Weekend results, inc Braintree 5

3 April 2017 - By Marc Underdown

Yesterday was the Braintree 5, and this year it moved from its Skyline business park location to the Chelmsford City racecourse. Using a venue which is set up to receive thousands of people is ideal for hosting a race, with ample parking, HQ area, and the nicest toilets we have seen at a race for a long time!

Those of us familiar with the old course were perhaps hoping for a slightly less undulating course, or at least one without a tough ramp towards the finish. What we got was every bit as lumpy as the old course (probably more!), and an even tougher ramp as you came out of the tunnel which goes under the back of the racetrack.

But whilst the course was challenging, WRC members did themselves proud. Due to some problems with not every runner crossing the chip mat at the start, all the times are gun to chip which prevented a couple of PB’s. However whether PB’s were set or not, it was great to see the level of improvement in our runners across all abilities. All the  ‘runners and riders’ and their times are below – please let me know if I have missed any PB’s, wrongly awarded them(!), or other notable achievements and I will update the post. Thanks also to Tracey and Ruth for providing some much needed refreshments afterwards!

Improvement was also the order of the day up in Manchester where four of our men all had outstanding runs. Chris Martin’s target was his good for age qualifying time of 3:05. I had a sneaky suspicion that he would do this comfortably, and the magic three hour mark was within his range. As it proved, he must have stayed closer to the three hour pace for longer than anticipated as he finished in a new PB of 2:59:32. Scott Darney has improved massively over the last two years, and that is more than borne out in a big PB time of 3:10:47. I’m not sure if this was Owen’s first marathon or not, but either way a time of 3:14:56 is fantastic. Finally Andy Lager has put in the miles of training and was richly rewarded with a new PB of 3:31:16. It would be remiss to not also add in Helen Armitage’s time of 3:08:14, which placed her 5^th in her age category.  Well done to all of you, and enjoy a well earned rest!

Rachel Pearsons also was out running the Bungay half marathon, apparently a tough hilly course which she was doing as part of her half ironman training – she finished in 2:00:26. Well done Rachel.

 

Braintree 5 results