Elspeth first lady in Kent marathon, Comrades medal for Mike, Welsh fell race and other madness

Heathsiders were out in full force at the weekend taking part in all sorts of races around the world with plenty of success.  In particular Elspeth was first lady home in the Kent Roadrunners marathon, Mike Stocks gained a silver medal in the Comrades ultra, and Chris Burns, Howard Gold and Clare Miller had great success in the Welsh fell race and Claire Morrissey was first lady home in the Coombe Hill race. 

It's hard to know where to start with the reporting as I am receiving reports of races from all aound the world from Heathsiders.  Clearly racing your local 10k is no longer enough of a challenge for most of you.  Firstly some results in from Edinburgh last weekend include a half marathon from Dominic, Georgie's debut marathon and Ken Heney, clearly making up for not being able to race in the UK as he is living overseas, came home and raced the 5k, 10k, half marathon and full marathon all in one weekend.  Clearly the Lanzarote Ironman the previous week left him with too much energy! 


 From the Welsh fell team this report just in: This weekend a few of us ventured north to compete in the Welsh 1000m Peaks Race, held in Snowdonia, North Wales.

 The promised blue skies failed to show up for what is considered one of the toughest fell races. Cold, mist and consequential poor visibility for the first half of the 32km race made for a gruelling race from sea level over the five 1000m peaks (Carnedd Llewelyn, Carnedd Dafydd, Glyder Fawr, Garnedd Ugain, Snowdon), achieving 2750m of ascent along the way - the finish being at the summit of Snowdon.

Chris Burn and Howard Gold completed the class A fell race, with Chris scoring a hugely impressive 2nd place, finishing in 4:08hrs. Chris had found himself sharing the lead as he came off the Carnedds which quickly turned into a 4 or 5 minute advantage after a short road section in the Ogwen valley before the climb over the Glyders. Unfortunately his legs ran out of juice on the steepest part of Snowdon's Pyg track where the race favourite caught up and went on to win by 3 minutes. He was initially almost disappointed with 2nd but given the quality of the field and in view of the fact that the winner has won the event for donkeys years and could probably draw the OS map on the back of a postcard from memory he should very proud of what was a fantastic achievement. 
Howard, a fell race rookie, discovered that these races are often won on the downhills. The ability to fearlessly sprint down the scree is a skill he has yet to master! Entering such a long race as his first fell running experience was never going to be easy but finishing 38th out of 99 finishers in 5:20hrs is another impressive result.

Clare Miller raced class E, the last three peaks of the A course, also finishing on Snowdon. Despite it being her first fell race and taking an 'interesting' navigational route down the Glyders, Clare finished 8th in class, 1st lady in a time of 2h14m.

Marathon report - After last minute passport stress I am pleased to report Charlotte did get to Stockholm for the marathon there, a hilly course in rainy conditions so well done.  David Hellard completed his challenge for Streetchild by running the Sierre Leone marathon - he was disappointed wih his time but was nevertheless the winner of the international category in what must have been very hot conditions.  Three Heathsiders ran a different sort of marathon closer to home - 17 laps of a velodrome in Kent.  This may not appeal to everyone, but it worked for Elspeth who was first lady and first Heathsider home with a great time of 3hr15mins.    
Reports from South Africa tell me the Comrades was even tougher than usual this year with high temperatures and strong winds so many congratulations to Mike Stocks for his silver medal here.  Apparently the drop out rate was 30%, much increased from the usual 10%  due to the harsh weather conditions. 

Back in Essex,  Dan McKeown and Claire Thornhill represented Heathside in the Forest Five and did us proud, Claire apparently smiling all the way, as usual.   Tony Killilea and Claire Morrissey also had good runs at the Coombe Hill run with Claire being first lady home, though official results are not available yet.   


24 /5/13 Edinburgh Festival of Running
5k Ken Heney 19min21sec  6th place
10k Ken Heney 39min05sec  8th place

25/6/13 Edinburgh Half Marathon 
72nd Ken Heney 84min27sec
115th Dominic Jackson 86min44sec

25/6/13 Edinburgh Marathon1797th Georgie Kennedy 3hr46min57sec
2676th Ken Heney 3hr57min49sec

26/5/13 Sierre Leone MarathonDavid Hellard 3hr15min29sec  (first international runner)
Kate Walker tbc

1/6/13 Stockholm Marathon
1047th Charlotte McCrossin  4hr01min39sec

2/6/13 Kent Roadrunners Marathon
38th Elspeth Storrar 3hr15min54sec (First lady)
40th Phil Hogg 3hr17min59sec
114th Michael Tant 3hr41min24sec

1/6/13 Welsh fell race A Class2nd Chris Burn 4.07.10
38th Howard Gold 5.20.30

1/6/13 Welsh fell race E class - 3 peaks8th Claire Miller 2.124 .18 first lady

1/6/13 Forest Five (Orion Harriers)
8th Dan McKeown 39min38sec
93rd Claire Thornhill 37min28sec


2/6/13 Regents Park First Sunday of the Month 10k
57th Brian Boyle 41min39sec
85th Luka Melon 43min14sec

Triathlon report
Big Cow sprint Triathlon, Milton Keynes37th Patrick Waldron  1hr15min47sec (6th V45-49 out of 25)
750m Open water swim - 13min20sec  T1 2.09   20km bike 38min40sec  T2 54sec 5km run 20min43sec


VOTWO Evening Triathlon 29/5/13 Eton Dorney Triathlon
82nd Stephen Armstrong  1hr18min00sec
750m Open water swim - 15min30sec  T1 3.12   20km bike 38min12sec  T2 1.17sec 5km run 19min49sec


parkrun roundup
It is Cathy Collins' birthday next weekend and she would like to see you all at the Hampstead parkrun on Saturday to celebrate. 
Click here for details if you have never registered. 

Results for Ally Pally parkrun
32 Lyn EVANS 00:27:56

Results for Edinburgh parkrun
5 Stuart MEIKLEJOHN 00:18:00

Results for Finsbury parkrun
5 Tom FANCETT 00:18:39
14 Alexander SWEET 00:19:36
16 Dominic JACKSON 00:19:40
61 Caroline BOYLE 00:22:06
69 C ZACHARIDES 00:22:38
77 Tammela PLATT 00:22:52
95 Rebecca SWEET 00:24:12
153 Laura BOOTHMAN 00:29:36
167 Harry VINAL-SMEETH 00:32:25

Results for Gladstone results
11 Nick DE SAUSMAREZ 00:20:47

Results for Hackney Marshes parkrun
1 Robert John O'GRADY 00:16:15

Results for Hampstead Heath parkrun
8 Phil WRIGHT 00:19:27
10 John DRISCOLL 00:20:12
27 Henry HAMILTON 00:21:40
42 Andrew Simon CONWAY 00:23:10
47 Mary GATEHOUSE 00:23:30
51 Andrew SULSTON 00:23:50
74 Bob GOULD 00:25:43
122 Claire SLIWERSKI 00:33:10

Results for Highbury Fields parkrun
60 Steve WOOLF 00:26:33

Results for Richmond Park12 Rebecca BUNTING 00:20:01

Results for Sheringham parkrun42 Victoria PHILLIPS 00:28:13

Results for South Manchester parkrun123 Ben CLARKE-JANSSEN 00:24:44

Results for Winchester parkrun1 Richard MACAULAY 00:17:45