Half marathon heaven and club records smashed

We were awash with half marathons this weekend, producing some outstanding times and reflecting the exhaustive and obviously effective marathon training in progress. Fastest Heathside man over the half marathon distance was Tom Aldred finishing in an impressive 1.08 at Reading in 18th place, and fastest Heathside lady was Kelly Thorneycroft, also at Reading, where she finished in 1.22. Meanwhile over at Middlesex Indoor Championships, Richard Macaulay broke the Club’s  indoor men’s 800m record  and Rosa Serafini won the women's Middlesex 800m breaking her own club record, and she also broke the club 1500m record!

Half marathons
We had a few reports back, from the many half marathons (Brentwood, Coventry, Fleet, Welwyn Garden City, Hampton Court, Reading and Mullingar) taking place this weekend:

Joe and Dan headed up to Coventry, to race in the half there, and Dan had this to say:  "Joe took another bite out of his half marathon PB on Sunday at the Cov Half, cruising round in 1:21:38. I finished in a slightly irritating 1:20:00. Also the 'organisers' forgot to put a granola bar in my goody bag."

Gavin, despite being weighed down by his heavy prize wrote this about the Reading marathon: "Twenty-two Heathsiders, led home by Tom Aldred, completed the Reading Half on Sunday, with several picking up PBs despite the wet and windy weather. This half feels hillier each year, but remains one of the quicker ones around, perhaps because everyone is marathon fit.
 
Tom, who ran in the elite start, came 19th out of 9,720 finishers in a time of 1:08.17, which he found a bit disappointing. As he put it: ‘I blew apart at 8, thought it was game over but held on.’ Three PB-ing rapid improvers were next: Simon Dunderdale (1:16:59), Dan Johns (1:17.01) and Mario Cadete (1:17.38).
 
Our first woman was Kelly Thorneycroft who, in only her second half, ran a PB of 1:22.12. She started conservatively and ran negative splits, before gliding past Jonathan Litchfield at the 10 mile mark, me at 12 miles, and finishing her final mile in six minutes. The second Heathside woman was  Josie Hinton (1:26: 27) followed by Bethany Scott in 1:28:18 (good to see her back).
 
Among the other PB performances were those from Matthew Cockerill (1:20:49) and Stuart Meiklejohn (1:22:08). I won the rather generous V55 prize (just the only race to have one of those for men), but was a good 3 ½ minutes off my PB. "

Greg and two other Heathsiders ran in the Welwyn Garden City Half, with Greg pleased to get a PB – he had this to say about the day: "A cloudy, very blustery morning greeted over 600 runners assembled for the 9am start on the Gosling Sports Park Athletics track. After 100m we exited the stadium and were on pavements and side streets for about 2-3km (repeated in reverse on the way back to the finish), which weren't traffic free, though at that time on a Sunday morning, it wasn't a problem. After that we were off-road and running on mainly hard trail. It was...undulating, with long stretches of 'flat-uphill' which, combined with running into the strong wind (my watch gave speeds up to 30kph!) were quite energy-draining. Spotted two other Heathsiders, Paul and Rajiv - surprised not to see more as it's quite easy to get to by train (and road). It's a good pre-Marathon test of stamina and maybe one to keep on the radar next year for anyone who leaves it too late to enter the usual pre-London biggies."

English Schools Cross country championships, Norwich 18th March 2017
Ed Garrett sent in this report on the English School Cross Country champs: - "On Saturday, Liam  and Rose Garrett and Jem O'Flaherty travelled to Norwich to compete in the English Schools' Cross Country Championships 2017. It was a flat and fast course, and if there wasn't mud, there was at least some wind and rain to remind the kids that this was still cross country, even if their last race of the season.

In the Junior Girls race, Rose ran very well to finish 165th out of 344 in a time of 12:17, a good end to a strong season. Meanwhile, Liam kept Jem in his sights for the entire race, but Jem refused to be pipped. Jem finished 62nd in 19:37, and Liam 65th in 19:38, out of 338 runners. They helped Middlesex finish 7th out of 44 counties, an impressive result and a fine end to a season in which both young runners showed excellent improvement".

