RUN SANDRINGHAM 24: From 12 noon Saturday 19th August to 12 noon Sunday 20th, ten Newmarket Joggers plus a couple of their friends were among over 1000 runners taking part in this event, which involved repeated 5-mile laps around the Royal Sandringham Estate, through woods and along trails and pathways. Runners could compete solo or in teams of 2 or more, with the various category winners achieving the most laps in 24 hours. The course was chip-timed and no time was allowed on the clock for rests between laps, though rests could be freely taken.
Above: Newmarket Plodders, from left: Jimmy Smith, Liam Elvidge, Amy Buckley, Paul Holley, Ruth Eberhardt and Nicole Smith. Thanks for the team photo.
‘Newmarket Plodders’ (Mixed team of 6: Jimmy Smith, Nicole Smith, Paul Holley, Ruth Eberhardt, Liam Elvidge and friend Amy Buckley) completed 34 laps (170 miles) and finished 2nd of 9 mixed teams of 6 or more. Average lap time: 42:52.
‘Cheveley Chuggers’ (Mixed team of 4: Hannah Parsons, Richard Jones, Jon Brooker and friend Paul Buckle) completed 31 laps (155 miles) and finished 4th of 21 mixed teams of 3-5. Average lap time: 46:54.
Nathan Brown competed in the male Solo event and managed 15 continuous laps (75 miles) in 12:39:02, before retiring with a painful knee; a sensible decision with his targeted Berlin Marathon coming up in September. He still finished 24th of 98 solo competitors in numbers of laps completed. Average lap time: 50:37.
Sophie Adams entered the female Solo event and did well to achieve 7 laps (35 miles), alternating with rest intervals during the 24 hour period; her longest known mileage in a day. Also in the female Solo, Sarah Last, the veteran of a London Marathon in 2019, completed 3 laps (15 miles) with interval rests, each lap ~56 minutes.
Above left: Ruth Eberhardt finishing a lap; above right: Nathan Brown before his 15-lap solo run or maybe the morning after. Many thanks for the photos.
All in all, a great day’s mileage for the Joggers, with 450 miles of running clocked up in 24 hours.
Above left: Event village by night; above right: Paul Holley and the ghostly face of Jimmy Smith in the dark. Thanks for the photos.
Run Sandringham in the twilight, with thanks to Paul Holley.
BMW HELSINKI MARATHON, Saturday August 19th: Caroline Mcintosh (5:56:06, 881st of 886 overall, 189th F of 192, 3rd in F70+) put in big effort in this race, where there was little in the way of fun runners to bring up the rear and only a small proportion of women in total.
In her current age group of 70-74, 6 hours is the time to beat for a chance to qualify for a place in the TCS London Marathon 2024, so holds some particular significance for Caroline, although she has already achieved the qualifying time in her Tokyo Marathon in March this year.
From 2010 to 2017 Caroline did well to complete 8 marathons but struggled to get consistently under 6 hours. Since then, her marathon times have been much more assured at 5:24:01 (Berlin, 2018), 5:38:44 (Manchester, 2019), 5:32:37 (Chicago, 2019), 6:19:11 (Boston US, 2022), 5:43:24 (Amsterdam, 2022), 5:39:52 (Tokyo, 2023) and now 5:56:06 in Helsinki. Caroline is certainly an inspiration for all and shows no signs of slowing down with age, beating the time in her first ever marathon (Edinburgh, 2010) by over 15 minutes, when she was a mere 57 years old.
Caroline Mcintosh after the Helsinki Marathon. Thanks for the great photo.
BORROWDALE TRAIL HALF MARATHON, Lake District, Sunday August 20th: Angela Brennan (3:24:14, 119th of 126 overall, 49th F of 55) courageously tackled this very hilly, half marathon course, which entailed 1,685ft of climb. Angela has been on an upward trend all through this year, with a big 5k PB in July, and is in her best form since starting running in 2017.
Angela Brennan after the Borrowdale Half Marathon. Many thanks for the photo.
Meanwhile, Chris Underwood (6:16:35, 60th of 135 overall) took on the even hillier SCAFELL PIKE TRAIL MARATHON, with a whopping 5,646ft of elevation and some very tricky scree slopes to cope with on the ascents and descents. Angela and Chris can both be proud of their achievements, which should not be judged in mere terms of time or pace over this extremely difficult terrain.
ARKWRIGHT 5K LEAGUE, 5th Fixture at Ben’s Yard, organised by Ely Runners, Thursday evening August 17th: Results not yet available but we all have our fingers crossed for a good result from this fixture. There was a very good turnout of Joggers for the race, as can be seen in the team picture below. The course was enjoyable and varied, with road, grass and gravel tracks.
A big turnout of Joggers for the penultimate fixture of the season at Ben’s yard in Stuntney, near Ely. Many thanks for the team photo.
STOP PRESS!
RESULTS NOW OUT:
https:tinyurl.com/5kRace5
A super performance in the 5th Fixture at Ely, to keep NJ men, women and combined teams all in 2nd place. The men’s team soundly fought off Histon & Impington. However, danger is lurking…..Histon & Impington women’s team are a big threat; just one point behind and 3 points gained on us in the last two fixtures. They had an odd result in the July fixture at Carver Barracks, where their women’s team came last (1 point) but in every other fixture they have earned second position (7 points). So we particularly need a top performance and big turnout of women at Royston to try to hold onto 2nd position or at least force a tie. Whatever happens, it looks sure to be the best ever set of results for Newmarket Joggers in this competition. Great work everyone!
First 5 NJ Women: Lilian Corbett 20:45, 13th F of 116; Elke Hausler 22:15, 17th F; Mandy Corbett 23:13, 25th F; Hannah Parsons 23:28, 28th F; Wendy Ancill 25:01, 41st F.
First 5 NJ Men: Richard Dobson 16:43, 3rd M of 196; Mark Hayward 17:02, 7th M; Joey Bendall 17:07, 9th M; Paul Holley 17:40, 16th M; Jimmy Smith 17:44, 18th M.