Non-Marathon round-up: Heathside women in 'relay' good showing at Nationals
While the club's main focus was of course centred on the London Marathon this week (more to come in a separate report later), there are a few more bits of Heathside running news that don't deserve to go unnoticed. From an impressive showing at the Road Relays to a fine marathon display and great turn out at the Vets League meeting, here's this week's best of the rest:
National Road Relays, Birmingham, Saturday 16th April
Following their strong showing at the Southern Relays back in March, Heathside’s ladies took up the invitation to take on the rest of the UK in the National Relays. Rachel Newstead led the team home with a fantastic anchor leg and gives us a run down on the day here:
“After some superb organisation by Sam Thompson, we eventually managed to get 6 ladies to Euston station bright and early on a Saturday morning for the National Road Relays. Two trains and many (ok, three) hours later, we arrived in Sutton Coldfield (apparently it's somewhere near Birmingham). At the station where we changed trains a sign helpfully informed us that we were 108 miles from London; we were a long way from home. Luckily the snow that had been forecast did not materialise, although we had all come prepared and dressed for a cross country event. It was very reminiscent of Parliament Hill at the start line with all the colourful tents and flags, although with a lot less mud.
The ladies race consisted of two 8km legs (Rebecca Piggott and Anna O’Hare) and four 5km legs (Leigh James, Kelly Thorneycroft, Genevieve Weston and Rachel Newstead). The path was undulating with lots of twists and turns. It was one of those runs where you always feel as if you're heading in to the wind, but there was a lot of support on the course and the park was beautiful. Special mentions to Rebecca with a super speedy long leg, and to Kelly who had a great run despite being injured! We finished 19th out of 50 teams (42 finished), and came away feeling inspired to return with two teams (and a men’s team?) next year.”
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#TeamHeahside ladies at the Natioal Road Relays
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Plus...
And more to come (hopefully) including Genevieve and Rachel.
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And here they are - our 5th and 6th leg runners @rnewstead and Genevieve.
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Shakespeare Marathon, Stratford-upon-Avon, Sunday 24th April
An admin glitch scuppered Josie Hinton’s chance of taking up her championship entry for the London marathon but, determined not let her months of hard work go to waste, she made a last minute switch to the Shakespeare Marathon. Despite the unfortunate change of plans, Josie was rewarded with victory as she conquered a hilly course to finish as 1st woman and in 38th place overall. I really wanted to do some Shakespeare puns here but sadly am nowhere near as well read as I thought I was.
Rock n Roll Media Maratón, Madrid, Sunday 24th April
An unplanned calendar clash meant that while almost everyone else at Heathside was either running or supporting at the London Marathon, I looked pretty antisocial by heading off to Madrid to run a half marathon in my (sort of) home city. It’s slightly odd writing about yourself in the report, but the event went like clockwork and it was a great course – spotting a Serpie vest up ahead was extra motivation and after catching up, running with him for a few kilometres helped push us both on. I ticked along at a better than expected pace right up until the final 3km, when the Spanish sun started warming up and the last part of the course literally became a (slightly) uphill struggle. I still managed to hang on for a new PB and any slight disappointment at not going quicker should hopefully mean there’s more to come next time. One to recommend...unless it clashes with London again.
Vets League, Lea Valley, Monday 25th April
Last but certainly not least, Helen Kehoe sent in news of some great performances from Heathside’s women vets and issues a stirring call to arms for the next fixture in May:
“Monday saw the first Vets League meeting of the season at Lee Valley and Heathside had its biggest turnout of women to date. 4 special women spread themselves around a number of events on a bitterly cold and wet evening and finished 6th out of 7, our best result to date! Gokce Baydar, (W35) ran an astonishing 14.2 in her first ever 100m race finishing second in her age group! She also ran a very impressive 4th leg in the relay bringing the team home in 4th place. Joanna Brown (W40) ran a steady 100m, a respectable 400m and a truly impressive 1500 in 5:56, her first 1500m ever and quite outstanding considering it was her third event in just over an hour!
Helene Kehoe (W50) ran a respectable 100m in 15 seconds and made up a few more points running 400m and 1500m also. Sue Eedle (W55) cleared 0.90m for her first high jump competition and pleasantly surprised even herself! She made up a few more points throwing the discus and ran an excellent 1500m at 6.50.2, even lapping another athlete in her age group!
The second meeting will be at Stevenage on Monday 16th May at 6.30 and there is an open invitation for any women 35 and over to join us!!! Lifts should be available.”
Also braving the elements and later spotted in the men’s results were Jonathan Litchfield, who took on the 100m (PB), 400m and 1500m, Edward Garratt who picked up season’s bests in the 400m and 1500 and Tony Kililea who doubled up with the 100m and 1500m before trying his hand at the non-track events too.
Parkruns
Plenty of first finishes this week, so shout outs to Adam Kirk-Smith and Sue Rust for being first man and woman at Finsbury Park, Joanna Brown and Alice Hosking were first women at Ally Pally and Burnage, while Andrew Brooker lead everyone home in Hackney. Full results here: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=2017&eventdate=2016-04-23
Full classified results:
National Road Relays, Birmingham, Saturday 16th February
Women’s Team – 19th overall (out of 42 finishers)
Rebecca Piggott (l) 32:32
Leigh James (s) 20:10
Kelly Thorneycroft (s) 20:32
Anna O'Hare (l) 33:25
Genevieve Weston (s) 22:10
Rachel Newstead (s) 19:47
Shakespeare Marathon, Stratford-upon-Avon, Sunday 24th April
38th Josie Hinton 3:14:39 – 1st lady!
Rock n Roll Media Maratón, Madrid, Sunday 24th April
103rd Gareth Marshall 85:35