British 10k, camaraderie and odd one out competitions

The highlight of this weekend's racing was the Vitality London 10k, incorporating the British 10k Championships. At the front end of the race, Tom Aldred broke into the top 20, finishing inside 32 minutes. Just a squeak behind Tom was Adam Kirk-Smith, who finished a mere 18 seconds back, in 29th. If a new arrival in the family wasn't already giving Tom sleepless nights, Adam probably would be.

Our ladies team (silver medalists in the London Marathon, in case we haven't mentioned that before) also put on quite the show, getting six runners home inside 40 minutes. Rebecca Piggott led the way in 37:49 with Ella and Bethany racing it out behind her. Celine, Leigh and Ula completed the stellar sextet.

After about half an hour dossing around with the COUNTIF function on Excel, I can conclude that our ladies have *probably* won a prize, courtesy of Rebecca, Ella and Bethany. We have benefited from other teams' members not wearing the correct kit in the past (eg in the London Marathon), but it would take a heck of a kit malfunction from Aldershot Farnham & District to bump us up to first, as they had about seven runners in ahead of Rebecca.

Meanwhile we also had several runners in the companion Westminster Mile event. Jessica Vinluan got in touch to claim a PB, without bothering to mention that her husband also ran. She did, however, take the troubly to disqualify deadly rival Chloe Alder's super- fast time (number swap, apparently). Priorities, eh.

Elsewhere

Adam Kirk-Smith's name pops up (again) in the results from the British Milers Club's Eltham Meet, where he won the 1500m A race in 3:58, edging out an outstanding U17 runner and some bloke called Paul Martelletti. Not content with that, AKS also ran 15:12 in the 5000m at the BMC Grand Prix in Watford on Saturday for a new PB.

At pretty much the far end of the running spectrum (and, indeed, the planet) Mike Stocks finished 156th of nearly 18,000 competitors in the iconic Comrades Marathon. Mike covered the 56-mile course in 6:47, qualifying him for a prestigious silver medal (awarded to athletes who finish inside 7:30, according to Wikipedia).

Picture: not much need for woolly headwear in South Africa

Five Heathsiders ran in a 'very warm' Last Friday of the Month 5k in Hyde Park. Jonathan comfortably led the Heathsiders home in 18:47. Caroline set a new club record for the V55 category, improving on her previous time by 3 seconds (22:48). Gabi, having trained hard the previous evening, couldn’t quite match her previous record-breaking V45 performance (22:14), finishing in 22:59. Emilia’s time (21:47) - her best for 18 years at this distance - may be a new club V45 record, depending on whether you really have to wear the club vest to set a club record. (Sam?)

Odd one out #2

Pinky swear: will Emilia be cursing her choice of attire?

Jake Spencer and Gareth Marshall took part in the Chase the Sun 10k in Hyde Park. Gazza describes it as "A nice and flat course though a touch mundane with it being 4 short laps.

"Still, we had perfect conditions and managed to push each other on to sub 38 minute finishes for the first time, which were big PBs for both of us. Definitely think having another Heathsider alongside made a big difference, although only until 9k as Jake left me for dead after that."

In multi-sport corner, we have the 'other' Chris Hartley (the one who didn't spend his weekend grumbling the length of Hadrian's Wall) winning the Hertfordshire Triathlon in 2:14 for the olympic distance.

Says OCH: "First ever triathlon, first ever win (at anything!) . Seems like being average at three things is easier than being good at one. Who knew?" That seems unduly harsh. In fact, Chris nicked the victory with the day's best run, covering the 10k in 36:17 to win by about a minute and a half.

This week's parkrun results include first places for John Driscoll, Tom Aldred, Charles Hardy, Rebecca Piggott and Martin Potter.

And finally...

Bas Vlaming sends in this week's most exotic race report (unless you prefer South Africa, or you've never been to Hyde Park) all the way from South Korea:

"After I had booked my holidays to Korea, I found out that the Jeju Half Marathon (or at the least, one of them - there seem to be at least three races using some name like that) was being organised right around that time. I couldn't resist and signed up. So, after a week of holidays, with sore legs from hiking and after a soju-soaked experimental diet, I found myself at the start of a HM in Korea. Unfortunately, it was pouring down, and it would stay that way throughout the race. Not the nicest conditions I suppose, but at least it cools you down a bit. All in all, the race was fine: the route was back and forth along some slightly undulating coastal roads, not very picturesque but at least close to the sea, plenty of drinks stations and luckily the race was also signposted in English. No official time yet, but it should be around 1.52.00 or so - given the lousy prep and conditions, about as good as I could have reasonably expected."

Results

London 10,000

18 Tom Aldred 31:54
29 Adam Kirk-Smith 32:12
69 Olivier le Polain 33:17
84 Andrew Brooker 33:30
160 Charles Hardy 35:02
171 George Stewart 35:13
186 Allan Whatmough 35:27
338 Daniel Johns 37:20
373 Rebecca Piggott 37:49
400 Jonathan Litchfield 38:06
433 Ella Waldman 38:22
436 James Connell 38:24
442 Bethany Scott 38:26
469 Celine Murray 38:40
516 Leigh James 39:11
544 Ula Cartwright-Finch 39:23
760 Tom Ashby 40:55
792 Kelly Thorneycroft 41:09
871 James Dark 41:36
1165 Robert Bowler 43:15
1201 Satu Heitanen 43:23
2006 Daniel Wrapson 46:41
3822 Alun Nash 52:12
4614 Frances Powrie 54:00

Westminster Mile (run over several races but sorted by time, finishing position for that competitor's race)

5 Gareth Marshall 05:10
14 Jonathan Litchfield 05:23
78 Michael Cockings 05:35
5 Kris Milovsorov 05:39
109 Gavin Parish 05:53
113 Michael Abrahams 05:55
7 Marco Maserati 06:13
10 Jessica Vinluan 06:27
9 Etienne Munday 06:45
123 Sebouh Takvorian 06:46
125 Caroline White 06:48
30 Margherita Maserati 07:26
85 Eloise Dark 08:37
169 James Dark 10:16
169 Raymond Yau 11:21

Comrades Marathon 2016

156 Mike Stocks 6:47:00

BMC Grand Prix, Watford, 28 May

5000m Race C

11 Adam Kirk-Smith 15:12.53

BMC Regional Races, Eltham, 25 May 16
1500m
1 Adam Kirk-Smith 3:58.26

Last Friday 5k, Hyde Park

32nd Jonathan Litchfield 18:47
134th Emilia Vynnycky 21:47
177th Caroline White 22:48
180th Gabrielle Johnson 22:59
190th Alun Nash 23:34

Chase the Sun 10k, Hyde Park, 25 May 16

9 JAKE SPENCER 00:37:30
11 GARETH MARSHALL 00:37:37

Herts Tri (Olympic Distance)

OverallSwimT1CycleT2Run1 Chris Hartley2:14:2522:551:341:12:540:4336:17