FASTFriday - Heathside let off steam in E17 + loads more

An absolutely bumper set of results this week as Heathsiders showed no signs of winding down for their beach holidays just yet, instead turning out far and wide to keep me busy, including pitching up mob-handed at the FASTFriday, tackling some duathlon action, forging on with an ongoing 10-mile challenge, competing in a frankly hideous – sorry, gruelling – sounding ultra-steeplechase event and the usual smattering of runs at the regular 5 and 10k races around London.

First up, here’s Heathside’s Offical Biscuit Supplier Dan McKeown with a summary of the goings on at FASTFriday in Walthamstow, which is quickly becoming a firm fixture on the calendar: “In the first race of the evening (5000m 'C'), Paul Kelland looked like a winner for about 10 laps, only to be hunted down by a well-timed Vicky Park runner. Next up was Sion Lewis in the 5000m 'B', who lunged for the line a whisker inside 17 minutes and claiming a PB in the process A great result, especially as he spent a large amount of the race on his own, adrift between two groups. The real treat of the evening was the 10,000m 'C' race in which half of the 20 athletes were in Heathside colours. At the front, Dan Johns and Joe Garrood kept a fierce pace through the first four miles, fuelling a few wagers on the sidelines about who would blink first. In the event, it was Dan who had to pull the parachute, leaving Joe to gallop through the last eight laps on his own to a sub-36 finish. Behind this excitement, Old Man Chris Hartley snuck through into third place, giving the podium a distinctly Heathside flavour. (Heads up too to Jonathan Litchfield who was the merest sliver over 37 minutes in 5th). In the 10,000m 'B' race, I distinguished myself by not coming last. The last two events of the night, the 5000 and 10,000 'A' races, were only really of interest if you happen to enjoy having a drink while watching exceptionally fast people going at it hammer and tongs.”

Further afield, the Howes headed north of the border again and branched out on to the bikes. Here’s Jacob: “Ever keen to broaden our horizons, Angela and I experimented with some multi-sports, in the form of the Balbirnie Duathlon. A mountainous two lap 5k trail run, come XC, was followed by 20k on the bike, before some joker thought it would be a good idea to run another lap of the trail run. Quite pleased not to lose too much on the cycle, and gain some of that back as the keener cyclists had a little sit down after the ride.” The end result was a not too shabby 11th placed finish from Coach Jacob.

Meanwhile, Laura Boothman has set herself a personal challenge and provides an update along with an advert for the North: “My quest to get ten x ten mile races done within a year is proving logistically tough, but despite dismal national rail this weekend I can confirm I made it to sunny Chesterfield for North Derbyshire's finest, the (crooked) Spire 10 this weekend, which is number 7 so far. Three and a half miles of quite fierce uphill resulted in some great cross country views - and a much happier downhill for the rest. Not a great time (1.44) but my achilles is still post-marathon recovering and at least survived intact. Do this if you like very fresh air, a commemorative beer at the finish and marshals calling you 'love'. Especially try it if you think Watford is North.”

And, better late than never, here’s Luka Melon winging in an account of his attempts at taking on the Red Bull Steeplechase elimination race a few weeks ago: “A few current and former Heathsiders took part in this year's race in the Exmoor National Park where about 300 participants took part. Brian was recruiting around for a while by stating this is the best race he has done in his entire life. After taking part, I must admit that I share that view as it is brutally brilliant. James, Brian, Elliot and myself managed to get to the second steeple (14.4 miles with 1200m of ascent) some of us narrowly missed the cutoff at 100. Meanwhile Claire and David went one steeple further. Third "steeple" was at 18.2 miles with additional 240m of climbing. The full distance (4 "steeples") totalled at 23.5 miles and over 1800m of climbing and only 20 men and 20 women got through to that. The views are stunning and the weather was great if not a bit warm at 27C. Everyone was delighted with the results, although I think David hoped to go the full distance.”

