Newmarket Joggers were out in force for the Cambridge Half Marathon on Sunday March 5th, with the start and finish on Victoria Avenue, beside Midsummer Common. There were 22 Joggers competing in a total field of 11,382, the biggest ever number of participants in this annual race.
Troi Baxter going around King’s College lawns in the Cambridge HM. Many thanks to Troi and the race organisers for the great photo.
First three home for the Joggers, putting in huge efforts, were Neil Pollard (1:11:42PB, 53rd overall, 2nd of 939 in M40-44), Mark Hayward (1:14:03, 90th overall, 10th in M40-44) and Troi Baxter (1:20:36PB, 376th overall, 20th Female of 4,699, 9th of 837 in F25-29). Pollard and Baxter recorded big half marathon PBs of 1m:27s and 2m:54s respectively, while Hayward was only 57s outside his best ever time. All three runners will be aiming high for the TCS London Marathon on 26th April.
Above left: Troi Baxter with her trademark celebration after her big PB; above right: Neil Pollard (left) and Mark Hayward with their well-deserved medals. Many thanks to them for the photos.
Other female Joggers putting in big efforts for the club were Ellie Bithell F45-49 (1:41:38, PB by 5m:5s, 433rd F), Jessica Bird F25-29 (1:45:26PB, 633rd F), Sarah Sales F50-54 (1:59:25, 1,760th F), Belinda Schofield F65-69 (1:55:59, best time since 2015, 1,383rd F), Sarah Last F50-54 (2:34:07, 4,084th F) and Pearl Fay F60-64 (2:36:02, 4,176th F). Gillie Green unfortunately had to retire with a knee injury after 7.5 miles. We wish her a speedy recovery.
Above left: Ellie Bithell after her big PB in the Cambridge Half; above right: Jessica Bird, enjoying her run nearest camera, with King’s College Chapel in the background. Many thanks to them both for the photos and to the race organisers.
Other male Joggers doing the club proud were: Ben Blowes M50-54 (1:23:47, 574th), Chris Underwood M30-34 (1:29:42, PB by 3m:5s, 1,031st), Andy Fryatt M55 (1:31:16, 1,285th), Sam Sadler M35-39 (1:32:33, 1,425th), Jonathan Ollington M55 (1:33:56, 1,601st), Shane McAndrew M35-39 (1:35:18PB, 1,752nd), Jeremy Reader M45-49 (1:49:14, 4,247th), Robert Hawkins M55-59 (1:51:35, PB by 7m:15s, 4,719th), Mike Sales M55 (2:01:59, 6,990th), Andy McKeague M35-39 (1:57:06PB, 5,941st), David McNally M25-29 (2:10:12, 8,321st) and Chris Aylmer M70-74 (2:19:14, 9,450th).
From left: Neil Pollard, Andy Fryatt, Jonathan Ollington, Jessica Bird & friend Helen. Front: Jeremy Reader. Many thanks to the team for the photo.
Tokyo Marathon, Tokyo, Japan, Sunday 5th March: Caroline Mcintosh enjoyed a great run among 36,570 runners in the Tokyo Marathon, finishing in 5:39:52, 31,379th overall, 7,026th F of 8,617 and 61st of 98 in her F70-74 age group. This completes her 6 Abbott Major Marathons of New York City, Boston, Chicago, London, Berlin and Tokyo; a dedicated and sometimes rocky road to achievement, which started in 2015 in New York City and was almost derailed by a succession of injuries and the Covid pandemic. However, Caroline never gave up and remained positive throughout.
Caroline Mcintosh (on extreme left) sight-seeing in Tokyo, the day before the Marathon. Many thanks for the photo.
Dorney Lake Half Marathon, near Windsor, Sunday 5th March: Paul Holley (1:14:49, 3rd of 208 overall, 1st of 18 in M50-59) was in unstoppable, trophy-winning form around this hard path multi-lap course, earning 91.87% age grade. Extraordinary that Holley’s PB on Power of 10 is 1:09:46 in the Reading Half Marathon in 2005; so he has lost only 5m:3s in 18 years.
Dorney Lake, near Windsor. Many thanks to Paul Holley for the photo.
Essex 20M & Inter-County Championships, Sunday 5th March at Carver Barracks, near Saffron Walden: Jimmy Smith (1:57:46, 19th of 337 overall, 8th of 23 in M40-44) was honoured to be included in the 4-man team to represent Suffolk in this 20 mile multi-lap race over hard path. He finished 14th of the 42 inter-county runners and helped the Suffolk team win 2nd place behind Essex, with Norfolk in 3rd. Smith also recorded his best time in a 20-mile race since 2017 and his second fastest ever, so is in great current form. The women’s Suffolk team of 4 also won 2nd place trophy.
Jimmy Smith (bib 36, 2nd from left) with Suffolk teammates Marcus Sladden (35, Bungay Black Dog), Scott Williams (34, Stowmarket Striders) and Jack Nixon (33, Saint Edmund Pacers). Many thanks to Jimmy for the photo.
Bungay XC, Southwold, Suffolk Winter League, 5th of 6 fixtures: A loyal band of 11 male and 5 female Newmarket Joggers (NJ) & Sudbury Joggers (SJ) turned up at Southwold, for the 5th fixture of the Suffolk Winter League, with a significant number of our regular participants having other races booked for the date. We did have enough runners for a full first ‘A’ team of 7 men and 4 women, with a few in reserve. The team did a great job in the absence of some of our fastest runners and stepped up to the task admirably. It’s good that this type of situation gives others a chance to take on an exciting challenge.
Some of the N&S team at Southwold XC, from left: Jim Withers, Neville Clarke, Joey Bendall, Nicole Smith, Brian Munns, Tom Elton, Andy Buck?, Jenny Osbourn, Marc Drury, Angela Drury, Ian Butcher and Jo Bouttell. Many thanks to the team for the photo and to scorer Jenny Osbourn for all the race positions.
Full results will not be out for a few days but we do know the positions of our runners from N&S. There were around 250 runners overall and the course was estimated from GPS as 5.3 miles or 8.5km, over rough, muddy, low-lying ground close to the River Blyth; proper XC conditions.
Scene of the Southwold XC course, with thanks to Ian Butcher.
The women’s A team comprised Sarah Osborne NJ 74th overall, Angela Drury NJ 182nd, Nicole Smith NJ 189th and Sianie Painter NJ 207th, with Jo Bouttell NJ 240th in the women’s B team. The men’s A team comprised Joey Bendall NJ (33:13 own time, 7th overall, Piotr Bulacz SJ 15th, Marc Drury NJ 56th, Andy Buck SJ 64th, Daniel Tee NJ 66th, Neville Clarke NJ 81st and Tom Elton NJ 111th. The men’s B team included Ian Butcher NJ 147th, Brian Munns NJ 199th, Jim Withers NJ 217th and Malcolm Osbourn NJ 224th.
Sarah Osborne and Daniel Tee at Southwold XC. Many thanks for the nice photo.