All the Joggers’ events took place on Sunday 18th May, unless stated.
In the annual Woodbridge 10K, Oliver Daykin (36:15PB, 9th of 772 overall, 3rd of 183 in M20-39, age grade 73.70%) put in a tremendous effort, in his first known outing since he clocked 1:20:36 in the Cambridge Half Marathon in March. According to Power of 10, this was a 3 second PB for Oliver, beating his previous best in 2017 in the Ipswich Twilight 10K. We look forward to his next race.
Hackney Moves Half Marathon in London, attracted a huge crowd of over 20,000 participants: James Thomson (1:37:53, 2,900th of 20,901 overall, 424th of 1,711 in M35-39) must be pleased with this result, in his first known half marathon since 2021. He kept very even paced splits all the way through. His Power of 10 PB stands at 1:27:50 (Cambridge, 2017) but bringing up a family must have made it difficult to find enough time for training in recent years. However, pushing his children around all those parkrun buggy runs have no doubt helped to keep his fitness up.
Above left: James Thomson with medal after Hackney Half; right: Start of Hackney Half. Thanks to James for photos.
Two Joggers competed in the ATW Cambridge 5K on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, close to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, with proceeds of the event supporting the British Heart Foundation. This race followed a flat, scenic route through Hobson’s Park, as well as a more testing, closed-road, ‘hilly’ section, crossing the bridge over the railway line in both directions. Karl Coutts (20:55, 10th of 236 overall, 2nd of 15 in M40-49) was first Jogger home, just ahead of Andrew Taylor (21:04, 12th overall, 2nd of 14 in M50-59), both doing very well in their overall and age group positions, in their first known races of the year. In the ATW Cambridge 10K event, which was supposed to be two identical laps of the 5K route, Chris Aylmer M70+ clocked a chip time of 1:03:15 but only completed ~9.45K, due to some personal confusion over where the second lap started. This was disappointing, as it was easily his best comparative performance of the year.
Above from left: The Biomedical Campus event registration area; 10k medal & bib; the finish area.
Bury to Clare 18M Challenge: Two Joggers ran together in this popular annual trail race, which follows footpaths over fields and through woods, all the way from Nowton Park to Clare Castle Country Park. Stuart Janes (4:34:03, 136th of 178 overall, 5th of 7 M55-59) and Malcolm Osbourn (4:34:09, 137th, 1st of 1 in M70+) must have enjoyed this relaxing trail run, at a fairly leisurely pace for both of them. This is one of very few races completed by Stuart over quite a few years; he’s so busy with his job and NJ coaching responsibilities. However, both Stuart and Malcolm regularly go on training runs together on Sundays, often over 10 miles or more, so were well prepared for this race.
The Zig Zag ‘Birthday Run’ multi-lap event took place at Hinchingbrooke Park, Huntingdon. Suzanne Bailey F60 (33:37, 2nd of 11 overall, 2nd F of 8) settled for a good result over the 1 x 5.3km lap (eighth of a marathon), after initially planning on a half marathon (4 laps). Taking on 2 laps for 10.6km (a quarter marathon), Sue Kent F60 (1:17:24, 21st of 32 overall, 15th F of 27) and Miranda McWade F60 (1:21:05, 24th, 18th F) both put in good efforts. Moving up in distance to ultra marathon, Reuben Smith M40 (6:36:43, 7th of 9 overall) completed 9 laps (~47.7km/29.6mi), feeling very comfortable and refusing to walk any part of it.
Above: Reuben Smith and friends at Zig Zag Hinchingbrooke event at Huntingdon.
Centurion North Downs Way 50M Ultra, Saturday, May 17th: Richard Defries (11:42:36, 189th of 271 overall, 42nd of 59 in M50-59) took on this extremely tough trail race, with over 5,000ft of climb; the same race completed by Jimmy Smith in 2024. Richard was going really well during the first half and completed the first 24 miles in 4:22:22, including all stops at checkpoints etc. He then had to dig very deep during the later stages of the race, but persevered to the finish line and was well inside the cut-off time of 13 hours (over 13 hours = no finishers’ medal). He managed to keep an optimistic frame of mind to the end and was helped greatly by his wife Cienna, who followed the route by car and trail, and was there to encourage him at all six checkpoints along the way, as well as greet him at the finish line. She had entered the race herself but had to pull out due to injury.
Above from top left clockwise: Richard Defries at beginning of race, in black; along footpath; through woods; with medal at Finish. Thanks to Richard and Centurion Running for great photos.
Also on Saturday, some Joggers took part in the Exning ‘Beating of the Bounds’ Walk/Run, which started and finished at St Martin’s Church, Exning, following a trail route around the parish boundaries of Exning & Newmarket of approximately half a marathon. Caroline Mcintosh (4:17:45, moving time = 3:59:11, distance 13.59 miles) and Sianie Painter both walked together and enjoyed the relaxation and scenery along the way. Christine and Alan Shand also enjoyed taking part in this event.
ARKWRIGHT & CO/TURNERS SUMMER 5K LEAGUE LATEST: The results recently came through for the second fixture of the Summer 5k League at Ben’s Yard, near Ely, which took place on May 8th. Great news that, among the 8 clubs taking part in the league, Newmarket Joggers’ women’s team have held onto their 3rd place position, with Cambridge & Coleridge AC in 1st, and Ely Runners in 2nd, after two fixtures. This was due to a good female turnout and an excellent performance by our 5 fastest female runners, including first overall female finisher Kirsty McDermott in a time of 18:57. The NJ men’s team came 6th of 8 on the day at Ben’s Yard and have slipped slightly from 5th to =5th position after two fixtures. Jimmy Smith was first male Jogger to finish in 18:01, 16th male overall; nice to see him running in top form.
NJ Female Top Five: Kirsty McDermott 18:57, 1st F of 150; Sarah Osborne 20:10, 5th F; Cerys Bithell 20:51, 10th F; Olivia Carter 23:17, 32nd F; Hanneli Stevenson 24:03, 44th F. NJ Male Top Five: Jimmy Smith 18:01, 16th M of 254; Mark Hayward 18:09, 20th M; Paul Holley 19:08, 42nd M; Shane Mcandrew 19:54, 62nd M; Stephen Edwards 21:09, 87th M.
Female Joggers 24, male Joggers 30. Total: 54. Thanks to all who contributed to the score by representing NJ at Ben’s Yard.