You Bentleys have covered some serious miles recently and I don’t just mean on the tarmac I mean air miles as well, so let’s start local-ish

Wildwood trail half marathon

BCS Events have a series of 4 events under the Wildwood banner these Wildwood races are held in forests in various parts of the country, each one has a 10K, Canicross and half marathon option. Phil and Vicky Presland went for the half marathon option at Epping Forest, as 10K isn’t a long enough distance for the Presland’s and Phil apparently refused to wear a lead. Judging by their smiles though it looked like they had great fun running amongst the trees.

LDWA Blackwater self navigation marathon

This is the first of a few marathons in the edition of the Race report and a local one at that. This seems like it must have been a delightful route to walk but hats off to David and Lou Balfour as the route had to be self navigated. They got round in 7hrs and 20mins and had a fantastic time doing it and I don’t even think they got lost once.

Eryri Marathon (Snowdon)

Off to the mountains now as we head to Wales where Kathy Bishop took on the Eryri marathon. Lured into to entering by seeing picturesque scenes of previous years races Kathy found out that you can’t always rely on everything you see. The race was a tough one and the conditions were unfavourable to say the least, but Kathy still made it round in an impressive time of 4hrs 29mins 45secs, a great result.

Dublin Marathon

Just across the Irish sea Donna Harris was taking on yet another big city marathon this time in Dublin. The conditions were what you’d expect from the Emerald Isle, cold wet and windy, and the course itself was a hilly one. All this aside Donna dug deep and completed the marathon in a pb time 4hrs 23mins 13secs. It must have been the thought of choosing which of Dublin’s 750 pubs to have a celebratory Guinness in afterwards that got you round.

Frankfurt Marathon

Our next marathon destination is Frankfurt and Germany’s oldest city Marathon having been first run in 1981, the Berlin marathon was also run in the same year, but Frankfurt was first.

In another first Frankfurt marathon was Stephan-Hogan-Steele’s first internation marathon and he was looking to go under the four hour mark, and that he did with a time of 3hrs 55mins well done Stephan.

Nocna ściema (Night Scam)

Travelling back to her hometown of Kozalin club secretary Mags decided to pull a fast one and ran a marathon in a time of 2hrs 53mins 11secs, or did she?  This marathon is a six lap course round the town’s streets and even through her old university collage. The race actually starts at 2am meaning that it runs though the daylight savings clock change, buying the runners back an hour on their race times. This means that Mags ran the race in time of 3hrs 53mins and 11secs which earned her a place on the podium as second lady. This achievement is made more impressive as during the race Mags struggled with stomach cramps and at one point lost her phone which added about half a mile on her total distance whilst trying to find it.

Lisbon Marathon

I think we are now at our furthest marathon away from the Uk as we are now in Portugal for the Lisbon marathon, tipped to be one of the most beautiful marathons in the world which is quite a claim. Larina Marsh was the Bentley that took on the beauty, and she did so in a time of 4hrs 46mins 40secs.

Stort 30

A lot closer to home but a bit of a longer distance Tim Clifton ran for his fourth time at Challenge Runnings Stort 30. This race is an out and back ultramarathon which goes up and down the footpaths of the river Stort and Lee navigation channel. Tims time this time round was 6hrs 46secs, a great effort Tim.

Admans 10K

We all know that Adnams make fantastic range of ales Ghostship being a particular favourite of mine, but did you know they also put on a fantastic 10k race as well. Scott Young found this out first hand as not only did he have a great race going round in 54mins 19sec the two beers he got in his goodie bag at the end really made his day.

XC hosted by the Ipswich Jaffas

The cross country season for the NESS league has begun and race 1 was hosted by Ipswich Jaffas at the Ipswich High school in Woolverstone. For those of you that have run this course previously of have competed here in the Ekiden relays you will that although this course looks fairly easy it its actually way tougher than it looks. However everyone ran their socks off and we are currently sitting third for both the men and women. Angel ran for the juniors and in her fastest ever time I believe, well done Angel!

Parkrun rundown

Mary-Ann-Taylor ran at Roding Valley Parkrun and was 13^th lady home.

Carlie Keitch got a ‘P’ at Prospect Parkrun and was 12^th with a time of 20mins 28secs.

Caroline Searle went to a busy Birkenhead Parkrun and was 521^st, in a time of 32min 33sec, that is a busy one.

Craig Mitchel and Sarah Evans Sized up Sizewell Parkrun, Sarah was 1^st lady with a time of 21mons 4sec and Craig was 4^th overall.

Scott Young, Paul and Deb’s Hollidge went to Brundell Parkrun and went round in 27mis 44secs and 25mins 38secs and 27mins 16secs respectively.

Rob Dyer ran his 250^th Parkrun at Claton and promptly replaced all the calories burnt in one breakfast.

Tricia Stacey got a rare ‘Z’ at Zuiderpark over in the Netherlands.

Sarah Evens got 1st lady again and 8^th overall this time at Highwoods Parkrun with a time of 22mins 22secs.

That concludes this edition of the GBRC race report, please don’t forget to submit any of your race times for either a performance standard certificate or our club champs, until next time, lace up tight.