Heathsiders tough it out as heatwave hits London

It was yet another hot weekend and Heathsiders were out competing at Parliament Hill track in the SAL,  Elspeth was first lady in the Deal 10k, and Clare Miller was first lady by some 15 minute margin at the Grafham Water duathlon. In the SAL the club is still in relegation zone.   

On Saturday Steve Monaghan, Chris Shipley and Steve Meredith raced the Dorney Dash 10k and Phil Wright was the only Heathsider in the Richmond Riverside 10k, where he came third with a PB of 38min22sec. 

Our multi sports contingent fared well in their various events this weekend, with the pick of the bunch Clare Miller's outstanding dualthon at Grafham Waters where she came 15th overall, leading the Heathsiders home with a PB for the run/bike/run course. 
On Sunday Gabi and Jo each completed their first Olympic distance triathlon at Eton Dorney, where the sun came out just in time for an unbearably hot midday 10k run.  The organisers' stubborn refusal to ban wetuits depsite the balmy water temperature meant athletes had the choice  of overheating in a wetsuit or going without, which is a distinct disadvantage to pace, which Gabi can testify to, having been one of the few to forego the wetsuit option.  Paul Mercer also raced here, with a much earlier start although he unfortunately suffered a puncture costing him some 12 minutes.   

I also need to report a result from the previous Wednesday where Katy Webster was second lady in the Standard Chartered Great City run, finishing in 17min39sec.  

Finally in the parkrun round-up we have a win for Dan in what is surely also the most exotic parkrun of the week, at ....Worsley Woods.  Well done, Dan.
 

In the SAL at Parliament Hill on Saturday Heathside finished in third place by a narrow margin – five points short of second and just two points above fourth, and last. Massive thanks and respect are due to the legendary efforts of V45 Rachel Weston, who covered some nine efforts to help us rack up crucial points and cover 35 of 36 possible entries in the women’s events. In the words of U20 Izaiah “hopefully this will motivate everyone to attend the final match at Bedford in August keeping in mind that we are close to relegation. We were able to pull it off last season so let us cause an upset” -  hear hear. Many thanks also to Kate Walker who we recruited after the Club Handicap and who stepped out of her comfort zone to tackle the track in a 3000m. Some standout individual performances are U17 Lily Beckford’s 57.1 secs for the 400m and Richard Macaulay’s 800m PB, and U20 Djanira’s 100mH. There were several club debuts, which are always very welcome: Pierre, Ivan, Andrew, David, Rebecca, Celine and Kate, if not more – Rebecca shaved 14s off her Club Champs 1500m time to finish with a very impressive 5:04. Plaudits to those who helped officiate and generally run the match on the day: Jerry, Alan, Paul, Ivor, Mike Bense, Dave Robertson, Paul, Nik, and Pete.

We are still in relegation zone, however, so here, with plenty of advance warning, is the date for the next and final SAL: Saturday, 10 August, in Bedford (an international standard track that hosts many elite athletics events). Please consider yourself heartily invited and strongly encouraged to turn out and support your club’s battle to stay in Division 2 North. Please also help us organise the day by letting us know in advance whether you are available to compete. Contact Russell Weston (russell@terminex.co.uk) or Sue Rust (s.rust@gmx.net). 

 You can see a selection of photos from the SAL on Heathside's Flickr page here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/londonheathsideac/sets/72157634751201542/

21/7/13 Dinosaur 10k, Deal18th Elspeth Storrar 40min51sec  (1st Lady)
153rd Rosaire Gray 54min29sec (2nd V50) 

21/7/13 Richmond Riverside 10k
3rd Phil Wright 38min22sec PB


20/7/13 Dorney Dash 10k, Datchet
6th Steve Monaghan 35min45sec
37th Chris Shipley 39min10sec
77h Steve Meredith 42min04sec


21/7/13 Nice Tri Standard duathlon, Grafham Water
10k Run / 40k Bike / 5k Run  
15th Clare Miller 2hr06min  (first female) PB
20th Steve Armstrong 2hr08min
37th Chris Hewertson 2hr21min
67th Sandra Buckton 2hr36min (1st V40)

21/7/13 Votwo Duathlon Eton Dorney
Olympic Distance  (1500m swim, 40k bike, 10k run)Paul Mercer  2hr34min (29min swim, 87 min bike, 41min run)
Jo Irwin 2hr 57min (33min swim, 91min bike, 48min run)   2nd V40-44    3rd vet
Gabi Johnson 3hr06min (38min swim, 88 min bike, 55min run)   1st V45-49    5th vet

11/7/13 Standard Chartered Great City 5k, London
65th Katy Webster 17min39sec (2nd lady) 

7/7/13 Princes Risborough Festival 10k Road Race
11th Dan Madams 37min19sec

17/7/13 Lee Valley Sprints Open evening
100 SX5
1st Grogory Ducat 12.19sec PB

100 SX9
3rd Cardelle Faton 11.92sec

200 SX4 
1st Grogory Ducat 24.38sec



parkrun round-up
Ally Pally parkrun 
 5 Richard BUDD 00:21:40 
31 Tim HALL 00:26:23 

Finsbury parkrun33 Caroline BOYLE 00:22:51 
46 Marco DRYBURGH 00:24:09 
91 Victoria PHILLIPS 00:27:17 
98 William T ROBERTS 00:28:01 

Hackney Marshes parkrun4 Philip Thomas BENTLEY 00:18:28 
19 Cheryl EVANS 00:22:52 

Hampstead Heath parkrun
40 Andrew Simon CONWAY 00:23:29 
60 Bob GOULD 00:26:09 

Highbury Fields parkrun
30 Claire THORNHILL 00:22:52 

Newark parkrun
2 Andrew WELSHMAN 00:18:37  

Reading parkrun
9 Liam PROUDLOCK 00:17:52 

Whitstable parkrun
 20 Jake Leon Justin LEE 00:22:01 

Worsley Woods parkrun 
 1 Daniel MCKEOWN 00:17:30 

Full Heathside results for the SAL can be found here.