Frank's the fastest finisher

7:50am Friday 29th August 2008

Members of Witham Running Club had a successful time at the Mersea five and ten-mile races on Bank Holiday Sunday, with a number of runners achieving new personal bests.

Frank McKeown was the first Witham runner past the post in the ten-mile race, clocking a new impressive personal best (PB) of 65 minutes 15 seconds.

Kev Harper made a welcome return to running after a recent back problem and followed McKeown home in 66m 30s, with Ian Stobirski just over a minute and a half further back finishing in 68m 13s, another PB.

Dave Smith and Ross Silverton both ran well and completed the two-lap course in 71m 53s and 74m 00s respectively.

The highlight of the day was probably Dave Enders pacing Shelley Wray to her stunning new PB of 76m 23s – an amazing improvement.

Paul Hedger was 18 seconds slower than his best ten-mile time when he crossed the line in 79m 58s, but this could have been the result of his first long bike ride of 20 miles plus the previous day.

Diane Knights was the second Witham lady over the line, finishing in 80m 55s with Gaye Gurry following another three minutes behind (84m 00s).

Naomi Emerick was Witham’s fourth runner to achieve a new PB as she finished the ten miles in 1 hour 51m 57s.

There was only one Witham runner in the five-mile race and junior Rachel Faires raced round the course to finish in 45m 29s.

Shelley Wray, Dave and Scott Enders decided to try some speedwork at the Little Havens five-kilometre race in Basildon.

On an undulating course, Dave Enders was the first home in 22m 41s and just managed to edge out son Scott by seven seconds (22m 48s).

Wray was very close behind and clocked 23m 05s.

This year’s Witham RC 5K handicap race saw a number of PBs and the largest turnout for a handicap race for a number of years.

The race saw a staggered start with the slowest runners off first and the quicker runners trying to make up the time and catch them.

Any runners not posting a time in the Summer 5K series was given a nominal handicap based on their anticipated pace.

First home on the night and lifting the prize for the men was Dave Payne, closely followed by Dave Howard (making his debut at a club 5K) and then a very fast finishing Jonny Kempster.

Wendy Martin also made up lots of time to be the first lady home, well in front of Lorraine Gold (second for the second year running) and a very fast finishing Rachel O’Connor, who also made up tons of time and recorded a PB.

Editor's choice