New year, new shoes and the same GBRC, and by the same I mean still out there running and racing in whatever the conditions this time of year throws at you. I had the pleasure of writing the first race report of 2025 and here I am again scribbling down, well typing up your running antics and just like last year there’s still plenty to write about.

Two blues and one muddy marathon

Tim Clifton and Malcom Statham both took on the East Hanningfield trail marathon. This popular self-navigation marathon hosted by Top Day events takes place on the first weekend of January each year. Both of these men are extremely experienced marathon runners, Tim I know runs every single day without fail and I have no doubt will have tackled this particular marathon several times in the past. As for Malcom this was his 242^nd marathon and he already has at least two more in the diary for this year!

Staying long

Another Bentley member who started the year with the marathon distance was David Balfour. David went staggering round Stansted on the LDWA’s Stanstead stagger, which like the East Hanningfield marathon was self-navigation route. Apart from being on the chilly side the cold conditions kept the ground firm side making the walk far less muddy than usual.

Battling Blues

The air was crisp, the ground was dry and the sun shone brightly in the sky, which is completely the opposite conditions to what we usually have for the annual GBRC V’s Harwich 10 miler.

The village hall was buzzing with tense excitement and anticipation of what was to come and as the time drew closer towards 09.30 the runners eagerly filed out and made their way down to the start line.

At 09.30 sharp the race began and the battle was on, and although we ran well with some strong performances from everyone that raced sadly we were outnumbered and out raced by Harwich.

However all is not lost as some those that raced managed to get pb’s and we also have a shot at taking the trophy back at the Harwich relays later this year, and if that doesn’t happen then there is always 2027, my gosh that seems a long time away, but victory once again could and should be ours!

Dean Pepper 1hr 22mins 15secs

Lou Balfour 1hr 28mins 43secs

Martin Cotton 1hr 30mins 47secs

Mary Ann Taylor 1hr 35mins 33secs

X to the C

We start with two ladies in two different counties both racing in cross country championship races. Ladies captain Meera headed to Gloucester Park in Basildon and Andrea James went off to Holbecks farm in Hadleigh. Some of you will have raced at Gloucester Park but the Hadleigh course will be more familiar to more of you as it used to be part of the NESS league that we compete in as a club. Needless to say, both courses are particularly tricky and both have a sizable hill to scale on each lap and although the ground may have been firmer I can’t imagine it making either course any easier. Both ladies put in some amazing running Meera was 56^th lady home and Andrea was 10^th in their respective races.

A week later and we have more mud and hills for Meera and Andrea but this time far closer to home at the hilly fields in Colchester and this time they were joined by men’s captain Carlie Keitch for the Essex league cross country more sterling efforts were put in with Meera and Andrea being 70^th and 15^th ladies home respectively and Charlies Essex league debut saw him come in 120^th

Parkrun

Since the start of the year loads of you have been out Parkrunning and putting in some impressive efforts first place for David Wright at Highwoods and first place for Jimbo at Maldon Prom. Some of have been touristing to places such as Bens Field, Greenwich Penninsula, Sandringham and Sizewell to name a few.

However, I just wanted to take this opportunity to shine a light on one of our junior members as we received and email from an incredibly proud father explaining what this young lady has been up to of recent times.

Winding the clock back a whole year to January 2025 when she started the year with a new pb time of 22 mins 54 secs at Harwich parkrun. Then throughout the year she had been training hard and really dedicating herself to running and this training and commitment came to fruition in December last year when Christmas came early for her with a hat-trick of Parkrun pb’s

6^th December 22 mins 52 secs @ Southend

13^th December 22 mins 13 secs @ ARU Writtle

20^th December 21 mins 59 secs @ Harwich

If this all isn’t impressive enough on the 13^th of December at ARU Writtle, she also achieved her 100^th Parkrun volunteer credit as well! So, who is this amazing young lady I hear you ask she is none other than Angel Jasper, congratulations on your achievements and I hope to be writing and myself and the Bentley race reporting team hope to be writing about more of them this year.

I hope you all enjoyed this first instalment of the 2026 race reports, and I look forward to reading about and writing about more Great Bentley running adventures in the future.