Hello GBRC. July has ended and so it is time for another Newsletter, huzzah!
News and Notices
Geoff Day 5k
Sunday 17th August sees the running of our annual 5k race in memory of one of the club’s most talented runners, Geoff.
To learn more about Geoff and his running click this link: https://gbrc.org.uk/our-races/geoff-day-memorial-5k/
The 5k race will start at 9am with registration from 8:15am in the Great Bentley village hall.
We will also be having some fun and games on the green after the race. People are welcome to bring a bit of a picnic, and the pub will be open a bit later in the day if people want to grab food. It would be great to have a large turn-out and enjoy some club spirit together, so hopefully see you there!
The announcements group in the WhatsApp Community has information, as well as a poll from Charlie where you can put your name down to marshal.
Awards Night
Following the feedback from our members, the annual awards night has been re-imagined and will now take place in January.
Key info:
Date: Saturday 17th January
Location: Colchester Rugby Club (at the sportspark where we have Thursday track)
Cost: £23 per person (although may vary slightly depending on numbers)
The night will include the usual awards presentation as well as a buffet and professional DJ. We hope this will be a true celebration of another fantastic year of GBRC with much merriment and dancing.
We need to get an idea of numbers so please fill out this form if you intend to come: https://forms.gle/Fs9rC1EtdYGJq5q78
Trail Runs
The trail run series for 2025 is now well underway. Thanks to Rodger for setting this up for us again this year. August’s run is from Lawford and is about 7 miles long. Instructions for the run are on our website here: https://gbrc.org.uk/our-races/great-bentley-trail-runs/
Please try not to share the route on Strava until the end of the month and do forget to message Rodger when you start and when you finish so that he might know who is eligible for a “I trailed them all” t-shirt.
Parkrun Socials
The next set of parkrun socials has been planned and will be as follows:
- 30 August = Felixstowe parkrun
- 13 September = Harwich parkrun
We also haven’t forgotten our plan to visit Bushy parkrun. Now that we have provisional cross country dates the committee will be planning this, so look out for that announcement!
Cross Country
Time is passing which means cross country season is creeping up on us.
Provisional dates for the NESS league are:
- Sunday 26th October 2025 – Ipswich JAFFA RC
- Sunday 16th November 2025 – Springfield Striders RC
- Sunday 30th November 2025 – Great Bentley Running Club
- Sunday 7th December 2025 – Braintree and District AC
- Sunday 15th February 2026 – Halstead Road Runners
- Sunday 22nd February 2026 – Harwich Runners
More details will be emailed to members prior to the first race. Please save the date of our race (30th November) in particular as we will need lots of volunteers to put the race on as well as people to run.
Cross Country Relays are on 11th October, which involve runners each running a loop of 5k. We will be collecting names for those who want to take part soon and it would be amazing to have a large GBRC turnout this year.
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:
Training
A reminder that training sessions are now managed within the Whatsapp community. Please join the groups of the sessions you are likely to attend. Each week the session leader will create an event and you can click “going” if you intend to go.
Training for each week is also available on our website, which remains the hub of all club information.
A more holistic view of training is also available on the “Training” section of our website. Click on the most recent week and at the top of the page you can find a link to the PDF showing training for the season. The current schedule runs to the end of August.
WHAT THE LADIES DID
A warm welcome to new ladies in our squad, I hope you are enjoying sessions with GBRC so far.
What our ladies have been up to
It’s been another busy month with you ladies here there and everywhere running.
At parkrun Mags celebrated her 200th run, Donna P bagged more tourism at Blyth Links and Angel was a first finisher at Highwoods with a PB run.
Whilst in Northumberland, Donna P also entered the Newcastle 10k, which I suppose was good prep before tackling the Ipswich Twilight 10k with Lorraine. Also at the Ipswich twilight was Caroline D.
Right at the start of the month we had the GBRC Friday 5, which was the last in the series. Firstly, thank you to all who volunteered and helped that race happen. Well done to the ladies who ran our race in Bentley and special mention for the lady who ran every race in the series and finished 4th in her category overall: Kelly! Well done Kelly.
On the same weekend were the spitfire scramble and Ekiden. Both team events that saw GBRC do rather well. Congratulations to all who ran at those events and I hope they were lots of fun (as that’s what team events should be!)
Katie C had success at the St Neots triathlon with a 1st in age group.
Lisa took on the multi-terrain fun that is the Brantham 5 mile and placed 3rd. Also in the 5 mile category this month were those to took part in the Arthur W memorial event. This sounded like a great race and I hope it keeps going into the future.
Really going the distance was Zoe Wolff, who did a 10 miler in the rain as well as the Suntime Runtime with Rebecca Bottrell.
Helene also upped the step-count when we took on an LDWA 50 miler.
Claudia was back on the Essex trails (with Scott and Gary). On slightly further afield trails was Mags, who ran a half marathon in Koszalin which appeared to finish with a podium to climb on to!
What a month!
Runner of the month
Our runner of the month for July is someone who just keeps getting better. She improved the most at the GBRC Mickey Edwards series, and went on to seal the deal at the Harwich 5k series with another trophy there. Her team was also boosted to success in the GBRC Ekiden cup by her powerful anchor leg.
Congratulations Ella Harris, you are this month’ runner of the month!
WHAT THE MEN DID
What our men have been up to
July has been and gone in a flash, but despite the hot weather it was great to see so many standout performances from our men. These included:
- Three of our men on the podium for the overall results at the Friday 5 series. Huge congratulations to Gav Byrne, who finished third overall in the Male Senior category, Steve Bullen, who picked up the trophy for the fastest MV50, and Justin Hayhoe who finished third in the same category.
- More trophies than you could shake a stick at the Spitfire Scramble which cumulatively saw GBRC complete 150 laps of Hornchurch Country Park, totalling almost 900 miles!
- Everyone who ran at Ekiden, including our Blue Team who came third overall in the mixed open category and also took home a trophy.
- A shiny new PB of 27:52 for Gav Byne at the inaugural Arthur Whiston Memorial 5 miler.
- And Gary Cooper who took home the Director’s Cup for his performances at the Harwich 5k series.
Runner of the month
This month we’re breaking with tradition by naming two men as our men’s Runner(s) of the month for their fantastic work at the Spitfire Scramble, and although Paul Davison and Rob Dyer finished first in the men’s doubles events on the day, they’ve been pipped to ROM by James Eyre and Matt Illsley who finished second.
This was the first time that James and Matt had taken on an event like this and they absolutely smashed it. Every time I saw James over the course of the 24 hours he was smiling, and his lap times (all 13 of them) are flabbergasting in their consistency. His fastest took just 46:22 and his slowest, almost 18 hours later, took 59:32 (and he even managed to speed up again for his final two laps).
Competing alongside James was Matt, who had a more difficult weekend. Picking up an injury after his fourth lap, Matt continued to grind out the miles for almost 16 more hours, sometimes walking sometimes running, but slowly ticking off the distance and putting in the hard work to put the team into a strong position as the 24 hours came to a close. At one point it looked like they would finish third, but with less than 10 minutes to go James headed out for a final lap which saw the pair finish in second place with 25 laps in total.
James and Matt – we salute you!
Great Bentley Running Club 