Northstowe Running Festival, Saturday, August 30th: Neil Pollard was in great form in the Northstowe Half Marathon. He clocked 1:16:49, finishing 1st of 247 overall and 1st of 30 in his M40-49 age group, 39 seconds in the lead. Last year he finished second, though about a minute quicker than this year. His wife Hannah Pollard (1:36:54) also had a very good race, finishing 5th of 85 female runners and 4th of 21 in F35-44; she was about a minute faster than last year. The weather was warm and sunny with not a lot of shade, so probably not ideal for PBs. The race started and finished in Western Park, Northstowe, following a fast, level, mainly hard path, route, with some grass and gravel sections. The runners spent some time on the busway cycle path and also passed by Bug Hunter Waters, before going on a long excursion through the beautiful countryside to the south of Northstowe and back.
Above: Neil (left) and Hannah (right) in action in the Northstowe Half Marathon. Many thanks to Neil, Hannah and the organisers for these great photos.
Above: Hannah & Neil Pollard in recent photos at a more relaxing event. Thanks for photos.
Enfield Race Walking League, Saturday, August 30th: Three Joggers took part in this league fixture, held at the QEII stadium and track in Enfield. Suzanne Bailey (W60) took part in the challenge to walk as far as possible in one hour, along with 15 other walkers. She was very pleased to achieve a walk of just over 8km (8.071) in 60 minutes, finishing 8th overall and 5th of 10 female walkers. The walk by Suzanne appears to be the best she has ever achieved and works out at an age grade of 70.32% (unofficial), if you correct the time to the officially-recognised distance of 8km, which would be about 59m 28s. She earned 63 points for the NJ team of three, which included Lily-Ann Cooper and Sophie Blundell. Some of the walkers would normally have been disqualified after three warnings for bending the knee or lifting the foot too high, but in this event they were allowed to continue in a ‘B’ race, according to the league rules. Thankfully, the NJ walkers kept a clean slate and were all ‘A’ racers.
Lily-Ann Cooper (U15) competed in the 3000m (3km) race walk, clocking a time of 21:34.2 and finishing 2nd of two, the only walker of her age and gender. This was a little outside her best time this year of 21:23.78 and earned the NJ team 49 points. Sophie Blundell (U13) took on the 2000m (2km), the only competitor in this race, and recorded a season’s best time of 12:27.5. This earned 47 points for the NJ team. All in all, a good day’s work for the NJ team.