Another big turnout on the Bank Holiday weekend with 326 runners taking part. Sian, Les and I were running with Pete volunteering as tail runner. The morning was very windy but thankfully stayed dry for the run.
The results were:
Chris Wright 57th in 22.41
Les Potts 106th in 25.01
Sian Jones 304th in 38.42
Pete Jones 326th in 46.56
Monday 28 March 2016
Thursday 17 March 2016
MK Festival of Running - 20 miles - 6th March 2016
Today was my first experience for several years of a distance in excess of the half marathon 13.1 miles. I entered the MK Festival 20 miler as a training run for my April marathon and buoyed by last weeks encouraging result at Cambridge I was hopeful of a decent performance. It didn't go exactly as I would have liked. For some reason I wasn't feeling as good as last week even though I'd had a restful week.
A nose bleed at 10k didn't help nor did the numerous short inclines on exiting the underpasses. My 13.1 mile time was 2:02 which was ok being 10 minutes slower than last week but planned to an extent due to the longer distance being run today although that did disappointingly include several short walks.
It was the final 7 miles that ruined my time where I ended up walking far too often, probably 100 meters in every km. This resulted in a time of 11.42 minutes per mile for the last 7 miles compared to 9.31 minutes per mile for the first 13 miles.
I completed the 20 mile course in 3 hrs 22 minutes coming 618th out of 812 finishers. Had I been 10/12 minutes quicker I would probably have been happy.
Given that there was 4 distances being run today the organisation was faultless, there were ample water stations and gels on the course. A decent medal and a bottle of water greeted all finishers.
Les
Saturday 5 March 2016
Cambridge Half Marathon 28th February 2016
Just under 6,000 runners took part in my favourite race - the Cambridge Half Marathon. This year the event took in a new one-lap route with the new section taking runners out of the city along Trumpington Road, through Grantchester and back into the city along the Barton Road. Runners enjoyed a picturesque route through the centre of Cambridge, past the Round Church, King's College, Fitzwilliam Museum and along The Backs and were greeted by the city's mayor Rob Dryden who cheered them on at the finish line. The support
from the public was pretty amazing given the cold conditions.
The race start time of 9.30am and having to use the Park & Ride service meant an early and unwelcome 7am start from Flitwick.
That said the conditions were ideal for the race - very cold and only a light breeze. The event organisation was faultless and the marshals were all supportive and effective.
Oddly the event was sold out within a couple days with 7,000 entrants but results were posted for only 5,300 so there must have been a lot of runners finishing after the cut-off time or no-shows.
Fortunately I had one of my better races completing the course in 1:52:58 - a time that beat my previous PB by 1 minute set back in 2014, and nearly 6 minutes quicker than last years time at this event.
My position was 2,230th.
Les
An update from Pete
Hi Folks,
I am slowly preparing myself for the Reading Half Marathon in the first week of April. I have been doing regular Parkruns and am now up to a total of 169.
In the second week of January I Went down to St Albans to do the Fred Hughes 10 mile road race to see if my legs can still cope with the longer distances and was pleased with my time of 1hr 36min (550th out of 736). It was a cool day but the frost and rain stayed away so it was ideal for running.
Today I travelled down to Eton Dorney to do the Spring(March) Duathlon. There was another race that started off 10min before our race between Oxford Tri and Cambridge Tri clubs – the Varsity race. Us “Normal” runners had to try to catch them up and compete – FAT chance!
It was a frosty morning and there was a constant cool breeze. I entered on the day and even though they put my name down wrong I was pleased with my performance
considering the chill. 94th position in 1hr 38min... It is always a smallish and fairly fast field and I was pleased that there were at least 6-7 people behind me!
Pete Jones
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