On Friday evening, May 23rd, three Joggers headed for Kirton, near Felixstowe, for the first fixture of the popular Friday 5-mile Series. First Jogger home was Neville Clarke (36:23, 156th of 464 overall, 1st of 6 in M70+). It was another successful outing for Neville, who has won his age group trophy in nearly every race he has entered this year. He was followed by Brian Munns (43:01, 314th, 18th of 26 in M60-64) and Jim Withers (49:45, 408th, 6th in M70+), who also put in good efforts.
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Above: The Friday 5 Series, showing a great photo of a previous fixture in Bury St Edmunds; thanks to friday5series.com website.
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Also on Friday evening, the Haverhill 48-Hour Challenge kicked off, with those taking part helping to raise funds for MNDA (Motor Neurone Disease Awareness). The ultimate challenge was to run one mile laps every hour on the hour, day and night, to achieve 48 miles in 2 days, either singly or in teams. Jogger Steve Oglesby took on the full Monty and succeeded in doing all 48 laps, plus 2 extra laps to make the distance up to 50 miles. His total running time was 9h 59m, working out at about 12:29/mi pace. It was certainly a huge test of stamina while coping with the inability to get any proper sleep. Well done to all those involved in raising funds for the charity.
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Above, from left: Steve Oglesby at Haverhill 48-hour Challenge; during one of his laps; with friends. Thanks to Steve for photos on Strava.
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Bank Holiday Monday 26th May: Club Chair and avid trail enthusiast Jimmy Smith took on the Toppesfield 10-mile navigational trail race in Essex, near Great Yeldham, starting and finishing at the village pub, The Green Man, in Toppesfield. There was a timed, staggered start, so more of a time trial than a race. He finished a very respectable 3rd of 42 participants in a time of 1:20:02, despite taking a wrong turn and covering 11 miles in all; otherwise, he would surely have won.
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Above: Jimmy Smith’s navigation sheet. Thanks to Jimmy.
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TRACK & FIELD NEWS
There were two fairly local track and field events during the week: Cambridgeshire AA Open at St Ives on Wednesday evening, 21st May and the East Anglian League at the West Suffolk Arena at Bury St Edmunds on Sunday 25th May. Most of our Joggers are very new to track sports and are improving rapidly, which partly explains the incredible number of PBs recorded. It’s great to see all the current interest in track events, especially among the juniors. The track events were all fairly windy and some of the times in the sprints at St Ives may not be eligible for Power of 10 PBs, though the difference in times would be relatively small.
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Above: Phil Blundell officiating at Bury St Edmunds track; Phil in action in the 200m race, nearest camera. Thanks to Phil for photos.
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Seven Newmarket Joggers took part in the Cambridgeshire AA Open at St Ives, six of them juniors. In the 100m event, Shane Mcandrew (13.65 PB, M35) was fastest, followed by Rory King (14.31 PB, U17M), Amber Smith (15.42, U15G) and Rio Mcandrew (16.00 PB, U13B). In the 200m, it was Shane Mcandrew (28.09 PB, M35) from Rory King (29.13 PB, U17M), Amber Smith (30.8 PB, U15G), Rio Mcandrew (32.67 PB, U13M) and Sophie Blundell (32.69 PB, U15G). Sophie Blundell U15G was the only 800m taker, recording 2:49.95, close to her PB. In the 3000m, Harvey Thomas (10:54.3 PB, U15B) was the only Jogger involved, in his first attempt at this distance.
Harvey Thomas (5:23.89 PB, U15B) also ran in the Eastbourne Rovers Mile Night in East Sussex on Saturday 24th May, beating his previous best by 3 seconds.
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Above: Harvey Thomas at Eastbourne; Harvey finishing the Eastbourne Rovers Mile in East Sussex. Thanks to Cheryl Thomas and Phil Blundell for photos.
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East Anglian League, Bury St Edmunds: In this track & field league, Newmarket Joggers combine with Ely Runners; 13 Newmarket Joggers competed in all. In the 80m junior event, Seb Barrett (12.9 PB U13) was just ahead of Oliver Hilton (13.1 PB, U11), both doing well in their first taste of track. In the 100m, Rory King (14.5 PB, U17M) was just ahead of Amber Smith (14.7 PB, U15G). Cerys Bithell (20.6 PB, U20W) was the only Jogger to try out the 100m Hurdle and did very well.
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Above: Rio Mcandrew in 200m; Oliver Hilton in 80m; Lewis Stinger (in blue on far side) in 100m. Thanks to Phil Blundell for photos.
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Above: Amber Smith in 200m; Krystal Szerszon in 200m; Lorraine King in 200m. Thanks to Phil Blundell for photos.
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In the 200m event the times of Joggers were: Shane Mcandrew (26.9 PB, M35), Phil Blundell (28.9 PB, M45), Rory King (29.1 PB, U17M), Amber Smith (30.4 PB, U15G), Lewis Stinger (31.4 PB, U13B), Krystal Szerszon (38.4 PB, W35), Lorraine King (38.9 PB, W50) and Jo Smith (41.4 PB, W40).
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Above: Rory King (left) and Elke Hausler in the 400m. Thanks to Phil Blundell for the photos.
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Two Joggers tackled the 400m: Rory King (62.1 PB, U17M) and Elke Hausler (73.7, W60). Elke was just outside her PB of 73.22, gained earlier this year, in the British Masters at Lee Valley.
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Joggers also tried their hand at some field events at Bury St Edmunds, with Cerys Bithell, Shane Mcandrew and Sophie Blundell in Long Jump, Sophie Blundell and Krystal Szerszon in Javelin, Phil Blundell and Jo Smith in Hammer, and Rio Mcandrew in Shot Put.
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Above from left: Sophie Blundell in Javelin and Cerys Bithell in Long Jump. Thanks to Phil Blundell for photos.