Brentwood Running Festival breaks new ground

Race report: Brentwood Running Festival - Saturday, October 29, 2011

Now in it’s fourth year, the Brentwood Running Festival continues to go from strength to strength. What started life as a local event with 50 runners in 2008 has grown exponentially in the last 3 years to a high quality race attracting runners from across the country.

The promice of some beautiful off road trails enticed close to 600 runners to hang up their road shoes for the weekend. The course provides a superb mix of challenging climbs, picturesque woodland trails and great marshal support, with several runners commenting on how great the format is: “A scenic route on the challenging side with excellent organisation. Excellent support, the Marshalls even felt like old friends by the end.”

The weekend started on Saturday with an opportunity for the stars of the future to shine. The children’s 2K race saw twice as many starters as 12 months earlier. Max Wintle and Freddie Cowell battled it around the entire 2K circuit and in the end it came down to a sprint finish. Max timed his move perfectly striking for home with less than 20 metres to go and leaving it too late for Freddie to respond. A superb winning time of 8 minutes 16 seconds on this tough off road course.

Third place overall went to under 10 champion Joseph Abbott in an equally impressive 9:06. Erin Corney was the first girl home in 9:44 with Lisa Brown leading a closely fought girls under 10 race. With many sibling rivalries settled for another 12 months it was left to our youngest competitor to bring the 2K to a close. Having completed the course at the ripe old age of 4 there was little room for the adults to complain about the hills when they took to the same course later in the day!

The 10k race started an hour later with a clear order established early. By the end of the first lap James Haskey-Jones had established a lead of a few metres over Ian Bannerman and Eddy Cooper.

Appearing to take it easy ahead of a much longer challenge the next day James continued to stay in control of the race. Thinking Eddy at had gone off too fast many spectators were to eat their words as his pace increased throughout the race. Moving into second place mid race the dream was on although the more experienced Haskey-Jones had it apparently under control not managing to extend his lead but never in danger of surrendering it either. In the end James Haskey-Jones won in 41 minutes 32 with Eddy Cooper just 8 second back and Ian Bannerman a clear third in 42:03.

In the ladies race a similar pattern developed over the first 2 laps with an established trio of Debbie Cattermole, Gemma Hearn and Emily Smith heading the field. By the third lap there was some shaking up of the field as Vicky Knight started to make her move. Pacing the race to perfection, with each lap being quicker than the previous one Vicky moved through from fifth place to briefly challenge for second before Gemma responded, putting in her own fastest lap, to set the quickest final 2K of the day and secure second ahead of Vicky. Both had left too much to do as the early lead established by Debbie proved enough to bring her home first in 46:32.

In total there were over 130 finishers on the first day each with a story to tell about how they had tamed the hills at Weald Country Park.

On Sunday the attention turned to longer races with a marathon and half marathon staged over an extended course retaining all the hills from Saturday interspersed with some delightful forest trails and lake views.

In the half marathon local runner Crispian Bloomfield from Billaricay Striders led the field by almost a minute after the first 2 miles and proceeded to extend his lead throughout. Building his lead at every stage of the race he came home a full 6 minutes ahead of the field in 1 hour 18 minutes and 56 seconds, shattering the course record from last year in the process. Second place went to David Laing who could comfort himself with being the fastest V40 runner on the day, with Jonathon Blackburn coming home third. In the V50 category Andrew Houghton triumphed in 1:36:02. Ladies winner Deborah Appleton was equally dominant heading the field from start to finish and ending the day with a top 5 position overall. Breaking the course record by an impressive 14 minutes into the bargain. Behind her Gail Savage was second with third place being taken by FV35 winner Charley Jennings. Deborah Appleton also picked up the V40 trophy, with Wendi Witton completing the age category winners and taking home the FV50 trophy.

Places in the marathon were a hard fought affair with Mark Jefford belying his V40 status to come home overall winner in 3:12:08 bettering the course record by a mere 8 seconds in the process. Graham Booty was a close second with John McBurney coming home third. The V50 trophy was lifted by David Oflyn with Andy Wilmot using the experience of over 500 previous marathons to good effect to come home first in the V60 category.

For the ladies Helen Ryder led the field and took both the ladies trophy and FV40 prizes ahead of V35 winner Charlotte Smith and second place FV40 Sarah Thorne, and in a fairy tale outcome Betty Chan celebrated her birthday in style by winning the V50 category.

Our Thanks go out to Thrift Green Trotters for their generous support of the race, Paltherapies for providing much needed massage facilities pre and post race and for the generous support of Holiday Inn and the Spirit Health Club for donation of prizes.

Men's 10km results

Women's 10km results

Men's half marathon results

Women's half marathon results

Men's marathon results

Women's marathon results

Click here for full results