Finchley 20, Reading Half, various things and stuff

With most warming up for spring Marathons (whenever spring arrives, confound it) a swarm of Heathsiders braved the drizzly, grisly conditions and caprices of TfL to compete in the Finchley 20. 

Getting to the start proved trickier than getting to the finish for many: the Jubilee and Met lines both taking the weekend off. The good news is that the race is smack-bang in the middle of the proposed HS2 route, so competitors may be able to get there a bit more quickly in future. 

The course was fast and flat - a few undulations but nothing onerous. The slightly drizzly conditions were conducive to running though the rain towards the end perhaps put a dampener on it for some. 

"Excellently organised and marshals were brilliant - especially the lady at the bottom of 12% gradient hill towards the end of mile 4 who screamed and bellowed all sorts of random statements of encouragement," reports Stuart. "She thought James Josephs and I were twins at one point - perhaps more to do with the fact we both had Heathside vests on."

When the mist cleared, Heathside’s men had taken the team prize and our women were the third team home (not that there were any actual prizes for anyone other than the first three men and women).

Roger Braybrooks turbo-charged his way to 27th place followed in by Gavin (32 - his place, not his age) and Chris (33), who periodically swapped notes and places around the four laps. Roger was the fourth V40 and Gavin the first V50. They were joined inside 2h10 by fourth scorer Anthony Hall, Paul Jarman and Howard Gold.

Leigh James, who is running in magnificent form, came fourth woman and pulled off a big PB. She was followed by Sarah Swinhoe, strapped-up in pink and coming back from injury (and therefore running with more caution than normal), who was welcomed home by her mum and auntie, rather to her surprise. She was the first V35 and the winner of the Women’s Middlesex Championships. The rapidly improving Cathy Jeremiah was the third woman to score.

There were several other strong performances from Heathsiders, including Lyn Evans, who was the second V60 (and the runner behind her, by 19 seconds, was a 25-year-old man!) and Carl Heap, closing in on 60, who was our ninth man home in 2:25-flat, beating nearly 400 others, many of them half his age.

Elsewhere, at the high-profile (if somewhat rain-sodden) Reading Half, Tom screamed to a splendid PB, leading home a fair-sized contingent of Heathsiders in 1:16:08.

Chris Burn raced at the Wolf's Pit (Wolf Spit?) fell race in the Peak District and placed 11th despite his legs still hurting from a long run over the moors the day before.

"Unfortunately I wasn't the first Londoner," gnashed Chris. "There was someone from Woodford Green who came second..." Unacceptable, Chris - don't be mailing us with that kind of result next time.

In less idyllic surroundings, Dan Madams took on the Colchester Half Marathon (Essex's premier half, according to its website) and described it thus:
 

"It was a well organised half-marathon over a looping undulating course, with a headwind that decided to follow us all the way round." (Anyone who's run behind him on a Tuesday track night will know it's not the first time he's had trouble with wind.)

"Managed to scrape a pb by about 10 seconds and finish second (prize money and vouchers...woohoo!)"

Meanwhile, Phil bounded round the Fleet Half Marathon in one hour, 25 minutes and 59 seconds.

"I'm taking it as a '1.25' cos had it been 1.26.01 it would have been a '1.26'. Don't think there were any other Heathsiders – I searched the results and didn’t see any... and no Heathside running vests I could see – lonesome George again," sighed an understandably lachrymose Phil, gutted with his 1:26.

While most of us have hung up our spikes until September, several of our younger members were in action at the English Schools XC championships. It was a tough course, but everyone did Heathside proud. By which I mean they represented their various schools with distinction.  We also had a number of athletes running in the Middlesex Indoor championships, with Jordan and Joseph achieving PBs in the 60m final.

Several gazillion results

Finchley 20 (700 entrants; 502 finishers)

27 Roger Braybrooks  2:05:46 (4 V40) (PB)

32 Gavin Evans  2:06:35 (1st V50) (PB)

33 Chris Hartley  2:06:39 (PB)

40 Anthony Hall  2:07:55 (PB)

43 Paul Jarman  2:08:49 (PB)

44 Howard Gold  2:08:51 (PB)

53 Leigh James  2:12:02 (4 woman) (PB)

56 Sarah Swinhoe  2:12:38 (5 woman, 1st V35; 1st Middlesex woman)

102 James Josephs 2:22:58 (PB)

104 Stuart Meiklejohn  2:23:31 (PB)

114 Carl Heap  2:25:00

158 John Mullee  2:33:44

196 Nick De Sausmarez 2:40:14

215 Raymond Yau  2:43:17 (PB)

220 Cathy Jeremiah 2:44:13 (PB)

384 Jill Gundry  3:08:56

385 Lyn Evans  3:08:56

395 Jane Stephens  3:10:59

401 Laura Boothman  3:12:59

404 Claire Sliwerski  3:13:16

405 Eleanor Jones  3:13:21

406 Agi Palanki  3:13:23

407 Sian Williams 3:13:24

453 Robert Watts  3:24:56

461 Carolina Graterol  3:27:45

468 Kerry Hastings  3:30:54

Reading Half Marathon 96  Tom Stephenson 01:16:08179 Nicholas Bishop 01:20:37734 Simon Hazel 01:29:59 1387 Kevin Mantle 01:36:171005 Michael Lee 01:33:062275  Jessica Powell 01:41:214537 Kathryn Creaney 01:50:57  English Schools XC Championships

U20

212 25:29 Miron Woldemichael

U17

118 21:31 James Wooldridge

208 22:31 Johnny Naylor

U17W

75 14:48 Lucy Carter

192 15:52 Rachel Seckl

Middlesex County Indoor Championships

60m SM

6  David Ayre 7.62

60m U20 (Final)

4  Jordan Glaze  7.12 PB 

6  Joseph Galea  7.35 PB 

60m U20 (separate semi finals)

3 Jordan Glaze  7.24

3 Joseph Galea 7.37 

60m U20 (separate heats)

3 Joseph Galea 7.41 

2 Jordan Glaze 7.22 

60m U20W

2  Djanira Costa 8.01

200m SM

3  David Ayre 24.71

200m U20W

3  Djanira Costa 27.8

400 SM

4  Nathan Cyrus 54.56

60m hurdles

2  Djanira Costa 9.69

Long Jump SM

2  Jacob Wilson 5.86

Triple Jump SM

3 Nathan Cyrus 12.58 

Shot Put U20M

2 Izaiah Turner 8.18 

Colchester Half Marathon

2 Dan Madams 1:14:31

 

The Brooks Fleet Half Marathon

138 Philip Hogg 01:25:59

Scotland Kilomathon 13.1K

2 Kenneth Heney 48:04 (1v35)

Wolf Spit Fell Race (9k)

11 Chris Burn 43:45

XXI Mitja Marato Ciutat de Palma (God knows - our best evidence indicates it's a half marathon)

47 Brian Heffernan 1:24:08

Finsbury parkrun

5 David HELLARD 00:18:44

32 Gavin PARISH 00:22:24

64 Ken TOWNSON 00:24:19

66 Adrian ESSEX 00:24:25

69 Sarah ILLINGWORTH 00:24:29

Guildford parkrun

16 Claire THORNHILL 00:23:50

Hackney Marshes parkrun

15 Luka MELON 00:23:34

Hampstead Heath parkrun

2 John DRISCOLL 00:18:54

41 Andrew Simon CONWAY 00:25:21

67 Andrew SULSTON 00:31:14

Whitstable parkrun

40 Julie KHAN 00:25:04