Hellrunners, hill runners, horseplay and national leaders
Seemingly unable to grasp the concept of a New Year break, lots of Heathsiders were in action over the last week or so. We had splendid turnouts at the Serpentine New Years Day 10k and Mornington Chasers Winter series (see results below). There was a random assortment of other races and some of you were good enough to submit accounts of. In the spirit of 'citizen journalism', I've copied and pasted them below and hereby claim all the credit. DM
Lee Valley New Year Competition
Excitement abounds as Heathside starts 2014 with a couple of athletes at the top of the national rankings.
"Three Heathsiders were keen (good crazy) enough to compete at Lee Valley on New Year's Day," says Michael B, beginning a lengthy caveat. "Tina Peate ran her first ever indoor 60m races, and was rewarded with very creditable times of 8.60 and 8.62 in rounds 1 and 2 respectively. Daumantas Dulius opened his season's account with a steady 25.20 in the 200m.
"I was very fortunate to get a new PB of 7.93 in round 1 of the 60m and a solid 8.00 in round 2. In the 200, I finally cracked the Heathside M40 indoor record with a 26.40 clocking.
"For our early bird efforts, Tina and I were further rewarded with number 1 rankings on Power of 10 for W35 and M40 respectively :-) I suspect Tina may retain her crown for a lot longer than I will, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts!"
Tour de Llyn Llydaw (yes, it's in Wales)
Chris Burn and Lou Atkin kicked off 2014 in fine style, by running up and down Snowdon.
"It's dead simple," says Chris, our resident mountain goat. "You start at Pen y Pass car park, run a few kms up a track to the lake underneath Snowdon, run around the lake and back down the track again. Its about 9km long and only has about 200m of ascent but the ground is generally really rough going."
"The weather was atrocious but for some reason we and 60 or so other hungover people ran anyway. The ground was rough: the rocks were slippy and the tussocks were always in the way, the rivers were all swollen and the wind blew us sideways... But we got round with only a few tumbles each, Lou most spectacularly into a pond up to her neck.
"It was a handicap race so we had no idea how we'd placed, but I've just seen the results and we did pretty well! I was first in 41:41 and Lou was 18th and third lady in 55:03."
Down in Epsom...
Monika Thaler and Emerson Paul did the Tadworth 10 miler over in Epsom, starting and finishing on the home straight of Epsom Race Course.
"Neither of us pulled up lame," reports Emerson. "I finished 108th in 73 mins and Monika 424th in 93 mins. 630 finished. The going was mostly soft underfoot, however good to firm around the residential parts of the route.
"That's enough horse-related puns," adds Emerson, not a moment too soon.
Hellrunner - Hell down south
'Damp' Dave Hellard contributed the following account of his run at Hellraiser via a message in a bottle: "It was crazy wet as the area had flooded and the route already included quite a few water features, including 'the Bog of Doom'. The race went well and I ended up fourth out of 1800 - first vet, although they cancelled the vet prize this year and as a result, as I crossed the line they announced: 'And here comes David Hellard, our first ve... er, the oldest person to have finished so far.' Basta..."
Here the ink becomes smudged and the rest of the message is illegible. We can only speculate as to what has become of the unfortunate writer.
And finally
No 'Most exotic parkrun' this week, but spotter's badge if you can find one that Rebecca B didn't run in. It might be tougher than you think. Or not.
Compiled by Dan with thanks to Michael, Emerson, Dave and Chris. Apologies for errors or omissions, contact lheathside@gmail.com to ring in the new.
Results
Lee Valley New Year Competition, 1 January
60m
5 8.60s Tina Peate PB
60m
4 7.93s Michael Bense PB
60m
6 8.62s Tina Peate
60m
6 8.00s Michael Bense
200m
2 26.40s Michael Bense SB
200m
4 25.20s Daumantas Dulius
Serpentine New Years Day 10k
44 Robert Shulman 39:07
68 Elspeth Storrar 41:12
166 Caroline White 46:26
190 Gavin Parish 47:52
308 Gabi Johnson 52:40
380 Lyn Evans 56:12
383 Louise Breuer 55:59
395 Jill Gundry 57:01
452 Alice Parish 59:17
Mornington Chasers 10k series, race 4
25 Jack Ridings 39:01
41 Andy Sallnow 40:37
52 Christopher Burke 40:51
66 Bridgit Napleton 42:06
231 Philip Napleton 51:46
Tadworth 10, 5 January
108 Emerson Paul 1:13:17
424 Monika Thaler 1:33:13
Goring, Woodcote & District Lions 10k, 5 January
3 Liam Proudlock 0:37:38
Chevin Chase (7-mile multiterrain), 31 December
254 Andrew Prystawsky 00:55:43
Hellrunner 'Hell Down South 2014'
4 David Hellard 1:20:48
Them parkruns
Ally Pally parkrun, 1/1/2014
1 Liam PROUDLOCK 00:18:27
4 Dominic JACKSON 00:20:39
Ally Pally parkrun, 4/1/2014
4 Rebecca BUNTING 00:20:08 (first lady)
8 Ed BURR 00:20:55
23 Howard MONK 00:25:40
Banstead Woods parkrun, 1/1/2014
7 Andrew OSAMU BROOKER 00:18:19
Bushy Park parkrun, 01/01/2014
29 Rebecca BUNTING 00:19:59 (first lady)
Crane Park parkrun, 01/01/2014.
16 Rebecca BUNTING 00:20:24 (first - hang on a minute... how may parkruns are you doing, Bunting?)
Finsbury parkrun, 01/01/2014.
6 Carl HEAP 00:20:57
33 Jesper LYCKE 00:23:16
48 James PARKER 00:24:53
83 Victoria PHILLIPS 00:29:18
Gladstone parkrun, 01/01/2014
11 Nick DE SAUSMAREZ 00:22:39
Hackney Marshes parkrun, 04/01/2014
7 Rhodri GABE 00:19:39
Hampstead Heath parkrun, 04/01/2014
17 Elspeth STORRAR 00:21:47
Hilly Fields parkrun
10 George MARGESSON 00:22:55
Newcastle parkrun, 04/01/2014
11 Rob SALTER 00:18:39
Northampton parkrun, 04/01/2014
8 Laurence ARNOLD 00:20:05
Oak Hill parkrun, 01/01/2014
45 Claire SLIWERSKI 00:27:02
Oak Hill parkrun, 04/01/2014
19 Agi PALANKI 00:23:59
25 Claire SLIWERSKI 00:24:52
Preston Park parkrun, 01/01/2014
11 Mark DERRY 00:20:08
Preston Park parkrun, 04/01/2014
11 Mark DERRY 00:19:57
Pymmes parkrun, 04/01/2014
2 Asa CUSACK 00:19:38
Stewart parkrun, 01/01/2014
4 Steve ARMSTRONG 00:19:07
Wanstead Flats parkrun, 01/01/2014
48 Caroline BOYLE 00:26:27
49 Brian BOYLE 00:26:27
95 Luka MELON 00:39:10
Whitstable parkrun, 04/01/2014
36 Julie KHAN 00:25:01