Best of the rest:

2 solid PBs this week from Andrew Brooker, first in over 3000m at the Watford Open Meeting (also a shout out for PBs from U-15 Thomas Archer and U-20 Antanas Weston in the 1500m races that night) and then over 5000m on the weekend at the Southern Counties Senior Inter County Match (Andrew’s report in full: ‘very hot’) where Ula Cartwright-Finch also bagged a nice new PB in the 1500m. Ed Adams led home a sextet of Heathsiders at the Serpentine Last Friday of the Month 5k, while the following morning Emilia Vynnycky appears to be our sole representative at the Orion Harriers Forest 5 mile trail run, finishing in a respectable 51st place (the last in the 3 run series of these 5 milers is on August 5th - get signed up) and ploughing a similar lone Heathside furrow that day was Sue Eedle, who was 1st V60 in the 10-mile event at the latest Stratford VeloPark races and 14th overall. Back in East London the following morning, Natan Doron was one of 4 taking on the Great Newham Run 10k (has to be the run that’s great, rather than Newham itself) and was just a hair’s breadth outside his sub 40-minute target but will surely nail it next time, while Pete Bakewell pulled out a brilliant run to go under 36 minutes for the first time at the monthly Regents Park Summer Series 10k, closely followed by Sion Lewis who rounded off a great few days with his 2nd PB of the weekend.

Super Bonus Race Footage

Following the great evening at Finsbury Park for Barnet’s Stag Mile the other week, check out their videos of each race – especially of Francois flat-track bullying his way round to win race 8 – here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiOcpAvVkQkFgEIUGr8jE9w/videos

Parkruns

First place finishes for Charles Hardy at Grovelands and Cas Wright at Mile End but also, a propos of nothing, I enjoyed spotting that the first finisher at Barking combined combines my twin loves of running and puns with his club Sikhs in the City. Top work. Full results here: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=2017&eventdate=2017-07-01

Full weekly results:

Watford Open Graded Meet, June 28

100m Race 4 – 8 Claudia Booth 13.75
Race 7 – 4 John Simpson 11.53

1500m Race 2 – 13 Jennifer Wing 5:18.57
Race 7 – 15 Ula Cartwright-Finch 4:52.07
Race 8 – 5 Jonathan Hopkin 4:42.78
Race 9 – 3 Thomas Archer 4:32.76
Race 10 – 5 Antanas Weston 4:31.51
Race 18 – 12 James Woolridge 4:01.86

3000m Race 1 – 11 William Griffiths 10:05.15
Race 3 – 14 Andrew Brooker 8:44.15

Serpentine Last Friday of the Month 5k, Hyde Park, June 30

43 Edward Adams 18:39
49 Isobel Rea 18:56
64 Andy Owen 19:38
96 Michael Abraham 21:03
122 Jackie Wastell 21:56
146 Alun Nash 23:13

FAST Friday, Walthamstow, June 30

5000m B Race 11 Sion Lewis 16:58.9
C Race 2 Paul Kelland 17:53.9

10000m B Race 12 Dan McKeown 36:10.4
C Race 1 Joe Garrood 35:47.6
2 Daniel Johns 36:16.1
3 Chris Hartley 36:25.1
5 Jonathan Litchfield 37:02.0
7 Steve Armstrong 37:19.3
12 Jonathan Hopkin 38:49.4
17 Gavin Evans 39:56.0
18 Jim Connell 39:57.9
19 Phil Hogg 40:02.3
20 Leigh James 41:33.0

Balbirnie Duathlon, June 30

11.  Jacob Howe 1:11:12 (5k run: 21:00, T1 00:23, 20k ride: 37:55, T2 00:24, 2.5k run: 11:29)

46.  Angela Howe 1:21:34 (5k run: 23:39, T1 00:28, 20k ride: 44:45, T2 00:23, 2.5k run: 12:18)

Orion Harriers Forest 5, Epping Forest, July 1

51 Emilia Vynnycky 37:24

RunThrough Races, Stratford VeloPark, July 1

10 mile race – 14 Sue Eedle 1:25:41 (2nd female, 1st V60)

Southern Counties Inter County Match, Kingston, July 2

400m Rosa Serafini 61:20

800m Rosa Serafini 2:16.92

1500m James Woolridge 4:02.58
Ula Cartwright-Finch 4:45.42

3000m Andrew Brooker 15:16.89

Great Newham Run 10k, July 2 (chip times given, so finish order looks odd!)

83 Natan Doron 40:04
460 Simon Hazel 46:36
674 Daniel Wrapson 47:23
730 Stuart Amblin 46:35

Regents Park Summer Series 10k, July 2

8 Pete Bakewell 35:59
9 Sion Lewis 36:13
140 Anthony Chin 47:56
212 Nicola Briars-Coan 51:12

Red Bull Steeplechase, Exmoor, June 18

Ladies 29. Claire Morrissey (ex LH) - 3 steeples - 3:42:28

Men 36. David Hellard - 3 steeples - 2:47:21
114. Luka Melon - 2 steeples - 2:32:41
120. Brian Boyle (ex LH) - 2 steeples - 2:35:51
140. Elliot Reed - 2 steeples - 2:47:24