Easily the biggest running event on May Bank Holiday Monday was the Vitality London 10,000, which saw 13,533 participants cross the finish line in front of Buckingham Palace. One notable participant was Mo Farah, who won this race in 2018 (29:44) and 2019 (28:15). This time, he clocked 28:44 and was just squeezed into 2nd place by the much younger, highly-promising UK runner, Ellis Cross (aged 25), a remarkable effort by 39-year-old Mo in his first race for nearly a year.
Above left: Buckingham Palace, in front of which the race finished; right: Mo Farah after finishing 2nd in the race. Thanks to Richard Jones for Mo Farah photo on Strava.
Three Newmarket Joggers competed in this race, all recording their best 10km times this year. Richard Jones clocked 46:31, finishing 2,331st overall and 105th of 908 in M55, an impressive age group performance. Anna Mayhew (57:37, 2,103rd F of 6,316, 188th of 952 in F50) was also in fine form, followed by Chris Aylmer (1:04:12, 9,690th, 38th of 77 in M70). Sarah Kinston competed in the Virtual Vitality London 10,000 on Sunday May 1st, recording an unofficial time of 1h:26m. All virtual runners receive the same medal and official tee-shirt as live participants and have until 8th May to complete the run.
Top left: The start, looking down The Mall towards Admiralty Arch; top right: The beautiful Green Park where the event village was situated; bottom left: Anna Mayhew after the race; bottom right: The regal gates from Green Park leading towards Buckingham Palace. Thanks to Anna for Strava photo.
On the same day, it was the Breckland 10K road race near Thetford in Norfolk. Jason Beeton MU40 (40:17, 26th of 264 overall) was in top form and recorded a 10km PB by 27 seconds, beating his previous best time of 40:44 in 2013, according to runbritainrankings.com. Jason has been improving rapidly since rejoining the club in 2021, following a partial lay-off for several years. Next came Clive Purbrook (49:32, 129th, 5th of 18 in M65+), his first sub-50 minute 10K this year, which pushes him up to platinum club standard age grade (70.09%) for 2022. Caroline Mcintosh (F65+) did well to finish in 1:09:32, earning her highest age grade this year of 63.64% (silver club standard).
Above from left: Jason Beeton, Clive Purbrook and Caroline Mcintosh in the Breckland 10K. Thanks to Jason, Clive and Caroline and to Total Race Timing event photos.
Meanwhile, over in Milton Keynes, the MK Marathon took place. Andy Fryatt (3:45:23, 386th of 1,350 overall, 77th of 230 in M50) took on his first ever marathon, having been well prepared by two half marathons and a 20 mile race earlier this year, plus plenty of stamina building training runs. After making excellent progress for most of the way, Andy was disappointed to develop a calf injury which forced him to run/walk the final miles. Nevertheless, it was a valuable learning experience and a very respectable debut marathon time; things can only get better. In the MK Half Marathon, Suzanne Bailey (2:14:09, 313th F of 682, 27th of 73 in F55) put in an excellent effort to narrowly beat her PB time gained in the Cambridge Half Marathon in October 2021. She has made great progress since breaking a bone in her hand, due to a nasty fall during the winter months.
Andy Fryatt (right) and friend in MK Dons football stadium, where the MK Marathon finished. Thanks to Andy for Strava photo.
On Sunday, 1st May, Jimmy Smith had a stab at the Oldbury White Horse Sprint Aquathlon in Wiltshire, which entailed a 250m swim, followed by a 5km run. Jimmy finished 1st of 8 participants in a time of 24:19 (6:10 swim + 18:09 5km), 2 min 47 sec ahead of the 2nd finisher. He was 2nd in the swim and 1st in the run by 3m 27s. This set a new course record for the event, beating the previous best time of 24:56 recorded in 2018. Could this be the start of Jimmy’s triathlon career?
We’re still looking forward to the official results of the first fixture of the 5K Hockeys League, which took place at Impington on Thursday 28th April. We had a good turnout and some extremely good performances by our fastest runners, which bodes well for a really good start to our summer campaign.
5th May, STOP PRESS! Results (highlight, right click and open link or copy & paste into browser):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19zDAEpcIF01OB2lqrVyli6cRkpxQIMF0/edit#gid=206034301