Great Bentley Half Marathon – report 10/02/2013  

Great Bentley Half Marathon

On a dull drizzley morning with the temperature at 2C, but a stiff easterly breeze made it feel much colder, the Great Bentley half marathon was raced over a fast course but conditions meant that runners times were slightly slower than usual. However, the 9 runners from Ilford AC returned a set of impresive performances. Leading home the group, all of who train with the ‘Warriors of Time’ squad, who are coached by Rob Sargent at the track, was Kevin Newell in 22nd position out of a field of 605 finishers with the excellent time of 1hr 20mins 44secs while Sam Rahman set a new personal best of 1h 22m 01s for 35th. The next 2 Ilford men home also set new pbs; Paul Holloway with 1h 26m 58s in 69th and Richard Mould finished 121st with 1h 32m 52s. Breege Nordin, who has only recently returned to training following injury, recorded 1h 38m 18s which won her the trophy for 1st lady O55 and Nicola Hopkinson placed 3rd in the lady O50 category in 1h 44m 52s. Billy Green battled hard in the elements to finish in 1h 54m 25s and Rachel Allen and Nicola Chester ran well in the first race at the distance to finish in 1h 58m 16s and 2h 132m 48s respectively.

Report from Hank in the Bushes