And there’s more! Richard Hudd was part of a team of four call Mustdash taking part in this event. The team managed 26 laps with Richard and his magnificent moustache responsible for seven of these. Richard enjoyed it so much that he’s already signed up as a solo for next year’s event.
Porkrun
And finally for this weekend, the Oakleys visited Old Deer Parkrun in Richmond. Meera completed the course in 34:35 with Robin finishing in 24:41
Essex 5000m Track Championships
The Byrne Machine, Gavin Byrne, ran a blistering time of 16:48 in his first ever track event. The event was held at Brentwood School Athletics track on the evening of 11th June. Gavin was happy with his performance despite not feeling 100% on the day.
Barmouth 10k
Barmouth, a seaside town and community in the county of Gwynedd, Wales, saw the running of it’s 10k event on 14th June. Craig Mitchell ran round in 38:56 earning himself 19th place in a field of almost 1,000 runners.
DBS Langham 10k
Described as hilly and tough, the inaugural running of this event took place on 15th June. Designed by Sports is a local company that produces running clothing and this was their first foray into the area of running an event. Andrea James took ladies trophy for the event with Mags Komorowska posting fourth. There were a few other GBRC runners at the event, but the results are not within the reach of Google, so they’ll have to remain faceless and forever unknown.
That’s your lot for this one. Can people stop doing so many events please? It’s taken me ages to write this, and I want another Calippo. Until next time.
Great Bentley Running Club 