Newmarket Joggers Sarah Boneham, Carol Mcintosh and Jon Ollington travelled to Germany for the Berlin Marathon on Sunday. Boneham put in a top performance and clocked 4:07:36 to complete her set of 6 “Grand Slam” major marathons, having previously competed at Chicago, London, Tokyo, New York and Boston. She is now a coveted member of the exclusive 6 Star Finisher club, with an elaborate commemorative medal and certificate, so a great achievement. Mcintosh took a massive 20 minutes off her PB, previously achieved in the New York City Marathon, coming home in 5:24:01 and keeping a perfectly even pace throughout. Ollington clocked an encouraging time of 4:10:49 in his first recorded marathon.
Nearer home on the same day it was the Great East Run Half Marathon in Ipswich. Daisy Glover had a fantastic race and finished in a time of 1:19:14, her season’s best time. She was second female home and in 12th overall position from 2,559 finishers. Other Joggers to complete the course were Paul Dockerill (1:31:19), Giles Macrow (1:51:31) and Chris Aylmer (2:05:18).
Elsewhere, James Tweed (1:48:45) took on the Rutland Water Half Marathon and finished 12th of 89 in his age group, despite a progressively worsening hamstring injury in the closing miles. In the Harvest Trail Half Marathon on Royston Heath, Richard Groom managed a very respectable 2:01:02 on a very tough and hilly cross country course. On Saturday, Henry Hamilton-Gould ran a Kilomarathon (26.2km, 16.27m) in Wicklow, Ireland, clocking a decent 2:02:32 as preparation for his Chicago Marathon attempt in three week’s time.
In Cambridge on Sunday, it was the traditional Chariots of Fire Relay Races around the Backs of King’s College and Trinity College, each 6-member team running 6 x 1.7 mile legs. It’s mainly a fun charity event organised by Hewitson’s Charitable Trust, so no real emphasis on winning, but Jan Holmes, Lisa Winnington, Josh Brown, Sam Sadler, Karen Kent, Cathy Russell and Adam Maltpress were among Joggers who represented various teams and helped to raise funds without taking any top prizes.
The Round Norfolk Relay took place from Saturday morning until Sunday morning, going right through the night. It’s the second time Newmarket Joggers has taken part in this 198 mile circular relay race, roughly following the Norfolk county border and with 17 stages of varying lengths. There were 60 teams this year and it takes a lot of hard work and coordination by each team to make this event happen, such as cyclist and van support for all 17 of its runners. The emphasis is on teamwork and team spirit rather than winning. It’s a staggered start with the slowest teams going first, so that all teams arrive back in King’s Lynn at about the same time on Sunday morning. Jim Withers was chief coordinator and Kate Warboys timekeeper for the Joggers. This year the Joggers were 19th overall team of 60 and 6th of 18 in their entry category, with a total time of 25:41:08 and an average pace per mile of 7:48. This improved on last year’s time by 9 min and 23 seconds when they were 22nd of 61 teams. The stages were completed by:
Richard Jones (16.32m) 2:12:34, Jon Brooker (13.75m) 1:44:00, Kate Warboys (5.76m) 1:06:13, Jeremy Reader (11.14m) 1:52:50, Brian Munns (10.81m) 1:32:37, Melanie Tindale (7.90m) 1:09:12, Ruth Eberhardt (9.24m) 1:13:13, Danielle Jones (7.52m) 1:02:55, Hannah Pollard (16.60m) 2:10:32, Neil Pollard (18.13m) 1:55:31, Sam Sadler (12.45m) 1:22:16, Mark Hayward (19.67m) 2:20:43, Neil Williamson (13.25m) 1:38:48, Alan Shand (7.27m) 1:01:02, Neville Clarke (10.59m) 1:15:27, Pauline Green (5.49m) 0:42:54 and Greg Davis (11.73m) 1:20:21.
No individual or team prizes but great teamwork by everybody and particularly good age graded performances by Neville Clarke 80.3% (25th out of 1,020), Greg Davis 78.1%, Pauline Green 74.9% and Neil Pollard 73.8%. Notable that the age grade winner at 88.6% was 78-year-old Eva Osbourne of Wymondham AC, who ran Stage 16 (5.49m) in 52:01 at 9:28 mile pace…an inspiration to us all.
Well done everybody!