Heath trails and hexagenarian travails

It was a quietish week in the Heathside results inbox but there were a couple of performances of note, not least Adrian's endeavours in the decathlon (if you can name all the events without scrolling to the bottom of the page, give yourself a pat on the back).

A heavily bemedalled Adrian Essex reports from the BMAF Decathlon Championships: "This weekend's decathlon in the Alexander Stadium, Birmingham (the Sainsbury Games branding was still there) put me in the group of eight over-60s, including two over-80 competitors and was a delight throughout.

I got a pb of 5513 points and now hold four British titles."(To put that points tally into context, head over to a decathlon score calculator and stick a few of your PBs in. DM) "One of the joys of taking part in a multi-events competition is the sense that every one you are up against wants you to do well. Tips on technique from your competitors improve performances, adding to everyone's enjoyment.  "One of the over-80s had a difficult weekend with falls in both the hurdles and the pole vault," chortled Adrian, somewhat diminishing the Corinthian spirit of his report. 

"Nevertheless he completed the ten events."The other over-80, one Tony Bowman, got British Records in the 100m and high jump, a European Record in the hurdles, and, therewith, the British Record for the decathlon."As much as we enjoyed his performances, we did tire of shaking his hand," says Adrian. (That would probably be arthritis.)

On the Heathside trail, Sandra B reports: "Jo and I entered the Jubilee Hall 10km Trail run on Saturday. It was a new event and very well organised, with medal, tech tee and one of the best goody bags in a while! Organisers are hoping to make it a regular event and it certainly gets my thumbs up. "It was in Hampstead Heath and followed a similar route to the Southern XC," continues Sandra, possibly unaware that not all of us would consider that much of an endorsement after the last time the Southerns were on the Heath.

For a local event, it looks like Heathside was a bit underrepped at this one (although Marco did show up to the Heath parkrun, only to find it had been cancelled to accommodate the race). Sandra and Jo did the club proud though, placing first and second vet ladies.