A busy weekend for Newmarket Joggers, with Suffolk 3-Mile Relays in Colchester, the Rome Marathon & Relays, plus two local 20-Mile races and a Half Marathon in Surrey

All the races were on Sunday, March 22nd, starting with the Suffolk 3M Road Relays: this is an annual event which provides enjoyable competition for all running clubs across Suffolk. Essex running clubs also compete at this event in a separate competition. Colchester Sports Park is much better than an athletics track for races of 3 miles (i.e., just under 5km), as only 3 laps of one mile are required, compared with 12.5 x 400m laps for 5km on a track. The surface is tarmac; smooth, nearly level and fast, with no lanes, but lots of width for fast runs and high performance.

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Newmarket Joggers entered four teams into the Suffolk competition: a women’s 3 x 3M Open Relay, a men’s 3 x 3M MV40 Relay, a men’s 3 x 3M MV50 Relay and a men’s 4 x 3M Open Relay. The team manager was Richard Defries, who did a great job of organising the teams and motivating everybody.

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In the women’s Open Relay, the NJ team of Kirsty McDermott F35 (3M time 16:59, Age Grade 84.40%), Carol Cienna Carter F55 (18:16, 94.25%) and Sarah Osborne F35 (17:50, 78.79%) put in a tremendous effort to finish 1^st of 12 Suffolk Open teams and 1^st of 24 Suffolk women’s teams overall. Each team member achieved their highest age grade of the year over all distances.

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In the men’s MV40+ competition, the NJ team of Mark Hayward M40 (15:59, 83.00%), Sam Sadler M40 (16:50, 76.44%) and Jimmy Smith M45 (16:25, 82.13%) also put in a top class effort, to finish 1st of six Suffolk MV40+ teams and 1^st of 17 Suffolk Male Vet teams overall. Jimmy Smith and Sam Sadler both achieved their highest age grades of the year, while Mark Hayward was only 0.03% outside his best age grade of 2026.

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In the MV50+ competition, the NJ team of Andy Fryatt M55 (19:18, 77.03%), Neville Clarke M70 (20:57, 81.38%) and Richard Defries M50 (18:37, 77.17%) did well to take 3^rd place trophy of 7 Suffolk teams, with all members achieving their highest age grades of the year.

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The NJ Open men’s team of Andrew Sandeman M30 (18:34, 65.71%), Sergio Pelado M45 (18:40, 73.93%), James Thomson M35 (19:16, 66.35%) and Chris Aylmer M75 (31:29, 56.73%) finished 9^th of 9 Suffolk Open teams, but all members did well to achieve their highest age grades of the year.

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Rome Marathon & Relays: Six joggers entered the full Marathon event. First to finish was Paul Holley (3:19:50, 1,231st of 29, 937 overall, 18^th of 463 in M60), who was very happy with his pace control. Then came Marc Drury (3:28:31, 1,814th, 201^st of 1,031 in M50) who was “chuffed” with the result and is improving fast after an Achilles injury. He was followed by excellent runs from Jon Brooker M60 (3:35:29) and Jeremy Reader M50 (4:04:30), who may have been late entries and lack positional details. Marc’s wife Angela Drury (4:23:41, 161^st of 298 in F45) was next to finish; she enjoyed everything about the race, apart from struggling a little in the final 5km over the cobbled streets. Also running extremely well was Jan Holmes F60 (4:42:49) with a huge marathon PB, down from 5:28 two years ago.

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In the Marathon Relays, NJ put in two teams of 4, called ‘Suffolk Centurions’ (Martin Smith M45, Sarah Kinston F50, Sarah Martin F45 and Anna Mayhew F55) and ‘Chicks With Kicks’ (Bridget Wallwin F55, Jo Bouttell F60, Suzanne Bailey F60 and Jo’s friend Anna Wienker). All team members put in very sound efforts to achieve total Marathon times of 4:17:46 and 4:14:25 respectively, The leg distances were approximately 11km, 13km, 7.2km and 11km, making 42.2km in all.

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Much nearer home, four Joggers took on the popular, local Wymondham 20M race, which is a favourite event to help prepare for a spring marathon. Chris Underwood (2:29:56, 114^th of 517 overall, 53^rd of 132 in MS) did very well to achieve a PB by almost 7 minutes. Then came the in-form Hannah Pollard (2:32:08, 14^th F of 196, 2^nd of 25 in F45) with a great run, in her first known attempt at the distance. She was followed by Jason Beeton (2:38:04, 165th, 21^st of 48 in M40), representing first claim Thetford AC, and Olivia Carter (2:47:57, 42^nd F, 21^st of 96 in FS). Olivia also appears to be new to this distance. She really enjoyed her race from start to finish, with immaculate and seemingly effortless splits all the way through, the same as she did in her recent half marathon at Southwold. If she is planning a spring marathon, she couldn’t be better prepared.

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Above from left: Jason Beeton during race; Chris Underwood, Hannah Pollard and Olivia Carter all approaching the finish line.

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Twin Lakes 10/20M, Milton Keynes: Four Joggers competed at this event. Helen Hilario (2:46:22, 159^th of 735 overall, 32^nd F of 373, 5^th of 75 in F50-59) was bang in form in the 20M race and beat her time at the same event last year by about 6 minutes. She enjoyed the route and the scenery as much as ever. Ellie Bithell (1:28:22, 22^nd F of 236, 12^th of 89 in F40-49) started in the 20M race but decided to move down to the 10M distance due to not feeling 100%. She still achieved a very good result. Dan Bainbridge (3:06:47, 296th of 735 overall, 74^th of 137 in SM) felt really good and beat his time in the Tarpley 20M last month by over 20 minutes. It will give him confidence for his Paris Marathon attempt in April. Ian McClements (3:14:23, 361st, 81^st of 112 in M40-49), representing 1^st claim Stevenage Striders, was happy enough with his effort in the 20M race, except that he took a wrong turn and added 0.75 miles to the distance.

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Surrey Half Marathon, Woking: Rob Pollard (1:50:39, 1,342 of 2991 overall, 193^rd of 317 in M35), was very pleased with his form and achieved a new PB by about 5 minutes. He said it was tough and undulating but he loved every minute of the race. Also in this race was Wendy Ancill (1:56:03, 336th F of 1,073, 9th of 50 in F55), former club secretary, who has now moved to a new home in Surrey with her husband Mark Geddie, both still members of Newmarket Joggers until the end of March. Her PB appears to be 1:52:11 in 2024.

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LATEST NEWS: Caroline Mcintosh F70 was in Portugal from Monday last week for her annual training camp at Albufeira on the southern coast. It involved quite a few long training runs over the rocky terrain. On the Tuesday, they had an opening race called the Falesia 5km, which was a useful way to test the abilities of the runners, so they could be allotted to similar paced groups. She did very well to finish in 35:03 over the very hilly and rocky course and earned her highest age grade of the year so far, at 62.86%.  The photo below shows the group taking part in this race. On the Thursday there was a very long training run, where Caroline was advised to run for a maximum of 3h:15m. She managed 23.6km in this time (14.7 miles), which was good going over the demanding terrain, including 50% trail.

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Many thanks for all the photos, which bring the report alive.