RUNNING

The recently improving weather, or perhaps the impending threat of running a Spring Marathon, seems to have forced significant number of BRJ’ers to come out of their hibernation & resulting in loads of results and many personal achievements.

Parkrun Junior 2K
7 Juniors were in action at Jubilee Park, which saw 4 new Club 2K PB’s. These were:-

1. Baxter Gilikson by 54 Secs (PB #2 of 2025)
2. Ewan Mackie by 19 Secs (PB #6 of 2025)
3. Amelie Ward by 12 Secs
4. Iris Purser by 4 Secs

Our unluckiest athlete was Freya Brosnan as she exactly matched her existing Club PB.

Parkrun 5K
82 BRJ’ers were in action with returns to Bug Hunter Waters (Course PB for Michael Keen), Chippenham, Downham Market Academy (PB by 1 Min 1 Sec by Colin Reeve), Happy Valley, Harwich, Haverhill, Henlow Bridge Lakes (1st lady for Felicity Baillie), Holkham, Hove Promenade, Howard Temin Lakeshore Path (2nd overall for Simon Moore), Market Rasen Racecourse, Millenium Country Park, Pocket, Rushcliffe (Course Best by Kevin Ryan + Parkrun #125), Sheringham, Strathclyde, Storeys Field, Whittlesey & Y Promenad.

The weekend saw 3 BRJ Venue Debuts which were at Fairy Bridge (Melbourne) by Alice Noyes, Skinadin (Isle of Skye) by Melanie Gearing & at Vingis (Lithuania) by Gerry & Karen Pye).

A frosty start at Huntingdon, saw Emily Miller become the 1st lady overall, secure a Course Best & complete Parkrun #50.

Debden 5K
Ben Kidman was the sole BRJ’er among the 93 finishers completing the distance in 16th position in 00:19:49. This represented a new Club 5K (#2 of 2025) by a 38 Sec margin compared to 4th January’s Storeys Field Parkrun. Ben secured Silver medal in his age category.

Montargis 5K
John Abbey, our only France based member, competed in his local 5K event. The race attracted a very high quality field. John was slightly unhappy with his run as a result of starting too fast, nevertheless, John secured 92nd position from the 266 finishers in a time of 00:19:51. John won the gold medal in the MV65-69 category.

Podium 5K
Keelan Duffy & William Dales entered the Leicester race of the Podium 5K series. The series routinely attracts athletes of very high quality, for example this years elite race winner had a finish time of 00:13:27. Podium races do not feature mass starts but instead employ races in Waves. Our lads competed in Race F, which saw 96 finishers. Keelan stormed to the finish line completing the distance in 33rd position in a spectacular time of 00:15:44. This represented a new Club 5K PB by 20 Secs compared to March 2023’s Leeds Brownlee Centre 5K. In terms of BRJ Club records, Keelan moves himself up by 1 place to become the 3rd fastest BRJ man over 5K & now just 24 Secs behind former member & BRJ legend, Pete Galpin.

Will, who has been focussing on endurance training ahead of the 6 April’s Brighton Marathon, finished in 87th position in 00:16:37, just 18 Secs shy of his Club PB.

Debden 10K
The 119 finishers included 4 BRJ’ers. Nicki McMahon, fresh from her recent pacing duty at the previous weeks Cambridge 1/2 Marathon, lead home the team securing a silver medal in her age category. Next home, Darren Foster, earned a new Club 10K PB (#2 of 2025) by 2 Mins 34 Secs compared to last October’s Duxford 10K. Darren also secured a bronze age category medal. For the 2nd consecutive race, Sue Rsy achieved gold medal status for her age group. The full set of members results are:

Race: Debden 10K    Date: 16/03/25   Nos of Finishers: 119
Position	Name	Time	Age-Grade %	Notes
35	Nicki McMahon	00:48:01	N/A	2nd FV40-44
38	Darren Frost	00:48:37	N/A	PB & 3rd MV60-64
56	Sue Ray	00:54:06	N/A	1st FV65-69
58	Darren Butler	00:54:32	N/A

 

Blicking Spring 1/2 Marathon
Claire Few & Kate Ruddock were the BRJ entrants among the 542 finishers. Kate was the lead in position 373 in 2:16:35 & Claire in 392nd in 2:18:37.

Colchester 1/2 Marathon
Seb Burley, the winner of the Club’s London Marathon ballot, was the sole BRJ’er among the 2,801 finishers. Seb completed the distance in position 1, 018 in 1:51:30.

High Lodge Spring 1/2 Marathon
Kim Olivier & Pippa Waite headed to Brandon Forest near Thetford. Pippa completed the distance in 20th position in a time of 1:58:20, just outside her existing Club PB time. Just a couple of months ago, Kim had never run more than 5K but has since incrementally increased her running distances ahead of her appearance at the London Marathon. Kim finished in 91st position in 3:13:53.

Milton Keynes 1/2 Marathon
Richard Braddick was the sole BRJ’er among the 912 finishers. In early 2024 Richard’s running was being affected by several injury niggles, but his performance today signalled a turnaround in fortune. Richard finished in 166th position in 1:40:16 with this time representing a new Club PB by a significant 5 Min 4 Sec improvement compared to October 2023’s Peterborough Great Eastern Run. This was PB #2 of 2025.

Essex 20M
The event was based at former RAF Debden & the course comprised 5 laps of the airfield. The race also included the Inter-Counties 20M Championships in which Cambridgeshire was amongst the 7 teams.

5 BRJ’ers, all of which are training for a Spring Marathon, were among the 466 finishers & were led home, in a PB, by Women’s Captain Felicity Baillie. Our leading man was Robin Cooper in what was his Club 20M Debut. The BRJ squad achieved 2 new Club PB’s & 1 distance Debut.

The 2 PB’ers were:-

1. Felicity Baillie by 43 Secs compared to March 2023’s Ashby 20M (PB #1 of 2025)
2. Adam D’Souza by 1 Min 42 Secs compared to September 2024’s Oakley 20M (#3 of 2025)

The full set of members results are:

Race: Essex 20M   Date: 16/03/25  Nos of Finishers: 466
Position	Name	Time	Age-Grade %	Notes
172	Felicity Baillie	02:28:54	N/A	PB
241	Robin Cooper	02:39:37	N/A	Debut Club 20M
250	Adam D’Souza	02:41:08	N/A	PB
361	Kerry Surkitt	03:06:14	N/A
442	Rachael Dent	03:39:12	N/A

 

Milton Keynes 20M
Karen Gilchrist, also training for the London Marathon, was making her Club 20M Debut among the 751 finishers. Karen successfully completed the distance in 3:24:37 in 586th position.

Cambridge Boundary Marathon
I am aware of at least 1 Club member participating in the Full Marathon. Official results are yet to be released thus they will appear in next report.