On Sunday, March 1st, eight Joggers made the trip to the East Suffolk coast for the annual Southwold Half Marathon. There was a huge entry of 1,436 for this year’s race, with the popularity of the event steadily increasing. First home for the Joggers was Marc Drury (1:38:27, 169th of 1,436 overall, 21st of 102 in M50), who is gradually recovering from an Achilles injury. He was followed by first female Jogger Olivia Carter (1:42:11 PB. , 21st F of 683, 13th of 254 in FS), who was flying along and looked to be really enjoying her race. No wonder, as it is believed to be a PB for her by nearly 2 minutes, beating her previous best in 2019. Then came Richard Gash (2:22:39, 1,196th, 85th in M55), Joanne Bouttell (2:30:04, 556th F, 31st in F60), Sarah Kinston (2:30:04, 557th F, 72nd in F50), Pearl Fay (2:46:48, 646th F, 20th in F65+) and Caroline Mcintosh (2:46:55, 647th F, 21st in F65+).
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Above from left: Marc Drury, Olivia Carter, Sarah Kinston & Jo Bouttell, in Southwold Half Marathon.
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Above left: Caroline Mcintosh, Pearl Fay, Richard Gash & Jo Bouttell; right: Jan Homes, Pearl Fay, Jo Bouttell & Sarah Kinston.
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Above from left: Richard Gash, Jan Holmes & Sarah Kinston.
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Above from left: Olivia Carter flying (both feet off the ground); Marc’s pint & medal; Caroline Mcintosh celebrating.
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Meanwhile, three Joggers tackled the Gt Yarmouth 10K, further up the coast. Martin Smith (47:51, 76th of 735 overall, 5th of 27 in M45) was only 10 seconds outside a PB, followed by Bridget Wallwin (54:56, 65th F of 419, 4th of 31 in F55), with a good result in her age group. Then came Lucy Hartley (58:41 PB, 131st F, 25th of 67 in F40), who did very well to get under an hour for the first time at this distance. In the Gt Yarmouth 5K event, Karl Coutts (22:34, 25th of 186 overall, 4th of 11 in M40) put in a season’s best time. In the Gt Yarmouth Half Marathon, NJ Jason Beeton (1:35:02, 129th of 896 overall, 20th of 77 in M40) put in a sound performance, representing first claim club Thetford AC. His PB remains 1:27:28 in 2016.
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Above from left: Jason Beeton in Gt Yarmouth Half; Lucy Hartley, Martin Smith, Matt (friend) & Bridget Wallwin.
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Up in Lincolnshire, the annual Burghley 7-mile road race took place, with the start/finish in the beautiful grounds of Burghley House. Two Joggers took part: Sarah Last (1:16:49, 1,233rd of 1,391 overall, 65th of 80 in F50) was first to finish, with Gillian Green (1:30:53, 1,376th, 42nd in F60) putting in a good run/walk effort.
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Above from left: Gillian Green & Sarah Last; Sarah Last with medal and Burghley House behind.
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Above from left: Burghley House gates; Sarah’s bib and medal.
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Phoenix Multi-lap ‘Only Fools and Runners’ event, Regatta Meadows, St Neots, Saturday: Ian McClements ran 6 x ~3.3 mile laps for a total distance of 19.7 miles, in a time of 3:37:19. He used this as a training run with some friends, possibly for a planned marathon.
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Above: Ian McClements on left, with friend.
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RACE WALK NEWS
The results of the 2nd fixture of the Enfield Race Walking League (ERWL) are now out, which took place on 21st February 2026 at Donkey Lane, Enfield. Newmarket Joggers’ team consisted of three juniors: Lily-Ann Cooper U15G, Sophie Blundell U15G and Rio McAndrew U15B, plus one senior walker: Suzanne Bailey W60. There were 2km, 3km, 8km and 10km races. Suzanne Bailey (60:43 SB, 68.87% age grade) was the only walker to do 8km, achieving her highest age grade this year. In the 3km race, Lily-Ann Cooper (20:03 PB, 4th of 5, 61.51%) did very well to achieve her highest ever walking age grade, while in the 2km, Rio McAndrew (11:38) and Sophie Blundell (12:17) finished 1st and 2nd respectively of 3 walkers (no age grades available for this distance). After two fixtures, Newmarket Joggers stand 2nd of 7 teams in the ERWL, with Belgrave Harriers on top. In the individual points competitions, Lily-Ann Cooper is currently 1st of 7 juniors, with Sophie Blundell 2nd and Rio McAndrew 3rd. Suzanne Bailey is 6th of 10 among the senior walkers.
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We also have the results of the Essex & Eastern T&F Championships, which took place on Saturday 28th February at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre in North London. The only known Newmarket Joggers taking part were the junior race walkers mentioned above: Rio McAndrew U15B and Sophie Blundell U15G, who were accompanied by coach Mick Graham. Rio McAndrew (5:11.40 PB) did very well to finish 1st of 11 overall in the 1,000m (1km) race walk. Sophie Blundell (5:40.30 PB) finished 4th overall and 2nd F of 7, 1st of 3 female juniors; so a very successful day for both of them.
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Above from left: Rio McAndrew, coach Mick Graham & Sophie Blundell.
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CROSS COUNTRY NEWS
Newmarket Joggers will be hosting the awards night for the Suffolk Winter XC League 2025-2026 at the White Hart in Newmarket, on Friday 6th March. Newmarket & Sudbury, the joint team of Newmarket Joggers (NJ) & Sudbury Joggers (SJ), finished 2nd of 22 teams in the men’s, women’s and combined men’s and women’s A team competitions.
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In addition, N&S had a plethora of winners and top three finishers in the individual age group competitions as follows:
Isabelle Talbot Price NJ 1st of 22 in F20-39; Ruth Cowlin SJ 1st of 5 in F60; James Smith NJ 1st of 27 in M45; Paul Holley NJ 1st of 32 in M55; Charles Jones NJ 1st of 20 in M65; Sarah Osborne NJ 2nd of 22 in F20-39; Carol Cienna Carter NJ 2nd of 18 in F50; Helen Wass NJ 2nd of 5 in F60; Neville Clarke NJ 2nd of 8 in M70+; Mark Hayward NJ 3rd of 18 in M40. Note that only runners who had completed at least 4 of the 6 fixtures could qualify for the age group awards, which were based on the four best positional results for each competitor.
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Mildenhall Hub parkrun, Saturday, 28th February: Good news that Richard Defries managed to raise nearly £200 for Guide Dogs UK from his homemade cake stall at Mildenhall Hub parkrun on Saturday, helped by members of his family and friends. Unfortunately, the weather was pretty awful, with blustery wind and rain, but the choice of cake at the finish was a big treat. Richard ran the parkrun dressed in his Guide Dog suit, which he will be wearing in the London Marathon on April 26th. Lots of Newmarket Joggers were at the parkrun, volunteering as pacers, marshals, timekeepers and barcode scanners etc., including run director Reuben Smith, who also managed to multi-task on many fronts, including successfully setting up a new course at short notice, due to building work at the Hub. A group of Newmarket Joggers led by Brian Munns arrived early at 8:00am to do a thorough ‘plogging’ of the parkrun area; i.e. picking up all the rubbish they could find and putting it into plastic bags. They did a great job. See pictures below:
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Above from left, volunteer pacers: Daniel Tee; Jon Brooker, Richard Defries (in Guide Dog Hero suit); Cienna Carter, Sarah Osborne, Hugh Tawell
Andrew Sandeman and James Thomson.
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Many thanks for all the photos.