Mud and Guts
Rain-soaked courses, temperatures close to freezing, icy winds and the occasional flurries of snow, were just not enough to deter Heathsiders from venturing forth and competing, with the youngsters showing exceptional levels of hardiness! However, one poor club member had to endure “scorchio” weather conditions in the South of Spain...
North West London Youth League 4 (Saturday 31st January)
Russell Weston writes: The under-11s were very excited by the blizzard - but less happy when we pointed out that they still had to race! Fortunately, the snow abated before the first race, but it was still very cold and extremely wet under foot. Anyone who finished should be congratulated for a great achievement! Once again, there were some exceptional individual runs and great team performances.
Individually, Ruairi won his race again - this is becoming a good habit! We had numerous Top Ten finishes with Genevieve, Jacob and William getting into the top three. Also, a special mention to Phoebe who, on her debut for the club, missed her under-15 race and then ran the under-17 race and finished 7th. The Under-17 Men were 1st on the day and the Under-17 Women 2nd. With one race to go Ruairi has already secured victory in his division and several others are in position to get into the medals.
The biggest challenge of the day was getting your car out of the overflow car park. Our large car full of flag, spikes, etc. sneaked out, but left several others in peril (no Heathside cars fortunately!). As we left the AA, amongst others, were trying to pull and push cars out of the quagmire the car park had turned into. The AA had some interesting pulleys and boarding, although the AA driver refused to go onto the field. Some cars may still be there, slowly sinking into the mud... REAL CROSS COUNTRY!!!
Under-11 Girls 1200m
7th Rose Garrett 6.40
29th Fabienne Weston 8.23
Team 8th
Under-13 Girls 2000m
13th Ella Conlon 10.53
26th Evie(?) Blain 12.34
Team 8th
Under-15 Girls 3000m
8th Meg Naylor 14.28
10th Phoebe Crockford 14.52
18th Rachel Finke 16.34
21st Naomi Conlon 17.57
Team 4th
Under-17 Women 4000m
3rd Genevieve Weston 19.24
5th Ottavia Laidler 20.38
7th Phoebe (Kabir???) 23.14
Under-11 Boys 2000m
1st Ruairi McGonagle 8.47
19th Arthur Reed 10.12
30th Oliver O’Connor 10.44
Team 6th
Under-13 Boys
29th Zac Paul 17.42
Team 10th
Under-15 Boys
4th Liam Garrett 16.24
Team 6th
Under-17 Men
2nd Jacob Philips 19.33
3rd William Griffiths 19.48
Team 1st
Wild Night Run Race - 10 miles (South Brent, Devon - Saturday 31st January)
The first five miles is mainly uphill, following the river to Shipley Bridge, with one or two brief descents to give some respite. There is then a tarmac section (though still slightly uphill) before the route gets out onto Dartmoor. The second half is mainly downhill, but with a couple of short sharp climbs to keep runners on their toes! This is a tough race and not for the faint-hearted. But one intrepid Heathsider ventured forth with headlamp blazing:
Jane Higgins 56th 1:39:01, (6th Female) 116 finishers
REGENT’S PARK WINTER SERIES 10km RACE 5 (Sunday 1st February)
3 Heathsiders ran this: Ryan McCrickerd powering to a 5th place finish in 35:50, Andrew Dunderdale in 17th in 38:23 and Martin Hill 179th in 50:16 - 493 finishers.
WATFORD HALF (Sunday 1st February)
Gavin Evans writes: Our excuses are rolling in rapidly: new course too hilly; far too windy (it, not us); hard training week; still suffering from last week’s cross country/this week’s cold/sore throat…. That’s Watford for you: the first big test of the year, an early test for marathon season, and so-on. A grand total of 38 of us turned up (and a few more were too ill, injured or hung-over to make it). The conditions were, well, testing: that damp cold that goes down to your bones, huge gusts of wind and, to avoid big puddles, a brand new course that includes at least one additional hill (and a tough one at that).
