Olympics, Blackheath & Bromley open, Bearbrook 10k, parkruns and nominative determinism

As we wave a tear-stained farewell to the Olympic Games, it's time to turn our attention once again to this week's Heathside race results. Actually, there was a bit of a lull in racing this week as everyone was too busy watching the Olympics.

Happily, some of the more conscientious club members did make it out to parkrun, a select contingent went to the Bearbrook 10k in Buckinghamshire on Sunday and we had a couple of attendees at the Blackheath & Bromley track and field open meet yestereve, so that at least gives me something to write about and spares the rest of you my back-up plan, which was poetry.

If there are any other results at all, that somehow have not yet been posted on the web, please mail them to me on daniel.mckeown@gmail.com and I'll be happy to add them.

Our intrepid raiders at the Bearbrook 10k were Dan, Alex and Stephen. Event reviews indicate the course is pretty quick with a few undulations and all three ran good times with pride of place going to Dan for finishing eighth of around 370 runners in 34:40. Alex recorded dead on 39 minutes with Stephen finishing in 41:41.

The focus was on middle distance at the Blackheath & Bromley Open on Monday evening: Rich Macauley tanked his way to a new PB in the 800m, finishing in 2:05.83. Paul and Katherine did the 1500m, finishing in 4:45.44 and 5:31.1. These results are provisional as they haven't been posted up elsewhere yet.

The highlight of the weekend parkrun-wise was probably a record turnout of 139 at Finsbury Park, where Marathon Talk podcast supremo Tom Williams was in attendance, along with American ultrarunning legend Michael Wardian. Mr Wardian has an impressive portfolio of achievements including a former world record of 2h34 for the fastest marathon pushing a baby stroller. I can only presume this wasn't set in Rome, as I gather the course there has cobbles and he would probably have lost the baby or needed to secure it with gaffer tape.

We had a bumper turnout of Heathsiders to commemorate the occasion, taking up six of the first ten places. Tom "Oh, I'm just in the middle of my long run" Aldred finished second in 16:55, a feat made doubly impressive given that he all but jogged the first half of the race. First place was taken by the American ringer who celebrated with a barefoot lap of honour round the M25. (Disclaimer: no he didn't).

A mere hop, skip and a jump away (or one stop on the tube) at Highbury Fields, Alex and Philip made debut appearances, both finishing in the top ten. There were likewise only two Heathsiders at Ally Pally, where Jo and Monika ran. We had six runners at Hampstead Heath, with Rob finishing sixth overall. Ursula was second lady home with a new course PB of 22:25.

And finally, this week's 'Most Exotic parkrun Appearance' prize goes to Gavin and Alice Parish, who popped up in Newcastle. A surprise result for the couple with the most parochial-sounding surname at the club. I suppose it just goes to show we can't always rely on nominative determinism.

If anyone else fancies having a crack at Newcastle next week, the 23:30 Friday night service out of King's Cross gets into Doncaster at about half one in the morning. After five hours sleeping on the platform, you can then get a connecting train to Newcastle for 07:40. All this only costs £48 (one way) so hopefully we'll have a few more bodies there next time!

RESULTS

BEARBROOK 10K, AYLESBURY (12/08/2012) 8 Dan Madams  34:4035 Alex Weatherill 39:0059 Stephen Meredith 41:41

BLACKHEATH & BROMLEY OPEN (13/08/2012)
800m
TBC Richard Macaulay 2:05.83

1500m
TBC Paul Lemmon 4:45.44
TBC Katherine Vinnicombe 5:31.1

ASSORTED WOND'ROUS PARKRUNS (11/08/2012)
 

Ally Pally parkrun

19 Joanne IRWIN 00:24:40

35 Monika THALER 00:28:13

Finsbury parkrun

2 Tom ALDRED 00:16:55

4 Rob SALTER 00:18:04

5 Daniel MCKEOWN 00:18:15

6 David HELLARD 00:18:17

8 Adam MITCHELL 00:18:43

10 Stuart MEIKLEJOHN 00:18:57

18 Carl Andrew HEAP 00:20:15

25 Brian HEFFERNAN 00:20:55

69 Sarah ILLINGWORTH 00:25:18

86 Dan S WILLIAMS 00:26:04

Hampstead Heath parkrun

6 Rob SHULMAN 00:20:31

16 Ursula WILSON 00:22:25

30 Rajesh BATRA 00:24:53

33 Bob GOULD 00:24:59

39 Claire SLIWERSKI 00:25:55

104 Andrew SULSTON 00:39:10

Highbury Fields parkrun

3 Alex GALLOWAY 00:18:12

7 Philip Thomas BENTLEY 00:18:48

Newcastle parkrun

71 Gavin PARISH 00:21:58

148 Alice PARISH 00:24:54