Parliament Hill, Gosport and Istanbul
An intrepid hardcore of Heathsiders made the long and harrowing journey all the way to Parliament Hill on Saturday for the London XC Championships. Looking at the day's early results, we had great performances from Liam Garrett, sixth in the U13 race, and a group effort from Lucy, Rachel and Lily, who were eighth, 14th and 17th in an U17 women's race. Both of these races had pretty impressive fields (176 and 121) so a huge well done to the aforementioned. I'm not sure we didn't have other young athletes out competing for their boroughs / gaffs / manors. If anyone knows any more than me (all right, form a queue) please get in touch!
In a thrilling senior women's race, Sarah stayed in contention for a medal throughout, finishing fifth in a tight run-in. There was scarcely time for her to unshackle the timing ball and chain the organisers had insisted on from her ankle before the rest of the ladies' team arrived: Rebecca, who'd already finished as first female at Richmond parkrun that morning (and conceivably run from there) placed 16th, followed in by Sue (23rd) and Bridget (26th).
All of this amounted to an impressive and richly deserved silver medal for the awesome foursome. Could there be more gongs in next weekend's North London Champs? I'd bet my Playstation on it. We had some good runs behind the scorers (not too far behind in a few cases) on a course which will probably acquire a couple more inches of mud before we get to the Southern Champs in January.
In the men's race, it was the Aldred show as Ladies Met League C-team Shield-holder Tom galloped to fourth place in an outstanding blur of mud and limbs. (Might be time to relinquish that shield, Tom - I know, it's painful.) Behind him, there was an intriguing race to be second Heathsider, with Rob (33) taking the honours ahead of George (38). There was also a good battle for the fourth scoring spot, which Alex (52) secured with a very classy run, ahead of a superb effort from Andrew (56). A big well done to Andrew, who also suffered a fall on the fourth lap. The men were seventh team of 25 and likewise look a good shout to challenge for medals at the North London Champs.
Final couple of things on the cross-country: first, a huge thanks to all who made it along to rabble, whether racing or not. Also, we have a bunch of duff results because of number swaps - if you spot any errors, please get in touch! (lheathside@gmail.com)
Elsewhere
There was an outbreak of PBs at the Gosport Half Marathon, where Tony, Elinor, Tom and Julia ran. Special congratulations to Elinor, the Beast of the East, who finally cracked the 90-minute mark, only to suffer the various vexations of her timing chip going on the fritz and Tony calling her Elinor West in his race report email. Thank heavens he doesn't work for some sort of renowned map-making organisation. Oh, he does. Perhaps that's why I always get lost.
Meanwhile, Super Steve ran a storming 2:57 personal best in the Istanbul Marathon and described it thus: "Was slightly gutted to get overtaken by a fella from Serpentine in the last few k, but otherwise delighted with a PB. A flattish course but with a couple of really mean hills thrown in. And Istanbul is awesome!" Still can't get away from them Serpies though. Maybe try Outer Mongolia next time?
A resurgent Ed ran a season's best in the Leeds Abbey Dash 10k with a mighty fine 34:36, which apparently earned him 231st place: "A very large and high quality field all the way through," was Ed's excuse for not winning. Philip Bentley came in a few minutes behind hmi, bagging a PB of 37:11.
Finally, we had a weather-beaten postcard from our roving reporter, Henry H:
I meant to email this result last week - On November 10th I took the Heathside vest to the Cote D'Azur and ran the stunning Nice - Cannes Marathon Relay. My friend ran the first half then I ran the 2nd half finishing along the seafront amongst the yachts and palm trees in Cannes.
The whole run was along the coast (the only downside being the strong sea winds) and I completed my half in 1:37:20. It's definitely a marathon/half race I would recommend - very well organised, a fantastic atmosphere and even started by Paula Radcliffe.
(Mind you, so was the 2004 Olympic Marathon - DM)
Results
London XC Championships and Youth Games
Senior men (10k-ish)
4 T Aldred 00:31:57
33 R O'Grady 00:35:10
38 G Stewart 00:35:27
52 A Armstrong 00:36:21
56 A Brooker 00:36:31
61 D McKeown 00:36:55
71 C Jones 00:37:17
80 C Burn 00:37:45
90 J Flahive 00:38:07
108 J Driscoll 00:39:02
115 C Hartley 00:39:12
123 D Jackson 00:39:25
126 A Weatherill 00:39:30
127 P Wright 00:39:33
144 A Prystawsky 00:40:14
166 G Evans 00:41:05
168 M Luna 00:41:07
182 J Mckeown 00:42:04
185 P Waldron 00:42:17
206 D Thomas 00:43:09
230 E Paul 00:44:40
246 C Heap 00:45:57
254 P Lemmon 00:46:42
257 O Pound 00:47:31
276 K Townson 00:51:17
279 B Gould 00:52:53
Senior Women (6k)
5 S Swinhoe 00:22:47
16 R Bunting 00:23:42
23 S Rust 00:24:12
26 B Napleton 00:24:27
34 C Morrissey 00:24:55
38 C Jellema 00:25:16
45 Y Raykov 00:25:49
54 E Storrar 00:26:30
56 J Higgins 00:26:39
71 C White 00:27:52
76 T Platt 00:28:08
85 J Irwin 00:28:31
97 R Miller 00:29:32
104 J Fogarty 00:29:49
119 G Johnson 00:31:13
128 M Thaler 00:32:08
U13 (176 finishers)6 Liam Garrett 7:41 U17W (121 finishers)8 Lucy Carter 11:45 14 Rachel Seckl 12:08 17 Lily Beckford 12:19
Gosport Half Marathon
55 Tony Kililea 1:20:26
265 Elinor East 1:29:26
316 Tom Upchurch 1:31:15
520 Julia Kelk 1:37:46
Istanbul Marathon
56 Steve Armstrong 2:57
Leeds Abbey Dash 10k
231 Ed Samuel 34:36
486 Philip Bentley 37:11
Them parkruns