Tiptree Road Runners

Three county medals and eight personal bests for Tiptree at Great Bentley

The Great Bentley half-marathon lived up to its reputation as a fast course with Tiptree Road Runners posting 8 personal bests and winning three county medals in the Essex Championship. Helen Ivory ran a personal best of 1:49:55, an improvement of five and a half minutes, to win a County F50 silver medal and set a new club record in her age category. Jim Slater ran 1:38:12 to retain the County V60 silver medal he won last year, and Ian Linton claimed his first County V60 bronze medal with a run of 1:47:00, just outside the personal best he set ten years earlier. James Haskey-Jones was first home for the club with a personal best of 1:22:09 which placed him 57^th out of 820 finishers. Before the race, he had competed in an Aquathon, completing a swim and 5K run in his best time for the event - a good morning’ work. Simon Morgan was also among the personal bests, reducing his time by a minute with a run of 1:25:36 which also gave him a top 100 place. Greg McDowell made his club debut at the distance with an encouraging run of 1:26:15, with Paul Dellar also making a debut run in 1:33:20. Darren Foy followed up his personal best at the Benfleet 15 with another PB of 1:34:50, an improvement of over 4 minutes. On the way he improved his 10 mile best. Jamie Fairfull did the same. His run of 1:35:42 was a five minute improvement, with an intermediate 10 mile best and followed up his big improvement at Benfleet. Martin Avent was just a minute outside his best with a run of 1:36:08 which shows good progress in his London Marathon preparations. Malcolm Bailey in his first long road race since a serious accident, finished in 1:38:08, followed by Dave Payne whose time of 1:41:36 was much faster than he had predicted. Anthony Knight’s personal best of 1:46:49 was a great achievement just a week after the punishing "Winter Tough Guy". Bob Sees made a welcome return to the road with a run of 1:51:22, followed by Paul Shewbridge in 1:54:56 and Carolyn Bownes in 1:54:57. Tina Clarke ran 1:59:17 to set a personal best by 20 seconds, with Dawn Shilling taking a minute off her previous best in 2:04:02.