Last Sunday Sonia Lees ventured south of the river (Thames that is) for the Wimbledon Audi 10K and came home smiling.

After a great race, Sonia found that she'd not just broken the magic 1 hour barrier for the first time for 10K - she smashed it with a chip time of 56:52! A new PB by about 5 minutes! Well done Sonia - all the hours of training have definitely paid off.

Not for the faint hearted, this 15 mile cross country around Epping Forest on Saturday afternoon was made more difficult by the persistent rain throughout the week. Organisers reported that conditions were the worst seen for many years.

So great credit to our fantastic four who all got round in excellent times. Captain Keith racing over distance was first home in 2.07 with Ian 40 seconds behind. Mike Moy having nursed an injury over the last two weeks clocked 2.13 with Brigid Wallen using the race as build up for Halstead 2.16.

Well done to all four at least they now have the tee shirt.

A great result from the above event where Rita Chalkley was third lady home. For her efforts Rita collected a handsome trophy which sadly she did not bring with her to the Easter Monday morning run.

Well done Rita good to see you back.

Kev Harper continued his return to fitness with an excellent 30.05 at Sudbury on Friday morning securing him 10th position on a point to point course.

Update from Chloe o­n her recent outing with Steve Barron at the Oakley 20. Sounds like ideal preparation for either the London Marathon or the next flood!:


Steve and I battled through the rain to get to the Oakley 20 (near Bedford) - and the battle didn't stop there! The rain meant we had our water proofs o­n, and we both took of at a nice slow pace. The course was advertised as hilly - and it was certainly the hilliest I have ever run. It consisted of o­ne 12 mile loop and part of the same loop again of 8 miles. (depressingly, the winners were running past me at mile 12 to the finish line, while I had to go around again!). The rain eased of but remained throughout. The worst bit was probably the wind though, it was tiring battling against it, and by the end I was letting it just blow me all over the place! The rain there has been very heavy, and the drains were bubbling up all over the roads. Many of the roads were completely flooded, so by mile 6 my feet had been submerged ankle deep o­n water, and we were all squelching along! Luckily no blisters followed.

It wasn't all doom and gloom though, as we were very pleased to run it all, and I think it was excellent preparation for London. We got very nice long sleeved running tops at the end. An experienced marathon runner I was chatting to at the end said that London shouldn't feel much worse than that as it is flat, so I'm pleased about that! Taking the times from our watches, Steve did aprox 3 hours 5 mins, and I did 3. 22 mins. Steve is aiming for a sub 4 hour marathon and I'm aiming for 4.5 hours, so hopefully that will be achievable.

While the rest of us were splashing round in the mud at Great Notley, 3 of our number were enjoying a bright sunny wind free day on the South Coast at Hastings!

Kev Harper on the road to recovery managed a very good 1.26.23 with Dave Andrews on his favourite course clocking 1.39.59. Sue Aves, a regular at this event too, managed a respectable 1.50.51 in her build up to the London Marathon.

Sunday dawned somewhat cloudy and breezy but managed to stay dry and mild for the 27th running of the Brentwood Half Marathon. This is a popular race and 2008 saw a record number of entries and over 2000 finishers. Witham were well represented, with a number of runners including Brentwood as part of their marathon training.

Kev Harper is still getting over a nasty chest infection but had a great run to be first Witham runner over the line in 1:23:56 and 71st position. Frank McKeown was the second man home in 1:28:28 which placed him 4th o­n the Male Over 50 age category. Phil Martin decided to run Brentwood in preference to a longer marathon training run with Mat and the rest of the group and he maintained his recent form to finish in 1:33:09.

Ian Stobirski suffered a broken finger o­n the Saturday (something to do with a pocket, I hear! )but this didn't seem to impact his running - he used Peter Gold as his pace maker and crossed the line in 1:37:43, fractionally faster than Peter's 1:37:53.

James Montgomery's marathon training is starting to bear fruit and his 1:43:47 was a PB for the distance. Colin Short turned 60 at the start of the year and as Brentwood was his first race in a new age category his time of 1:47:11 is a age category PB.

