Comrades Ultra, England Champs, & LICC
This week an incredible performance at the Comrades Marathon in South Africa and our young athletes competing at the National Championships.
Comrades Marathon, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa 28 Aug 22
The legendary Comrades Marathon is the world’s oldest and largest Ultramarathon, run between the cities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg in South Africa, the start and finish alternating each year. It is approx 90km long, and takes on a challenging “ big five “ set of hills, whichever direction it is run from. Runners must complete the course in under 12hrs to avoid the cut off. There were over 11,000 finishers, and the winning times this year were 5h 30m for men and 6h 17m for women
Among those attempting the 95th edition of the race this year were our intrepid Heathsiders, Rob Shulman and Damien Lane who produced great performances
Jim Connell reports :
“His ( Damien’s ) performance is quite astonishing. He has truly upped his game and produced an amazing performance after a very dedicated traning regime. Damien ( pictured finishing ) describes the course as the ‘ Valley of the Thousand Hills ‘ ! Rob ran around 8 hours, similar to last time kind of what we expect out of him as he is an experienced Ultramarathoner “
Damien says “Rob and I ran the Comrades Marathon last Sunday. Comrades is a 90km road ultra, which runs between Pietermaritzberg and Durban in South Africa, alternating directions each year. This year was a Down Run - which means 3,500 feet of up (mostly in the first half) and about 5,500 feet of descent, much of which is concentrated in a quad crushing 6/7 mile stretch after about 40 miles, just as fatigue starts to real gnaw away at the hamstrings and psyche of the runners en route. Key to success is managing the first half so that you have enough in the tank to allow gravity to do its work as the descent into Durban really gets going.
It's an amazing event, only 15.5k starters this year (normal years attract over 20,000 entrants), but an estimated 500,000 spectators line the course, shouting, whistling encouragement, and offering Wors, salted potatoes and cold, flat Coca Cola to any runner who shows an interest.
Rob and I were making our fourth attempt at it - one of the many special features of the race is that if you complete it 10 times, the number is permanently retired and you get the right to wear a Green Number - green number runners are the royalty of Comrades Lore, and the running joke (#seewhatididthere) is that 43 is halfway to 10. We shall see...
There is a 12 hour cut off, with the race finishing in the Durban Football stadium as the clock hits 5:30pm . If you are 1 metre short of the line, that's it - no time, no medal, nothing. As a result pretty much all the runners - along with thousands of spectators - remain to watch those last finishers, and more important the non finishers who fail to make it before the deadline crawling to a stop, their hopes of a medal dashed. As the clock hits the deadline, the distinctive note of a bugle intone The Last Post, and the race is over for another year.
Rob smashed his Down Run PB to come in at 8:13 and I managed a 7:23 finish to get my Silver Medal - one that I will treasure forever. As the saying almost goes, "Find someone who looks at you like Damien looks at his Comrades Silver Medal"
Stick this one on your bucket list - it'll be the greatest race weekend of your life.”
Rob adds - “Damien is too modest to say but he undoubtedly ran the race of his life! He achieved the highly prized, legendary 'silver medal'. This diminutive medal is awarded to those running under 7 and a half hours. For those unfamiliar with this event, it requires an average pace of under 8 minute miling for 90 hilly kms. An amazing achievement that many sub 3 hour marathon runners attempt but few are able to execute and you can see what it means to him in that photo.
Damien Lane 7:23.12 358th 13th V50
Rob Shulman 8:13.07 915th 67th V50
both certainly deserved their medal !
On to slightly shorter distances, and good performances were recorded on the road as follows;
Dorney Lake Half Marathon 28 Aug
Ed Boden set a new club V50 Half marathon record, a week after breaking the age group record for the 5K ( 16m 51s ). Can he make it a hat trick of records soon I wonder ?
11 Ed Boden 1hr 18m 17s V50 club record
RunThrough Lee Valley VeloPark 10 mile 27Aug
1 Andrew Barnes 55m 47s ( presume Heathside although Club not listed )
9 Sue Eedle 1hr 29m 26s
Moving on to the track;….
BMC Grand Prix , Loughborough 27 Aug
1500m
13 Brogan Wallace 4.29.13
England Athletics U15 & U17 Championships, Bedford 27-28 Aug
Our contingent of young athletes who took part in the National Championships at Bedford over the weekend will all have gathered great experience for the future. Championship athletics is a step up with live video stream, stadium announcers, crowds and the best athletes from across the country with all the extra pressure that creates. In addition later in the season many athletes have started to wind down ahead of the winter.
Magdeline ran a strong heat dipping in 2nd place to qualify for the final. However in the final she thought she heard the false start recall and stopped before carrying on to finish in 8th place. Martha only managed one legal jump out of three, of 4.82m 33cm down on her PB and finished 10th, again in the 200m heats her time of 27.35 was almost a second off her PB this year. Ella’s 300m time was also 1 second off her fastest this season. Elkie only managed one legal throw of her three, over 4m down on her PB and finished 9th failing to get an additional 3 throws.
Despite their frustrations I;m sure all will have gained valuable experience and will come back stronger next season.
200m
H1 7th Martha Jolly (U15G) 27.35
H2 2nd Magdeline Paitoo (U15G) 26.54
Final 8th Magdeline Paitoo (U15G) 28.57
300m
H3 5th Ella Burridge (U15G) 42.67
Long Jump
10th Martha Jolly 4.82m
Discus
9th Elkie Baker 25.71m
London Inter Club Challenge, Hendon 28 Aug
At the last LICC meeting of the season some PB’s were achieved in the 800m and hurdles races
100m
SX3 4th Israel Nworgu (V35) 13.09
SX5.6th Michael Salousti (V55) 15.07
200m
SX4 5th Gabriel Edwards (U13B) 27.59
SX6 2nd Michael Salousti (V55) 29.32
400m
SX3 2nd Nana Oduro-Nyaning (U20M) 55.6
800m
SX3 1st Artie Feeny-Willings (U17M) 2:30.61 PB
SX3 2nd Ben Ryan (U15B) 2:31.59
SX3 3rd Rory Willis (U13B) 2:33.37
SX3 5th Amarin Preka (U17M) 2:42.94 PB
110mH (V35)
4th Israel Nworgu (V35) 16.35 PB
400mH (U17M)
2nd Gregory Berrisford Sweet (U17M) 69.46 PB
High Jump
3rd Artie Feeny-Willings (U17M) 1.45m
Watford Open Graded Meeting 24 Aug
1500m
4 Tom Fancett 4.17.81
200m
3 Helene Kehoe 30.87
Ladywell 10000m, Catford 21 Aug
8 Joseph McKeown 37.27.74
Parkruns
Tom Aldred recorded the club’s quickest Parkrun time of the week with 16m 1s at Finsbury Park. Other first places were achieved as follows ;
Leo Burningham 19.21 ( Ally Pally ), Lily Woolcock 20.46 ( Finsbury Park ), Melvin Lewis 18.39 Grovelands ), Christopher Gracie 16.51 ( Mile End ), & Keith Burrows 18.06 ( Owairaka, NZL ),
with second places to Amy Cook 19.55 ( Burgess ), Miyuki Okubo 21.16 ( Finsbury Park ), Dominic Jackson 19.29 ( Forfar ). Jonny Forsyth 17.23 ( Whitstable ), and
Jo Goodall 23.42 ( Sandall Park )
Good to see a couple of V55’s up in the mix !
Full results can be found here
Report by Mark George, with thanks to contributions from Jim Connell and Simon Baker