lorraine writes "Part of the largest village green in the country was turned into a car park on Sunday morning for the Great Bentley Half Marathon, incorporating the Essex Championships. As usual, we fielded a number of runners, some of them using the race as part of their marathon training.
After a few months off due to injury, Ian McLaughlin had a spectacular return to racing as he led home the Witham contingent in a chip time of 1:32:04, a couple on minutes in front of Alex Stuckey (1:34:05), who is in training for the London marathon. First club lady home was Shelley Wray in a magnificent 1:37:51 (a new personal best) - what a start to her year!
After these three runners, the Witham colours started to appear in small groups. Dean Thomas was next to finish in 1:42:01, then Claire Gordon (1:42:45 - another PB) and James Montgomery (1:42:40 PB) whose next outing is an Ironman event in New Zealand! Laura Harrison picked up an award for Best New Lady Runner last week and this week, in her first half marathon, turned in a brilliant run to cross the line in 1:44:13, just ahead of Liz Stuckey (1:44:42), Rachel O'Connor (1:45:25), Adam Hocken (1:44:58) and Peter Gold (1:45:30).
Les Leeds led the next group home in 1:51. Rita Chalkley and Amanda Martin ran the whole race together and finished in 1:51:59 - a PB for Amanda. Stuart Waller could have been tracking them as he finish a few seconds later in 1:52:04 (PB) with Alec Wood in his second half marathon close behind (1:52:21 PB).
It was nice to see Debs Lewis racing again after months off with a back injury, !:56:01 shows she is well on the road to full recovery. Tracie Bromboszcz, who was suffering from the cold in the later part of the race, finished in 2:02:11 and Jane Noble (2:20:37) unfortunately found Great Bentley to be much harder than her half marathon debut at Benidorm. Theresa Montgomery has slowly built up her fitness after a series of injuries and set-backs during 2009 and crossed the line in 2:31:31.
Thanks to Martyn and Phil (amongst others) for their support around the course.
