RUNNING
5K Parkrun
There were BRJ returns to Brandon Country Park, Great Denham (1st place for Keelan Duffy), March (a Course PB for Jules Farrow), Storeys Field & Watermead Country Park. At Pocket (St Neots), Kerry Surkitt secured a 40 Sec Club 5k PB, her 2nd of 2022.
At a very muddy & foggy Huntingdon, Samantha Healey completed her Parkrun Century (a significantly higher number than the majority of the Batsmen in the England Test Cricket squad) & Anthony Foster completed #150.
Enigma Winter Run Marathon
On 9th January & as part of a personal challenge to run 100 Marathons, Kerry Surkitt completed Marathon #99 finishing in position 20 of the 45 finishers in a time of 4:56:05. Kerry has become the 1st BRJ’er to record a score (50.73) in the 2022 Senior Running Champs by virtue that in addition to the specified “Nominated” events that are listed in the BRJ website, 1 full Marathon distance event can be accepted as part of the 4 events required to qualify for a champs finish position.
Cambridgeshire County Cross Country Champs (Priory Park, St Neots)
After a enforced delay of 1 year, Junior & Senior BRJ’ers took the opportunity to represent the club at this county level competition. The good weather put in an much welcome appearance but participation numbers were much lower in all races compared with previous years. This meant that apart from the Senior Women’s Masters event BRJ had insufficient entrants to secure a team result. All of the various courses would be familiar to those that have competed in the St Neots Frostbite Friendly League fixture. Thanks go to Paul Mitton for managing the logistics on behalf of the BRJ squad. Our results were:-
Under 11 Girls (1.7K / 20 Finishers)
16 Nyah Scott 00:09:53
18 Lia McMahon 00:11:06
Under 13 Girls (2.9K / 29 Finishers)
7 Freya Harris 00:11:42
Under 15 Boys (4.8K / 25 Finishers)
23 Henry Reeve 00:24:37
Under 20, Senior & Masters Women (5.8K / 48 Finishers)
29 Heledd Marshall-Roberts 00:28:03
34 Alison Orrell 00:28:44 (3rd FV55 – Bronze Medal)
37 Alice Edwards 00:29:40
NOTE: The squad finished in 4th Position in the Women’s Masters competition just 1 position behind the Bronze Medal Team
Under 20, Senior & Masters Men (10K / 88 Finishers)
18 Keelan Duffy 00:39:42
50 Paul Mitton 00:47:07
54 Alex Mitton 00:47:54
75 Gilles Corby 00:53:38
Where’s the Finish Marathon
After a delay of just 7 days since completing her last Marathon, Kerry Surkitt successfully met her goal of completing 100th Marathons before her 50th Birthday, in fact she was 49! The COVID Lockdown meant that she had to significantly alter her schedule meaning that in the run-up to Marathon #100 Kerry completed an incredible 40 marathons (mostly Trail Runs) in a 9 month period & completed her challenge just 2 days after her 49th birthday. Kerry finished this Marathon in position 30 ot the 42 finishers in a time of 5:51:22 (43.27% Age Grading). Her achievement qualifies her as a fully fledged member of the exclusive 100 Marathon Club. To my knowledge, Tony Cotton is the only other BRJ member of this Club with a tally of 150 Marathons.
Frostbite Friendly League Event #4 – March
Event 4 (of 6) was hosted by March AC. Both courses were centered on the farmland & Nature Reserve surrounding Whitemoor Prison. The weather was less cold than in previous days & thankfully the notorious Fen Winds stayed away. Both Junior & Senior Frostbites were “Nominated” events in the 2022 Club Annual Running Championshps (details of which are shown in the BRJ website). The finishers Running Champs scores acheived at this Frostbite are shown in the results as a Age Graded Percentage.
Junior (1.5 Miles)
Our Junior squad of 7 athletes comprised 3 Boys & 4 Girls, just over the minimum number of the 5 required to constitute a scoring team. Despite representing her School the previous day in the County Cross Country Champs, Freya Harris had a determined run to lead home our squad, although her finish time fell just outside her PB at this venue. Our 1st Boy home, Josh Spavins, finished just 10 Secs behind Freya. There were no PBs & all but Freya made their Venue Debut.
Our Junior’s finished in 6th position on the day with 198 Race Points (31 better than event #3) placing them in 5th position in the league table, an improvement of 1 place since event #3 & just 3 League Points behind 4th placed Ely.
Senior (5 Miles)
The Senior squad of 24 comprised 13 Men & 11 Women. The squad were again led home by Keelan Duffy in 7th who, along with Paul Mitton, Felicity Baillie & Alex Mitton secured Venue PBs. A large number of members made their Venue Debut including our lead Woman, Marcela Gracova (34th / 2nd Woman overall) & brand new member Laurence Raven.
Our Seniors finished in 5th position on the day with 696 Race Points (81 better than event #3) & putting them into 4th position in the league table, a 1 place improvement. Our Seniors now have 46 League Points which exactly matches Riverside Runners in 3rd place & PANVAC in 5th. C&C in 6th follow with 45 points which essentially means that any of these 4 teams can claim the Bronze medal position at event #6. A good attendance & team result at the next fixture at Bourne Woods would give us a significant possibility of snatching the Bronze Medal.