Paul Hedger is slowly building up his mileage and should be happy with his finish time of 1:53:24.

Sally King is preparing for the Flora London Marathon and doesn't normally race the half marathon - but she was the first Witham lady home at Brentwood crossing the line in 1:58:29. Lorraine Gold had been swapping places with Sally for much of the way but couldn't quite manage to match Sally's final sprint for the line, finishing 9 seconds slower in 1:58:38.

Chloe Burt just keeps o­n improving - after a brilliant 20K race a couple of weeks ago, she managed another PB at Brentwood with an impressive finish time of 2:00:43, which bodes really well for her race in London.

Marion May is another Witham lady who is slowly improving her race times - o­n Sunday she finished in 2:02:43, just under a minute in front of Carmel Beard (2:03:29).

Janet Peck and Debs Cutler are both coming back to racing after lay-offs due to injury and ill health - Janet proved to be slightly the stronger at Brentwood with a time of 2:06:41 compared to Debs' 2:10:14.

Brentwood was a new course for Ann Johnson, who finished well in 2:15:33. Sonia Lees and Angela Hore must have run most of the race together as they finished in 2:17:41 and 2:17:47 respectively.

Unfortunately Theresa Montgomery suffered a recurrence of an injury problem and hobbled home in 2:48:35.

There were a few familiar faces around the course, giving plenty of vocal support to our runners - so a big 'THANKS' to Yvonne, Sam Peck and the girls. Sam must have been driving all round the place as I'm sure I saw him three times!

The first Sunday in March was warm and sunny, not exactly the weather you expect for an early March day but perfect for the Roding Valley Half Marathon. This is another race that features strongly in many runner's preparation for the Flora London Marathon as the hilly course tests the runners' stamina.

John Roberts was Witham RC's o­nly representative this year and finished as the first Male Over 70 in 2:04:15.

Well done John - you prove that there's still hope for the rest of us!

On a flat but windy two lap course we had six finishers led home by Mat in an excellent 2.33.12. Until mile 16 he was running with Phil who still dipped under 8 minute miling with a very good 2.39.52.

Liz took the bragging rights in the Stuckey household with a strong 2.46.03 passing Alex at 13 who had suffered a bad bout of flu all week and he clocked 2.59.59 in the official results.

Debs was very pleased with her 3.04 as was Penny in 3.32. Both are on target for their London Marathon goals.

Martyn

Well we may not have won but what a fantastic turn out on a sunny, breezy and cold Saturday afternoon at the Melbourne Stadium in Chelmsford, where not only did we field 3 men’s and 2 ladies teams but James, Theresa, Lorraine and Mr and Mrs D-W, Mat and Rach turned out to support.

Great credit must go to Brigid and Alan who co-ordinated and harassed us to turn out and in particular to Mike and Russ who ran at short notice due to injury and illness.

Whilst the full results will be available later this week I would say that overall the number of teams was down. I would be surprised if there were more than 20 and 15 mens and ladies full teams respectively compared to in excess of 60 a few years back.

On to the actual event and Alan got it spot on with his selections. He ran the fastest time of 21.22 for the 3.5 course with Kev a minute back having nursed a chest infection all week. A minute behind him and separated according to the Captains watch by a second were Trevor 23.36 and Frank.

I lead off the B Team but should really have been in the C which was endorsed by Mike and Brigid who both showed me a clean pair of heels. Pete, Russ and Ian M all gained places with times of 25.45, 24.00 and 24.03 respectively.

Our C team got off to a flyer with Mike Moy on 25.32 and he was ably supported by Tony and Dave Payne who had a surprise coming into the final straight as Colesy was still up the road doing his warm up!

For the girls Walls dropped herself from the A Team following her house move the day before. So Emilie lead off and ran an excellent 26 minutes handing over to Lindsey and Amy who jogged round in 22 something to bring us home in an excellent 8th.

Following a very good 25.30 Brigid, Angie Manley handed off to Yvonne who ran despite nursing a sore knee all week.

Overall a very good afternoon and thanks to all those who turned out to represent the Club.

Martyn