Dear All,

This weekend saw our neighbours at Stowmarket Striders put on their popular Half Marathon, which was accompanied by a 10k event for the first time. With the Half Marathon being in the Suffolk and Pacers Grand Prix many members were taking part.

Well done to Aidan Elmore for being first Pacer home in 1.20, followed by Ollie Bingham in 1.29. There were age category wins for Howard Beasley and Jenny Steedman, who both finished in 1.34, and Anita Ward also won her age category in a brilliant time of 1.44. Well done to Jenny Morgan who not only won her age category and took the v70 county record in the process! A little mention to Andy Clayton, who ran his first race over this distance for around 16 years.

In the new 10k race, Thomas Smith was first Pacer home and second overall in a time of 36.18. He was followed by Todd Lewis. who won his age category in 42.40 and then was Stacey Mockford, who was first female overall. Maureen McCarthy also won her age category, a fine effort after being off over the winter with injuries. Congratulations to you all.

The Senior Grand Prix has been updated following the Half Results

Alongside the next few rounds of the Senior Grand Prix, our website also have a race diary if you are looking for an event during the next few months.

At the Essex 20 miler, we had Andrew Southwood, Alastair Angus, Katie King and Gem Carter representing Suffolk. The ladies finished third in the team event and Andrew recorded a PB, potentially fuelled off the back of a certain Mr Mower beating his Marathon time by 11 seconds…

Well done to Dave Beighton who is back racing after some time off with injuries, finishing the Trowse 10k.

Thank you to Cath for the report below from English Schools final:

Saturday saw the ESAA cross-country cup final in Sefton Park in Liverpool, where once again Suffolk Schools’ teams were highly represented by our fantastic Pacer juniors. Perfect weather, great team spirit and some awesome individual and team performances made it a very successful and enjoyable day. In Junior girls, 6 out of the 8 were Pacers: Molly Smith finished in the top 100 with Romilly Adams, Anna Evans, Molly Murphy, Isla Whiting and Lucy Murphy also running. Junior boys came an amazing 2nd overall with Dexter Marshal finishing an incredible 7th place overall and gaining himself a well deserved England vest in the upcoming SIAB XC championships next week. Inter girls finished really strong in 5th position with 5 out of the 8 being Pacers and all finishing in the top 100, which is amazing. Well done to Chloe Berry (30), Sophie Bolton (31), India Johnson (74), Ella Knight (76) and Alex McVittie (92). In Inter boys, Hamish Dover and Digby Pearson represented Suffolk. In senior girls, Bella Taylor finished a superb 27th for Suffolk, backed up by Alice Winstanley, Ella Stewart, Tilly Wooldridge and Eva Torfin. Verity Valentine also ran brilliantly in the Cambridge team to finish 23rd overall. Senior boys made history to win the team 🏆 with 6 of the 8 all Pacers. There were some incredibly strong individual performances in this race: Seb Melero (11), Sam Blackwell (28), Max Uttley (29), Roman Gambling (43), Alfie Jeffery (73) and Angus Blackburn (164). We were all super proud to see so many of our juniors represent their county and run so well.

Have a great week everyone.

Lara