Friday, 30th May: Five Newmarket Joggers took part in the Framlingham Friday 5-mile race among a total field of 458. As in the first fixture at Kirton last week, ace veteran Neville Clarke (37:08, 169th of 458 overall, 1st of 10 in M70+) was in great form and led the Joggers home, winning his age group trophy by nearly 3 minutes. Then came Brian Munns (42:22, 286th, 12th of 22 in M60-64), Jan Holmes (48:20, 112th F of 162, 10th of 18 in F60-64), Jim Withers (48:55, 395th, 8th in M70+) and Jo Bouttell (53:30, 135th F, 13th in F60-64), all with very good efforts. Next fixture will be organised by Sudbury Joggers at Great Cornard on Friday 6th June (entries at friday5series.com).
Above: Joggers in Framlingham Friday 5, from left: Neville Clarke, Jo Bouttell, Brian Munns, Jim Withers, Jan Holmes.
Above: Jo Bouttell (left) and Jan Holmes (right) in Framlingham Friday 5. Thanks to the team for photos.
Caroline Mcintosh (F70+) likes to use real races as preparation for her various marathon adventures, as well as enjoying the excitement of competing with others along the way. She took on the Ferry Meadows 10-mile race at Peterborough on Sunday, doing well to record 1:59:59 and just keep her time under 2 hours; she was the only runner in her age group. She’s also entered for the next three Friday 5 races for good measure, just to keep things ticking over. Her current target is the Nova Scotia Marathon on Sunday, July 20th, which offers magnificent views of the Nova Scotia coastline in southeastern Canada. We’ll be rooting for her.
Above: Scenes of the lakes at Ferry Meadows by Caroline Mcintosh. Thanks for photos on Strava.
On Saturday, the Enfield Race Walk League put on a special fixture at the QEII athletics track in Enfield, which had proved popular the year before. It was the Ken Livermore 10km Race Walk Relay, which attracted 14 teams of 2 members each. Newmarket Joggers George Wilkinson and Suzanne Bailey entered as one of the teams and did well to finish 5th of 14 overall in an excellent time of 59m:00s. To make the race more even for all teams, the baton was swapped frequently between team members, at 800m or 1km intervals. The winners were a male/female team from Southampton AC in an impressive time of 51:18. Phil Blundell was kindly helping to officiate at this race.
Above: The Enfield 10km Race Walk Relay at QEII track, with Suzanne Bailey in blue for Newmarket Joggers. Thanks to Suzanne and Phil Blundell for photos.
Nice to report something a little different: On Sunday, five Newmarket Joggers, some of them also Newmarket Cycling & Triathlon Club members, competed in the annual Culford Sprint Triathlon, held at Culford School, north of Bury St Edmunds. The format was: 300m indoor pool swim; 21km road bike; 4.2km run in Culford School grounds. First to finish was Martin Smith (1:00:43 total, 26th of 182 overall, 3rd of 7 M45), from Olivia Carter (1:06:37, 9th F of 78, 2nd of 4 F30), Richard Gash (1:08:05, 66th, 10th of 14 M55), Jo Bouttell (1:21:04, 50th F, 5th F60) and Jan Holmes (1:31:21, 70th F, 7th F60). Of the Joggers, Martin Smith was top in swimming (5:36) and cycling (33:38) but Olivia Carter was ahead by over 2 minutes in the run (15:52). Jan Holmes was nearly 2 minutes faster than Jo Bouttell in the swim (8:25 to 10:18) and in the run (21:24 to 23:21) but Jo showed her class on the bike, where she clocked 42:28 to Jan’s 55:05, to finish comfortably ahead overall.
Joggers at Culford Tri, from left: Jo Bouttell, Jan Holmes, Martin Smith and Olivia Carter, plus two friends from Newmarket Cycling & Tri Club. Thanks to the team for photo.