Festive results round-up

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.  While most folk were on the sofa, drinking red wine out the bottle and watching their new Only Fools and Horses DVD box set, some of you were out running, you wonderful human beings, you.  

One fixture was the oft-disregarded Chingford League cross country, hosted by Orion, which saw a (relative) bumper turn-out of four Heathsiders.

Out of sheer desperation not to see his name misspelled in the report this week*, Stuart Mick Mie Meiklejohn contributed the following account:

"The 8.5k route had to be slightly extended because parts of the course were too waterlogged but that did not stop the rest of the route being akin to some sort of assault course / Tough Mudder race. The less said about the monsoon that greeted the last couple of kilometres the better.  

"Particular thanks to James for driving there and taking dog's abuse from the guy who owned the local cafe for having the temerity to use his toilet!"

Stuart was first back into his tracky bottoms, finishing 39th of 184, just pipping James (41st, 39:06).  Rob (58th, 40:21) and Marco (85th, 43:18) completed the quartet.

"It might be nice to see a few more Heathsiders at the next Chingford league on 19th January at Hackney Marshes," added Stuart, possibly more in hope than expectation.

There were two big Serpentine events over the break, the monthly 'Last Friday' 5k and the New Year 10k, both of which had good Heathside turnouts.  Julian was our first finisher in the 5k, speeding to 11th place overall in 16:53.  Elspeth ran 41:43 to be first Heathsider in the 10k.

Further afield, we had runners in the Boxing Day 10k in Lancashire, where Jane finished in 45:02, and the Wheaton Aston 10k, somewhere off the M6, where Alex was 13th overall in 38:04.

On the parkrun front, we had lots of runners in action with extra runs on Christmas Day in a few places.  Conditions were generally pretty naff from what I've heard but we had first places from Tom (Guildford), Alex (Graves) and Elspeth (Whitstable).  

Meanwhile, this week's 'Most Exotic parkrun' is Walsall Arboretum which, apart from sounding like some kind of maximum-security correctional facility, had two Heathsiders, Anthony and Paul.  I can't imagine that Walsall has ever won 'Most Exotic' anything before so Christmas truly is the season for miracles.

*Actually, because I asked nicely.

RESULTS

Chingford League, Orion, 29/12/2012

39 37:52 Stuart Meiklejohn

41 38:06 James Josephs

58 40:21 Rob Shulman

85 43:18 Marco Maserati

Serpentine Last Friday of the Month 5k

11th Julian Ferraro     16:53   1st V45

17th Steve Monaghan     17:14   3rd V40

31st Sarah Swinhoe      18:40   2nd woman and 1st FV40

34th Pete Crockford     18:54   2nd V50 

Brooks Serpentine New Year's Day 10k, 2013

64 Elspeth Storrar 41:43

84 Anthony Chin 43:01

127 Gavin Parish 44:51

420 Alice Parish 58:10 

Wheaton Aston 10k, Staffs, 27/12/2012

13 Alex Weatherill 38:04

Boxing Day 10k, Leyland, Lancashire

95 Jane Higgins 45:02

Parkruns galore

Barking parkrun, 29/12/2012

11 Brian BOYLE 00:26:37

Coventry parkrun, 25/12/2012.

2 Daniel MCKEOWN 00:17:34

Finsbury parkrun, 29/12/2012

7 Carl Andrew HEAP 00:20:45

19 Gabrielle JOHNSON 00:24:14

28 Adrian ESSEX 00:25:28

Gladstone parkrun, 29/12/2012.

2 Stuart AMBLIN 00:20:29

6 Nick DE SAUSMAREZ 00:23:20

Graves parkrun, 29/12/2012.

1 Alex GALLOWAY 00:19:20

Guildford parkrun, 29/12/2012.

1 Tom ALDRED 00:17:41

24 Claire THORNHILL 00:24:10

Hampstead Heath parkrun, 29/12/2012.

20 Michiko THOMAS 00:26:10

21 Michiko THOMAS 00:25:22 (nope, no idea what happened here.  Michiko?)

24 Tim NAGY 00:26:21

Walsall Arboretum parkrun, 25/12/2012.

2 Anthony HALL 00:17:52

12 Paul MERCER 00:20:30

Whitstable parkrun, 25/12/2012.

4 Elspeth STORRAR 00:21:07 (1st Woman)