Middlesex County Championships, Lee Valley, 18-19th March 2017
The Middlesex indoor county championships were held over Saturday and Sunday at the weekend with Richard Macaulay breaking the club indoor 800m record, and Rosa Serafini breaking the womens 800m and 1500m indoor club records. Very good results generally, with special mentions to Luke Gray coming 1st in the under 20 800m in 2.03, Caspar Schulze 1st in the u17 long jump, Gabriel Wilmshurst 1st in the under 15 high jump and Gokce Baydar coming 1st in the W35 pole vault.

Parkruns can be found here. Congratulations to Rebecca B for coming first lady at Panshangar parkrun, and Leigh James first lady at Mullingar parkrun.

FULL RESULTS

Half marathons:

Brentwood Half Marathon, Brentwood, 19th March 2017
5 Olivier Le Polain  1:13:36 
39 Steve Armstrong 1:22:45
79 Matthew Cartledge  1:26:45
193 Henry Hamilton-Gould  1:33:06
606 Elliot Reed 1:44:34

Coventry Half Marathon, Coventry, 19th March 2017
17th Daniel McKeown  1:20:00
28th Joseph McKeown   1:21:38 PB

Fleet Half Marathon, Fleet, 19th March 2017
31st  Dan Madams 1:16:27 3rd M40
134th  Philip Hogg 1:24:43
1117th  Madeleine Minson 1:47:30

Reading Half Marathon, Reading, 19th March 2017
18 Tom Aldred   01:08:17
130 Simon Dunderdale  01:16:59
132 Daniel Johns  01:17:01
142 Mario Cadete  01:17:38
189 Chris Hartley  01:19:24
227 Matthew Cockerill  01:20:49
254 Stuart Meiklejohn  01:22:08
257 Kelly Thorneycroft  01:22:12
267 Gavin Evans   01:22:36
304 Jonathan Litchfield   01:23:44
323 Edward Adams  01:24:13
355 Dominic Jackson  01:24:57
424 James Connell  01:26:39
429 Esa Valtanen  01:26:47
444 Tony Shearer  01:26:59
369 Michael Tant  01:25:27
419 Josie Hinton  01:26:27
504 Bethany Scott  01:28:18
729 Jake Spencer  01:31:53
908 Kris Milovsorov  01:34:10
965 James Dark   01:34:49
2629 Kimberli Butler  01:48:17

Hampton Court Half marathon, Hampton Court, 19th March 2017
11th Mark Anderson 1.21 (1st v35)
47th Paul Beale 1.27.59 (5th V45)
262 Katie Leach 1.40.14

Welwyn Garden City Half, Welwyn, 19th March 2017
26th  Paul Mercer 1:24:25
57th Rajiv Ratan 1:29:04
264th Greg Bell 1:49:46 (PB)

Mullingar Half Marathon, Mullingar, 17th March 2017
92nd Leigh James 1.28.35

English Schools Cross country champs 2017, Norwich, 18th March 2017
Junior Girls
165th Rose Garrett 12:17

Intermediate boys
62nd Jem O’Flaherty 19:37,
65th Liam 19:38

Middlesex County Championships, Lee Valley 18-19th March 2017
60 SM    
3 7.09  Jordan Glaze  

SM 800m    
1 Richard Macaulay  1:59.73

U20M 800m      
1  Luke Gray  2:03.54

U17M Long Jump        
1  Caspar Schulze  5.54
2  Isaac Tibbett  5.33

U15B High Jump
1 Gabriel Wilmshurst  1.45

SW 200m    
2  Stephanie Kleynhans 26.93
4  Noelle O'Regan  28.37

SW 800m      
1  Rosa Serafini  2:19.37 

SW 1500m    
1  Rosa Serafini  4:50.62

SW Pole Vault     
1  Gokce Baydar (W35)  2.20

U20W 400m     
3 787 Naomi Conlon  66.02 

U17W High Jump        
3 862 Anna Mcallister  1.50