Essex Road Relays 2025 – results

12 April 2025 - By Jodee Mayer

Well, it was a glorious day for sitting in the garden, having a BBQ, or perhaps popping to the beach, but it was rather warm for our 17 runners at the Essex Road Relays today.

Despite the heat – and the usual windy conditions at the Gateway track – our runners put in excellent performances.

Thank you to all of our runners today but a few mentions:

A gold mention to James Blackshaw who planned a 28 mile long run to and from the track – with a convenient snack break at half way only to turn up as Will and Jodee were realising that one of our runners was looking not to be able to run. James, in his famous 7 pocket trail shorts and some “don’t worry they’re bouncy” trail shoes, donned Jamie Davidson’s spare vest and took on a leg for the Men’s Open team ensuring the team was complete. Thanks so much JB – I am certain that the other runners were very grateful they didn’t have to run 2 legs and Jodee and Will are grateful they don’t have to beg forgiveness from the EAA organisers… Thanks also to Dean for driving JB home.

A silver mention to Harry Solomon who thought the event was on Sunday, saw Will’s “where are you?” message as he finished work, and still managed to get there on time to run – after 17+ plus miles the night before and just the small matter of 50 miles and 8500ft of elevation last weekend….

And bronze mentions to James Attenborough who ran just 6 days after Lake Garda Marathon and Richard Joisce who was heading off to Norfolk straight after his run for the Norfolk Marathon – Good luck Richard!

Thank you also to our men who turned up early and our women who stayed late to cheer our runners over the line.

Results

The ladies were up first, with 2 teams running.

WRC Open Women

• Leg A – Annalise Etherington – 22:41
• Leg B – Rachel Sharp – 25:14
• Leg C – Sally Hoyle – 19:39

Overall position: 28
Cat position: 11

WRC FV40 Women

• Leg A – Celine Elson – 25:06
• Leg B – Lysia Jiggins – 31:49
• Leg C – Lisa Leader – 24:43

Overall position: 50
Cat position: 9

Next up was our Vet Men – who came first in their category (non-Essex scoring)!

• Leg A – James Attenborough – 21:53
• Leg  B – Dean Whittaker – 20:45
• Leg C – Glen Waller – 21:53

Overall position: 38

And finally our Open Men teams took to the track

Team 1:

• Leg A – Henry Crates – 16:47
• Leg B – Stephen Wherrett – 16:48
• Leg C – Jamie Davidson – 16:56
• Leg D – Will Radley – 15:21

Overall position: 6
Category Position: 5 (just 16s behind the 3rd place finishers – a huge achievement!)

Team 2:

• Leg A –  Mark Austin – 19:34
• Leg B – Harry Solomon – 18:38
• Leg C – James Blackshaw – 21:16
• Leg D – Richard Joisce – 17:28

Overall position: 18
Category position: 15

A massive thanks to you all and your family and friends for your team spirit and camaraderie today.

Here’s to our next team event – Ekiden – post soon!

WR and JM