Bicester AC had a very impressive turnout of 12 athletes at the recent Motavation road race held at Marston. This was the second race in the 5 race series and as with last year this replaces the traditional 2nd round race that was always held on the hilly terrain of Bletchingdon and its surrounds. Marston is somewhat different as it is predominantly fast with a few gentle inclines.
Owen Stocker has struggled with injury since his very impressive cross country season so made a very welcome return in this event. Whilst well below his best form Stocker fought off the strong challenge from teammate Noah Gulvin to lead the team home in 44th with 23mins 42sec for the approximate 4 mile circuit. There were 446 finishers and Gulvin was having one of his better Motavation efforts as he placed 45th with 23mins 43secs. Joshua Moran was first Bicester runner home in round 1 but had to be content with 61st place on this occasion but still ran a competitive 24mins 25secs. Isaac Moran finished closer to his twin brother on this occasion placing 70th with 24mins 51secs. Bicester’s 5th runner in the top 100 was George Hart, who is in his first eligible season as a road runner. and he placed 80th with 26mins 20secs.
Ben Groves, who has competed in a variety of events for Bicester over the seasons, showed that he had lost none of his dash with an improved effort over round 1 as he placed 114th with 26mins 28secs. Amy Gould was Bicester’s top female finisher and she nipped inside the 30 minute barrier in 201st with 29mins 29secs. Gould was 34th finisher out of the 182 competing ladies. Paul Jones put in a solid effort for 246th (31mins 16secs) beating exactly 200 runners. Ella Myers – Finnegan was making her road running debut finishing in 334th place (34mins 27secs) and was also the 99th lady finisher.
Joshua Bradley ran over a minute faster than his effort in the same race last year to place 373rd (37mins 21secs). He had to ward off a strong challenge from a resurgent Paul Groves who was 376th in 37mins 24secs. And Emily Benfield made the top 400 places in placing 394th in 38mins 17secs.