Newmarket Jogger Jimmy Smith’s charity race boosts year-long tribute to his dad

A race organised by a member of the Newmarket Joggers as part of a year-long tribute to his father has raised more than £900 for charity.

Jimmy Smith has already completed two 50-mile races this year, plus the London Marathon, and has two more long-distance challenges in his diary for September and November.

All sponsorship money and donations are being held in Jimmy's JustGiving account, which currently stands at more than £3,500 and will all go to the Alzheimer's Society in honour of his father Fred, who was once his running partner but now lives with the disease in a nursing home in Andover.

Other than making the long round trip from his home in Cheveley to Hampshire once or twice every week, there is little NHS data analyst Jimmy can do for 86-year-old Fred other than raise money for research into the disease, which has robbed father and son of the close relationship which was built partly on their mutual love of running.

“I had always thought of my dad as fit and strong but now he can’t talk or move and I’m not sure he even recognises me, “ said Jimmy.

As a veteran of more than 30 marathons including the Big Six of London, Berlin, Tokyo, New York, Chicago and Boston, Jimmy decided to put his running to use and raise as much as possible in the course of 2024.

Anyone who would like to contribute to Jimmy’s fund for the Alzheimer’s Society can do so at www.justgiving.com/page/james-smith-1709393833326.

Wednesday’s race, over a multi-terrain five-mile course starting and finishing at The Fox public house, in Ousden, attracted a full field of 100 runners, nearly half of them from Newmarket Joggers.

The difference between this event and others over a similar distance was that competitors were handed written instructions and then had to self-navigate round the route in the Suffolk countryside.

“It was important that they read and understood the instructions, which meant runners who were the best on paper didn’t necessarily finish at the top, “ said Jimmy. “Two of them, who would have expected to finish in fast times, ended up running an extra mile-and-a-half and were only in the middle of the order.”

The winners were Joggers Hanneli Stevenson and Steve Oglesby, who found the correct route and completed it in an impressive 47 minutes.