On Sunday at Snetterton Race Track in Norfolk, Andrew Taylor shaved another 53 seconds off his all-time 10K PB, clocking 42:45.This placed him 64th of 707 runners overall and 23rd of 142 in his MV40-49 age group, despite the wide age range not being to his advantage at age 47. Over the last 3 months, Taylor has progressively taken over 2 minutes off his 10K PB, which stood at 44:54 before he clocked 43:55 in the Cambridge Town & Gown 10K last October. It was soon followed by another PB of 43:38 in the George Munday 10K in November, so all cylinders firing.
In the Snetterton 5K race, Joe Cormack clocked 23:50 and was 74th of 257 runners overall, not far from his PB of 23:13. He was followed by Iain Perry in 25:07, which was a Snetterton course record for him and his best road 5K time since he clocked his all-time PB of 24:34 in the Essex Remembrance 5K last November.
Also running at Snetterton in the 10K were Emma Reader (1:14:06) and Jeremy Reader (1:14:09), in their second run together of 2020, helping to raise money for Pregnancy Sickness Support by running a combined total of 245 miles this year. 245 was the number of days that Emma suffered from a dangerous condition during her recent pregnancy and it is her and her husband’s way of saying thank you for the treatment and help received. They were supported by Joe Cormack (1:12:51), who had earlier competed in the 5K race.
It was the Stowmarket Cross Country (XC) 5.3 mile (approx) race at Haughley Park on Sunday, the 3rd of 6 fixtures in the Suffolk Winter XC League. Newmarket Joggers (NJ) and Sudbury Joggers (SJ) join forces and compete together in this league as N&S (Newmarket & Sudbury). No official times are out yet but runners’ own watch times are shown where known.
A bright, cold, sunny morning for the Stowmarket XC at Haughley Park. Photo: Chris Aylmer
It must have been very close for first place in the women’s combined N&S team, between SJ Jackie Hann FV50 (approx 44 to 45 min, not wearing a watch) and NJ Emma Newman (45:07). Well done to them both and apologies for a previous error in watch times and for forgetting to photograph the position sheets after the race, which would have avoided this confusion. We will have to wait for the official results to be sure of placings. SJ Ruth Cowlin FV55 is believed to have finished 3rd in our women’s team in 51:57, so a great run by her too. Emma kindly used this race as a Bushfire Fundraiser for Australia.
For the men, NJ Jimmy Smith MV40 was first home for the team in 32:57, 6th overall of 400+ runners. Next came NJ Mark Hayward 33:16 (13th overall), NJ Paul Holley MV50 and NJ Sam Sadler 36:34 (35th). Smith, Hayward and Holley were three of the victorious Newmarket Joggers who carried off the Men’s Team Cross Country Trophy at the Suffolk XC Championships two weeks ago, so all are in tremendous form.
Other finishers with positions and times will be listed when the official results come out.
The wide expanse of Haughley Park, with the woods in the distance that formed the majority of the twisting, turning route over leafy and sometimes very muddy paths. Photo: Chris Aylmer
Following on from last week’s story of Junior Jogger Cerys Bithell’s success in the Suffolk Schools XC Championship qualifier at Woodbridge, it’s encouraging to report that she clocked 22:36 in the Fulbourn Hospital parkrun on Saturday in only her third 5K parkrun to date. She was first of 5 in her JW11-14 age group and 3rd female to finish of 81 overall. Her PB stands at 22:03, also at Fulbourn, over the Christmas period, when she obtained an age grade of 75.43%, putting her into Diamond club standard. This all bodes well for her Suffolk Schools XC Anglian Championships regional race in Boston, Lincolnshire on 1st February, for which she qualified with her top performance at Woodbridge on 9th January.