Poignant Return Of Southend Classic
Former club stalwarts were missed as 1,252 finish the Southend 10K…
The 2023 Southend 10K – formerly the Southend 5-mile race – was the second to be held in the absence of long-serving Southend-on-Sea AC officials Andy and Mary Green. Mary died in April last year – a few months before the race that she and her husband had devoted so much of their time towards organising – and Andy passed away in April 2020.
Both were former international athletes. Andy represented GB on seven occasions, was the UK indoor 800m record holder (1:52.6 in 1963), and a sub-four-minute miler with a best of 3:57.7 in 1965. Mary, meanwhile, was a 400m specialist who ran in the 1968 Mexico Olympics but retired to start a family, joining Southend AC in the 1980s, being elected President in 1991 and only retiring in 2020 due to ill health.
The former club stalwarts and founders of this race would have been delighted to witness the continued success of the Southend 10K with 1,252 finishing in just over two hours on Sunday 1 October 2023.
At the front, we had three men in three age categories all finished within 32 minutes. Jack Nixon (Ilford AC, 31:14) was the youngest and the fastest ahead of M40 James Connor (Havering AC, 31:33) and M50 Adrian Mussett (Colchester Harriers, 31:49).
The top three women in the race that incorporated the Essex 10K Championships were under-20 junior Lizzie Wellsted (33:47), Roanna Vickers (36:56) and Lydia Callan (37:11) – all Colchester Harriers and among 122 athletes under 40 minutes on chip timing provided by Norwich-based Race Time Results.
The supporting Junior 3K race was won by Hayden Potten (10:17) and Jessica Walker (10:38) – who was fourth overall in a field of 40 promising young athletes.
The course for both races was mainly on the spectacular Southend seafront promenade and was as flat and fast as they come. The primary race sponsor was again Runners Edge – the running specialist retailer who provided £400 in vouchers for the prize fund and a pop-up shop with discounted running shoes and clothing.
Race details and results are available via runABC South race listing here.
