Broadland Half Marathon – Sunday 13 March 2016

A sea of orange (and Paul Emery who was running in his Ilford AC colours) brightened up an already sunny Sunday morning with an amazing 34 Jags in attendance at the Broadland half and spurred on by equally enthusiastic support, produced some stellar performances.
Plenty of Bronze, Silver and Gold standards were achieved… as well as the now obligatory Platinum performance from Ken Bowman, whilst Jackie Bye’s demands for PB’s was met by many of the runners, with no less than 16 PB’s recorded!
Now knocking a couple of minutes off your PB might seem like quite a big achievement, 6 minutes would be pretty amazing even (Jackie Gooch), so how good was Nick Hudson’s PB by NINE MINUTES!?! This just underlines the progress Nick has shown in training recently. Jackie was agonisingly close to dipping under 2hrs too, it won’t be long Jackie!.
Nick showed well against regular top performers finishing just behind Ben Letzer, Mel Porter and Alan Bushell who all completed the course in under 1hr 30 minutes. Ben taking first Jag home honours and finishing 27th overall and Mel getting 1st prize in his age group, well done Mel!
Not to be outdone and continuing his domination of the Leathes Prior Grand Prix Series, Ken Bowman grabbed another trophy for 1st in age.  There was also success for the ladies as Ellie Bye grabbed 2nd place in her age group and Heather Hollister 3rd in age, running a Diamond standard time in the process.
Further congratulations to Mel and Ken for winning their age group in the County Championships and to Ellie and Heather for winning third place! Well done all!!
There were also success for the O40 ladies team consisting of Vicky Tovell, Emma Jordan, Heather Hollister and Ruth Pilch finishing in second place and the men’s U40 team of Ben Letzer, Nick Hudson, Tom Johnson and James Lambert finishing in third place.
Regardless of results there seemed to be smiles all round and this was a great day out for the Jags. Perhaps the biggest smiles of all though were seen when Stewie got his van stuck in the car park! Of course, we all jumped to his rescue… eventually.
Also thanks to the fantastic supporters around the course –  Becky, Shirley, Dee, Ruth, Sonya, David, Rod, Jackie, Zep and of course Alan!! (hope that’s everyone!!).
Broadland group
 
NameTime PBStandard
Ben Letzer1.27.56YesGold
Melvin Porter1.29.45Gold
Alan Bushell1.29.54YesGold
Nicolas Hudson1.30.46YesSilver
Tom Johnson1.31.36FTSilver
Peter Nelson1.32.00Gold
Ken Bowman1.33.33Platinum
James Lambert1.33.45YesSilver
Ellie Bye1.35.47Silver
James Fuller1.36.08YesSilver
Scott Shrubsall1.37.33YesSilver
Scott Chadwick1.40.06Bronze
Graham Johnson1.41.34YesSilver
Paul Emery (IlfordAC)1.42.14Silver
Vicky Tovell1.46.20Silver
Paul Taylor1.48.12Bronze
Nicola Holden1.49.03YesSilver
Peter Kean-Cockburn1.49.30YesSilver
Emma Jordan1.50.41YesSilver
Stewart Marden1.51.08Bronze
Nicola John1.52.27Bronze
Josh Neale1.52.25
Heather Hollister1.53.13YesDiamond
Ruth Pilch1.53.15FTSilver
Adele Bushell1.55.37YesSilver
Stephen Neal1.56.08FT
Jackie Gooch2.00.05YesSilver
Rosemary Jackson2.02.38Gold
Paul Gerber2.02.38
Clare Hicks2.03.19YesBronze
Claire Owen2.08.07
Emma Blake2.08.36
Dawn Chapman2.16.54Yes