RUNNING
Parkrun Junior 2K
5 BRJ’ers took part in the Jubilee Park event, led home by Maxwell Evans. in a time of 00:10:58.
Parkrun 5K
A total of 87 BRJ’ers were in action at Parkrun with returns to Brandon Country Park (1st place by William Dales), Bug Hunter Waters (Course Best for Claire Few), Bury St Edmunds, Falkirk, Ferry Meadows, Harrogate, Holkham, Ingrebourne Hill, Lymington Woodside (Course Best for Ruth Foster), Pocket, Preston Park Brighton, Sandringham, Storeys Field, Victoria Dock & Woodhouse Moor.
There were 3 BRJ Parkrun Venue Debuts at Kingdom by Melanie Gearing, Kirkdale Reserve (Melbourne, Australia) by Alice Noyes & at Worcester by Gareth Thomas.
At Huntingdon #530, Slawomir Dziarmaga & Jim Greenley were placed 5th & 9th respectively. The sole Club PB’er today was Pippa Waite with a 1 Min 41 Sec improvement compared to her time at Huntingdon #525 of 21st December. Eszter Gulacsy compared Parkrun #175.
Windmill Way Wander
A series of distance events were held at the Suffolk Running Centre in Bury St St Edmunds. BRJ’ers competed in the 10K, 1/2 Marathon & Full Marathon
:
10K – Lee Watkins was among the 81 finishers, completing the distance in 74th position in time of 1:22:01.
1/2 Marathon – As part of a series of personal physical challenges, Alex Howard completed the distance in 49th position from the 142 finishers in 1:56:05.
Full Marathon – Rachael Dent & Kerry Surkitt both participated in this event as part of a training campaign for their own next marathon & also to support a non-club member that was taking part in their 400th Marathon. All successfully completed the distance. Their results, including the Age / Gender Graded Scores counting towards the 2025 Senior Running Champs, were:
| Race: Windmill Way Wander Marathon Date: 18/01/2025 Nos of Finishers: 56 | ||||
| Position | Name | Time | Age-Grade % | Notes |
| 52 | Kerry Surkitt | 05:47:42 | 45.41% | |
| 54 | Rachael Dent | 05:47:43 | 39.24% | |
Folksworth 15M
A team consisting of 15 BRJ members completed this tough run in what was probably the best weather conditions for many years. The race is reknown for being a great pre-spring marathon tester. The race was also the “Nominated” event for January in the 2025 Senior Running Champs & the Cambs AA Road League competition.
The 15 members produced 4 new Club PB’s, 6 members making Club 15M Debuts & Annette Newton securing Gold medal position in her Age Category.
Joe Harding led home the team finishing just over 1 minute outside his current Club PB 15M set here in 2023. Joe was again closely followed home by Paul Mitton who was one of the 4 PB’ers. Women’s Captain Felicity Baillie, also a PB’er today, was our leading lady ahead of Amanda Roland-Convey. It was great to see Belinda Parker back in competitive action again & finishing just 1 Min 25 Secs shy of her Club 15M PB set at 2017’s Folksworth.
The 4 PB’ers, in descending order of merit, were Neil Whitaker by 6 Mins 12 Secs compared to Folksworth 2024, Jon Daulton by 4 Mins 7 Secs from 2024 , Paul Mitton by 1 Min 53 Secs from 2024 & Fliss Baillie by 1 Min 36 Secs from 2024
The full set of results, including the scores earned towards the 2025 Senior Running Champs, were:
| Race: Folksworth 15M Date: 19/01/2025 No of Finishers: 416 | ||||
| Position | Name | Time | Age-Grade % | Notes |
| 38 | Jonathan Harding | 01:41:20 | 72.45% | |
| 50 | Paul Mitton | 01:42:41 | 74.66% | PB |
| 66 | Neil Whitaker | 01:45:43 | 67.73% | PB |
| 93 | Felicity Baillie | 01:48:58 | 70.07% | PB |
| 177 | Douglas Rowan | 01:58:56 | 57.22% | Debut Club 15M |
| 182 | Tim Legge | 01:59:13 | 62.11% | Debut Club 15M |
| 184 | Jon Daulton | 01:59:45 | 56.83% | PB |
| 188 | Anthony Charters | 02:00:08 | 65.55% | Debut Club 15M |
| 237 | John Clark | 02:07:14 | 58.20% | Debut Club 15M |
| 257 | Amanda Roland-Convey | 02:11:03 | 65.95% | |
| 272 | Annette Newton | 02:14:06 | 86.69% | 1st FV65+ |
| 295 | Belinda Parker | 02:18:56 | 61.46% | |
| 305 | Alice Edwards | 02:20:33 | 63.04% | |
| 358 | Karen Gilchrist | 02:30:32 | 60.36% | Debut Club 15M |
| 397 | Karen Shurlock | 02:43:10 | 52.33% | Debut Club 15M |
For your diaries, the next Senior Running Champs event is the Bury St Edmunds based Tarpley 20M taking place on the 23rd February. A great pre-spring marathon tester. Although not included in the Senior Champs programme a 10M race is also available on the same day.
Details of the entire 2025 Senior Champs race programme is shown in the Club Honours section of the BRJ website.
Dirt Run Series (Race 1)
Tom Brand participated in Race 1 of this 2 Race Multi-Terrain “Dirt Run” Series which was formerly known as the Wellingborough Multi-Terrain Challenge. Race 1 was held at Irchester Country Park with Race 2 in a few weeks time taking place at Brigshall Country Park. Each of these venues offer 5K, 10K & 15K distances, with Tom electing to compete in the 3 lap 15K. Of the 49th finishers, Tom completed the distance in 31st position in a time of 1:24:23.