On Sunday in Tokyo, Troi Baxter completed the sixth and final marathon in the series, to claim the highly-prized Abbott Six Major Marathons trophy medallion, otherwise known as the Six Star Medal. The Six Major Marathons comprise London, New York City, Chicago, Boston, Berlin and Tokyo. In the Tokyo Marathon, Troi finished an impressive 87th female (including elites) of 9,429, in a time of 2:54:40. Her time was remarkable, considering that she had so little time to train, due to an ongoing injury picked up in the Valencia Marathon in December last year, where she achieved her current PB of 2:45:56.
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Her first taste of running races was in the Newmarket 10K 2015 (48:51) as a 20-year-old. Her Abbott journey started in 2018, with her first ever marathon in London (5:25:47), around the time she joined Newmarket Joggers. She then completed the New York City Marathon in 2019 (4:13:26) and Berlin in 2021 (3:13:58), followed by Boston 2022 (3:09:13) and Chicago 2022 (2:56:16). In the meantime, she had also bettered her times in the London Marathon to 2:52:32 in 2022, and Berlin to 2:51:53 in 2023. Her rapid progress from beginner to highly accomplished runner is obvious from these figures. It shows what can be achieved with the will and dedication to a task, despite Troi’s busy and highly-demanding job as a Newmarket dentist.
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On the home front, also on Sunday, Hugh Tawell (1:14:19, 2nd of 595 overall, 1st of 122 in M23-34) took on the Great Yarmouth Half Marathon and achieved a PB by over 3 minutes compared with the same race the previous year. This earned him 78.56% age grade; his best this year.
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In the Great Yarmouth 10K, Hannah Pollard & Neil Pollard were both at the peak of their form. Hannah achieved a PB by 4 seconds of 42:36, with her previous PB dating back to 2017, so she is really turning back the clock. She finished an impressive 3rd female of 257 and 1st of 45 in her 40-44 age group.
Neil did equally well, finishing 2nd of 524 overall and 1st of 26 in M45-49, in his second best ever 10K time of 33:37. He was just 4 seconds away from winning the overall race, beaten only by an U17 runner 30 years his junior.
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Also on Sunday, a bit further down the East Anglian coast, five Joggers competed in the inaugural Southwold Half Marathon, among 1,064 runners enjoying the cool, sunny weather. First to finish was James Thomson in 1:41:35, 159th overall and 73rd of 217 in MO, followed by Steve Oglesby (2:01:29, 540th, 41st in M45-49). Then came Jan Holmes (2:13:23, 286th F of 508, 13th in F60-64) with a good pace and big improvement on her previous half marathon, followed by Caroline Mcintosh (2:37:07, 449th F, 13th in F65+) and Jo Bouttell (2:37:53, 456th F, 24th in F60-64).
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In Italy on Sunday, Andy Fryatt M55-59 (1:37:06, 1,630th of 10,498 overall) and Francine Dasseville F50-54 (2:23:58, 9,200th) enjoyed their runs in the Roma/Ostia 50th Anniversary Half Marathon, which is a long established race from Rome to Ostia on the west coast. It was a birthday run for Francine, with the weather beautifully sunny for the occasion.
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On Saturday, over trails and along the cliffs of the Dorset coast, Sianie Painter took on the gruelling challenge of the Lulworth 53K ultra trail race, in which 176 runners took part. She finished in a time of 11:23:13, 41st F and 3rd of 5 in F55-59. The race included 5,922ft of climb and took Sianie a lot longer than anticipated. She admitted to being ‘wiped-out’ at the end and it was dark a good way before she finished. However, Sianie is well used to these types of physical challenge and, most of all, must have enjoyed the stunning scenery along the way.
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TRACK NEWS
Three Joggers competed in the mixed age and gender Race Walk 1000m event at the Essex Indoor Track & Field Championships at Lee Valley on Saturday, 1st March. Sophie Blundell U15 did very well to set a new PB of 5:58.35 and finished 3rd F of 11 and 5th of 16 overall. Suzanne Bailey F60-64 (7:00.58 PB, 9th F) is also improving with every walk, as is Lily-Ann Cooper U13 (7:19.43 PB, 10th F). Age grades are not available for the 1000m race walk, so it’s not easy to compare performances. Thanks to Phil Blundell for the track news.