And they came back for more cross-country…ladies continue dominance at Trent Park

Sunday brought part two of the weekend’s cross-country fest, with 47 Heathsiders (21 ladies and 26 men) braving the cold weather to run in Trent Park in the second race in the Sunday league cross-country.  Seventeen of them had run the day before in the Met league, making their performance in the tough conditions all the more impressive.  As might be expected, the course involved hills with muddy sections and the bitterly cold wind prompted many to think hard about relaxing Hartley’s laws of cross-country racing (no hats, gloves, etc).  

There were many great runs. Olivia Desborough ran impressively to bring the ladies home in 34:30, followed by Sara Black (35:43) and Chiara Borg (36:14), who just pipped Satu Hietanen (36:18), making up the ladies A team.  Three of these had also raced on Saturday, when they had made it to the A or B teams. The remaining ladies followed within the next 15 minutes.  The men were  led home by Esa Valtanen (30:35), chased closely by Jonathan Litchfield (30:46), followed by Lee Connor (32:11) and Leonard Martin (32:25) to make up the men’s A team.   The remaining men followed not long after that, with James Taggert rounding off Heathside’s men.

A special mention goes to Andrew Hudson, for whom this was the first (but hopefully not the last!) race of 2017, having overcome injury, and to Rachel Scott-Halls, for coming back to racing after a spell of illness.   A few had found that two cross-country races in 24 hours was not enough and, besides racing on both Saturday and Sunday, either cycled to Trent Park and back (e.g. Ken and Edyta) or did a parkrun on Saturday (e.g. Jonathan Litchfield, Alun Nash).

Overall, Heathside’s ladies had a fantastic day.  The A team finished 2nd , the B team was first and the Masters team finished 3rd.  Interestingly, almost half (9/21) of Heathside’s women who had raced on Sunday had also raced on Saturday. After two races, both the A and B women’s teams are first, and the Masters team is 3rd.  Heathside’s men’s A and B teams had a solid performance, finishing 9th and 7th respectively, with the Masters’ team finishing 9th.  After two races, the A and B teams are 9th and 8th respectively, whilst the Master’s team is now 8th.   The combined team is 8th.

Finally, thanks are due to Steve Woolf for taking photos (typically at exactly the right time!), Marco Maserati for sacrificing the opportunity to get cake by noting down the results instead, and to Our Dear Leader and Alan for their cheerful support around the course.  As ever, our captains Laura and Tim deserve a prize for their never-ending enthusiasm, with Laura’s cherry cakes and satsumas helping to bring a cold morning to a happy end.

The next race is in Wilian on the 16th December, the day after the Christmas party.  What could possibly provide a better end to the cross-country races of 2017?  We look forward to seeing all of you there…

Sunday league cross-Trent Park, Sunday 12th November 2017, 8KM

*Dedicated (dirty) doublers, who had raced the day before.

Women’s results

10           Olivia Desborough*        34:30

15           Sara Black            35:43

20           Chiara Borg*      36:14

22           Satu Hietanen* 36:18

26           Jessica Vinluan  36:47

29           Hannah Stanforth*         37:20

36           Sally Chatterton 38:16

48           Tammela Platt   39:09

52           Emilia Vynnycky* 39:18

58           Yvette Ralston   39:44

74           Madeleine Minson          41:14

77           Caroline White*               41:18

96           Kim Butler*        42:26

104         Magdalena Kopalova      43:07

116         Edyta Szot*        44:41

117         Valerie Rodriguez             44:42

142         Tara Tapper        47:10

151         Margherita Maserati       47:48

152         Laura Boothman*            47:53

165         Rachel Scott-Halls            49:14

172         Louise Cripps      49:58

Men’s results

32           Esa Valtanen      30:35

35           Jonathan Litchfield*        30:46

64           Lee Connor         32:11

73           Leonard Martin*              32:25

84           Rajiv Ratan          33:01

112         Mark George     34:04

127         Tim Marshall      34:29

132         Liam Hazelton* 34:48

136         Robert Shulman*             34:59

138         Laurence Arnold*            35:00

146         John McKnight  35:30

148         Matthew Beard 35:31

152         Chris Ballingall    35:37

159         Nick Dodd           36:04

167         Tom Griffiths*   36:29

177         Tom Bedwell      37:01

187         Jack Pinnick-Gray             37:34

188         Tom Hosking      37:37

202         Fabio De Santo  38:12

219         Duncan Ray        38:53

224         Alun Nash*         39:04

247         Andrew Hudson               40:49

259         Nilesh Goswami 41:28

262         Chris Peacock    41:53

285         Ken Townson*  44:20

309         James Taggert   47:35

Parkruns

A few Heathsiders ran in parkruns on Saturday.  Andrew Conway was delighted to have achieved his best time of 2017 in Highbury Fields (24:00).  Congratulations for first place finishes go to Ryan McCrickerd (Hampstead, 17:25), Juan Iglesias (Oak Hill Park, 18:26) and Clare Morissey (Oranmore, 22:01).  The results are available from the following link: 

http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=2017&eventdate=2017-11-11