So, times were not exactly spectacular, although, amazingly, there were several PBs and 16 of our runners came in under the 1:30 mark (and 26 under 1:40), which augers well for the marathons. The PBs included one for Rebecca Piggott (1:26:01), who was the third senior woman and won the prize for the sixth woman overall. Rebecca was followed by Cathy Jeremiah (returning to form after Australian and illness), Elinor East, Louisa Pointon, Caroline White (who was the second V55 woman) and Edyta Szot.
Andrew Brooker’s recovery from a broken toe seems complete. He was the first Heathside man, in a time of 1:17.15, also a PB, although it won’t register because he was using someone else’s number. Still a fine 22nd birthday bonus (well, one day late). He was closely followed by Andy Barnes, who also put in an impressive PB (1:17:36). Ed Samuel, Matt Collins (another big PB), Dan Madams, the rapidly improving Sam Thompson, Andy Welshman and Mark Anderson were next (and all under 1:22). Chris Hartley (1:22.22), whose legs were still feeling the effect of last weekend’s double (Southerns plus 18m Sunday run), was the 2nd V50 man. Carl Heap was the 3rd V60 in 1:36.08.38.
Heathside Senior Women (Rebecca Piggott, Cathy Jeremiah and Elinor East) won the Team Prize, and Heathside’s Senior Men (Andrew Brooker, Andy Barnes and Ed Samuel) took 3rd place among the Senior Men’s teams.
RESULTS:
18. Andrew Brooker – 1:17.15 (PB)
21. Andy Barnes – 1:17.36 (PB)
27. Ed Samuel – 1:18.20
29. Matt Collins – 1:18.26 (PB)
36. Dan Madams – 1:19.47 (5th V40)
47. Sam Thompson – 1:20.56
60. Andy Welshman - 1:21.50
63. Mark Andersen – 1:22.07
67. Chris Hartley – 1:22.22 (2nd V50)
79. George Stewart – 1:23.12
100. Gavin Evans – 1:24.48
112. Stuart Meiklejohn – 1:25.49
115. Rebecca Piggott – 1:26.01 (3rd Senior woman; 6th overall)
152. Cathy Jeremiah – 1:28.23
174. Trevor Wilson – 1:29.31.
183. Patrick Waldron – 1:29.55
203. Daniel Johns – 1:30.35
206. Jason Andersen (brother of Mark) – 1:30.30
261. Elinor East – 1:33.22
270. Chris Hewertson – 1:33.39 (PB)
330. Carl Heap – 1:36.08 (3rd V60)
404. Gavin Parish – 1:38.15
407. James Felstead – 1:38.53
428. John Mullee – 1:38.53
457. Henry Hamilton – 1:39.28
472. Brian Boyle – 1:39.56
477. James Dark – 1:39.08
488. Louisa Pointon – 1:40.08
500. Robert Bowler – 1:40.18
502. Nick De Sausmarez – 1:40.32
521. Brett Patterson – 1:41.03
556. Oli Brook - 1.41.55 PB
757. Caroline White – 1:47.19 (2nd V55)
853. Ken Townson – 1:49.57
888. Alun Nash – 1:49.06
1091. Edyta Szot – 1:55.25
1172. Sarah Illingworth – 1:57.07
1368. Sandra Buckton – 2:03.12
1591. Carolina Graterol – 2:11.42
Torremolinos Half Marathon (Sunday 1st February)
While the poor so-and-so’s above were slogging it in the freezing cold round Watford, one Heathsider, Daniel McKeown, had the sensible notion of heading for warmer climes in the South of Spain. Daniel told us he enjoyed a couple of beers and a “fish spa” (is that even legal??? - ed.) the night before, and ice cream on the beach afterwards. Thanks for sharing that with us, Daniel...
Daniel McKeown: 70th in 1:23:12
PARKRUN: All Heathsiders’ Parkrun results for Saturday 31st January can be found at:
“http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=2017&eventdate=2015-01-31”