The Joggers mounted a formidable attack on the Great North Run on Sunday, with 12 club members among the ranks. Top club veteran Paul Holley was in the vanguard with a faultless 1:21:31 which put him a phenomenal 3rd of 2,100 in his MV50-54 age group, only 35 seconds from 1st place. Even then, Holley was several minutes short of his season’s best time, so for some unobvious reason this race was very tough for all concerned with PBs rarer than a dodo. Other Joggers to finish were: Jamie Sales (1:30:50), Henry Hamilton-Gould (1:36:17), Gavin Moody (1:42:45), Giles Macrow (1:53:30), Mike Sales (1:57:12), Miles Johnson (2:05:45), Sarah Sales (2:11:10), Cathy Russell (2:13:13), Jan Holmes (2:18:28), John Milne (2:25:36) and Mary Marsh (2:27:27).
Much nearer home, Simon Harris (39:57), Marc Drury (43:47) and Andrew Taylor (47:36) had a crack at the Greater Cambridge 10K. Harris and Taylor were close to their season’s best times and Drury did very well in his first recorded 10K race.
In the Colchester Zoo Stampede Half Marathon, Meera Mahadevan showed rapid improvement and clocked 1:53:59 to take almost 5 minutes off her 2018 PB set at Aberdeen only two weeks ago. She was 1st of 26 in her FV40 age group so a great effort.
Meanwhile Brian Munns (1:17:05), Nik Chapman (1:21:53) and Jim Withers (1:30:54) were competing in the Harlow 10 in Essex. Munns had a fantastic run to clock his best time for 10 miles since 2011, while Chapman took 14 minutes off his season’s best time. Withers also gained a 2018 PB, so success all round.
Clive Purbrook (39:54) did well to finish 148th of 305 in the unique Scores Race on Sunday at Lowestoft over 4.75 miles, which involves 13 stepped inclines up the sea wall.
In the final Kevin Henry League 5K race, organised by Cambridge & Coleridge (C&C) at the Cambridge University Track last Thursday, the main news is that the Joggers’ women deservedly secured second place to winners C&C, with a consistent effort over all 6 fixtures, while the men safely held onto 4th place in their competition, with C&C, Ely and Haverhill the top three. As a combined team, the Joggers also finished 4th.
In an overall field of 380 (157 women), Grainne Brennan (19:47) was in top form and finished first female Jogger in 8th position, followed by Hannah Pollard 13th (20:16), Isabella Soro 30th (22:01), Olivia Carter 34th (22:18) and Danielle Jones 50th (23:32). For the men, Neil Pollard (16:33) put in a super 5K PB (by 1 second!) and led the Joggers home in 10th overall position, followed by Chris Gay 23rd (17:15), Sam Sadler 34th (17:51), Mark Hayward 49th (18:17) and Jason Bevan 68th (19:04). In addition to the top scoring first 5 women and men, all other Joggers earned a valuable point for the team. A string of 2018 5K PBs was achieved by the NJ women in this race: Pauline Green (24:45), Jill O’Grady (26:48), Marjie Davis (29:58), Kate Warboys (31:26), Carol McIntosh (31:37), and Jenny Osbourn (33:56). In addition to Neil, Daryl Moran (23:18) also beat his best time this year. Well done to them all! Win or lose, the Kevin Henry League is great fun and good competition for all participating, at all levels of age and ability.
On a lighter note, Jogger Daisy Glover and her friend Scott Manning from Framlingham Flyers took on the Chappell Ale Trail Challenge on Saturday morning, starting from Chappell & Wakes Colne Station in Essex where the 32nd Chappell Beer Festival was in full swing. They had to self-navigate around a 5.5 mile off-road route and collect souvenirs along the way to prove they had covered the distance. They still managed to average about 7:30 per mile pace, including stops, and took only 41 minutes altogether, which made them joint winners of the race, no doubt by quite a margin. They got free entry to the beer festival and free beer glasses as a prize. That was just after they had finished first and second overall in the Great Notley parkrun with Daisy setting a new course record for her age group of 18:32. Definitely worth a beer or two!
Reporting your results: Please email: press@newmarketjoggers.co.uk if you would like to let us know about a race (not a parkrun or GRL) you have taken part in, including your name and race details plus results link if possible. We need to know by Sunday evening as the reports go to press on a Monday morning for publication on Thursday. We keep an eye on most local races but more distant races can easily be missed. Not everyone’s results will make it to newsprint…that depends on space and the sports editor, but they should appear on this page. Current press contact: Chris Aylmer.