RUNNING
Junior Parkrun 2K
Christopher Scott was the sole BRJ Junior in action where he took 1st place at Jubilee Park.
Parkrun 5K
The weekend saw BRJ’ers return to venues at Irchester Country, March, Rushcliffe, Sloughbottom & Whittlesey. There were no Club 5K PB’s secured at any of these venues.
There were 3 BRJ Parkrun venue debuts at Ashford (Katherine Ireson), Centre Vale (Colin West) & Henlow Bridge Lakes (Mark Jackman, Pat & Peter Jackson & Phil Pearsons). At Huntingdon, Felicity Baillie earned a 26 Sec Club PB & Junior Matthew Ainscow, a 2 Sec PB.
London Marathon
The first London Marathon for 889 days saw the usual Mass & a for the 2nd year running a Virtual event. For the Mass event, the finishers experienced a number of new processes aimed at making the event COVID compliant, the main differences from previous years being the releasing of the competitors in waves of approx 1,000 people per wave at 3 minute intervals. Sadly, none of the BRJ’ers that had secured a coveted club ballot place (from the 2020 draw) were on the start line, as both Sue Ray & Ian Wilson sustained injuries in the latter phases of their training & Belinda Parker was allocated a place in the October 2022 event. Belinda did run in the Virtual event with Sue Yendley.
The 10 BRJ’ers that made it to the Mass start line enjoyed good weather conditions although the gusting winds created a strong “Wind Tunnel” effect around the Docklands area which is never welcomed. The conditions & the preparations of these individuals resulted in some fantastic individual performances namely 5 Club Marathon PB’s & 4 Debut Club Marathons.
The individual results & stats identified are detailed below. If you are not mentioned you are asked to make contact so this can be rectified.
MASS EVENT (35,833 Finishers)
Robert Farrant – Finish time of 2:46:21 in position 707 (Club PB by 2 Mins 33 Secs compared with London 2019. Rob remains as 4th Fastest BRJ Man over the Marathon distance)
Keelan Duffy – 2:56:27 in position 1,623 (Debut Club Marathon & placing him as 8th Fastest BRJ Man over the Marathon)
Marcela Gracova – 3:18:16 in Position 4,106 (Debut Club Marathon & placing her 3rd Fastest BRJ Woman over the Marathon)
William Dales – 3:17:12 in position 3,970 (Debut Club Marathon)
Alice Synge – 3:36:07 in position 7,041 (Club PB by 5 Mins 32 Secs compared with London 2019)
Nicki McMahon – 3:46:05 in position 9,067 (Club PB by 41 Mins 36 Secs compared with 2019 Ouse Valley Way Marathon)
Heledd Marshall-Roberts – 3:53:26 in position 10,751 (Debut Club Marathon)
Alice Edwards – 4:17:30 in position 16,409
Alexandra Smart – 4:59:07 in position 25,566 (Club PB by 2 Hrs 16 Mins 32 Secs compared with the 2020 VIRTUAL London Marathon)
Samantha Ahern – 7:01:46 in position 35,240 (Club PB by 50 Mins 59 Secs compared with the 2020 VIRTUAL London Marathon)
VIRTUAL EVENT (23,132 Finishers)
Belinda Parker – 5:06:20 in position 8,642
Sue Yendley – 5:08:24 in position 8,835
Chester Marathon
John Clark was the sole BRJ’er participating in this event. John finished in position 884 of the 1,711 finishers in a time of 4:17:26, just shy of is current club Marathon PB.
MULTI-SPORTS
Ironman Barcelona
Frank Holmes was in action at a wild & windy Barcelona. The sea conditions on race day meant that the distance for the Swim phase had to be reduced to 950 metres from the usual 2.4 miles. The rough waves Frank experienced on exiting the water also caused him to lose his (expensive) Swim Goggles & during the marathon distance run phase he picked up a leg injury. Despite all of these challenges he finished in a time of 11 Hrs 39 Mins 37 Secs in position 1,031 of the 1,498 finishers, qualifying him as a “IRONMAN”. His stats were:-
Swim – 00:14:02
T1 – 00:06:14
Bike – 5:19:09
T2 – 00:06:40
Run – 5:53:52