Piggott anchors Heathside women to relay bronze

Slim pickings this week, with the main event being the South of England Cross Country Relays. Best run of the day belonged to Rebecca Piggott, who has returned in splendid form from her from long-lasting injury troubles. This time she battled against an unforgiving wind and a determined Hearne Hill middle distance speedster, getting passed with 400m to go and then biting down hard, to out-sprint and out-gut her rival with meters to spare, putting our team in the bronze medal position. Rebecca’s run was the 6th fastest (out of 137) of the day. Charles Hardy was our fastest man (23rd out of 185).

SEEA Cross Country Relay Champs – Wormwood Scrubs, Saturday 20th October

Scrubs is a bit like marmite but most of the Heathside contingent were feeling very buoyant as converged onto the windy wasteland of West London. Our XC appetites clearly fuelled by the Met League, we had 3 ½ men’s’ teams and 2 women’s, although that was soon to become one, after the B team was disqualified – not for foul-play – but some kind of technical issue involving entering the correct people, I believe. Blame the captains.

The women run 3 x 3 (and a bit) km. Last year the women came away with a gold medal and allegedly there has been a lot of idle gossiping on social media about whether it was possible to repeat the performance?! That didn’t happen but the A team came away with a beautiful bronze, which they gallantly battled for. Bethany ran the 1st leg in 12.23 and handed over to Kelly in 4th position. The fastest time was recorded by the women who came 1st in the opening leg, so that tells you something about the competition that Bethany was up against. Kelly had a strong run, and moved up a place, handing over to Rebecca. This was only Rebecca’ s 4th race since coming back from a sustained period of injury and I have to tell you, it was one of the most exciting, gutsy and bloody heroic pieces of running I’ve seen.

With about 500m to go Rebecca was in the lead but only by a couple of metres and when the other woman put in a burst and surged past Rebecca it felt like it was all over. Not so: Rebecca dug in and fought back and ended the race over 10 seconds ahead of her, securing the bronze team medal. Rebecca ran her leg in 12.02, the 6th fastest of the women’s race.

The women’s B team, made up of Sue Rust, Sarah Swinhoe and Lucie Maugher would have been the joint first B team but it was not to be. Sue, returning to form from a long period out of racing, took one for the team, stepping up to run the 1st leg as there was not a lot of enthusiasm for this. It was great to have SEAA first –timer, Lucie, out with the team too and I’m sure there’s so much more to come from her this season. Although the B team’s finishing time would have put us as joint winners of the B teams, we made an error on the entries so it wasn’t to be.

Moving on to the men’s race where the teams consisted of 4 men, running somewhere around 5k, but not quite on the nose. Notice how the men run further than the women, maybe one day the women will be strong enough to do this!! Unfortunately, their split times are not up on the SEAA website yet so a detailed analysis of performance will have to occur over social media or in the pub at a later date.

The A team was made up of Charles Hardy, Kimon Doulis, Chris Hartley and Dan Johns. Chris, V50, was delighted to be picked for the A team and relished the challenge. Charles had a very good run, finishing his leg in 10th place. Kimon. Chris and Dan all had solid runs in tough conditions and the team finished in 14th place overall out of 44 scoring teams. Not bad at all and a performance described by one runner as ‘quite good.’

The B team, made up of Sergio Di Noto, Steve Armstrong, Jonathan Litchfield and Captain Jake, made finished in a very respectable 25th place overall and all deserved to be pleased with their running on the blustery day. It is worth noting that the race gets very strung out after the 1st leg and it can be quite a lonely and confusing running experience.  Ed Adams, Sam Thompson, Gavin Evans and Dominic Jackson made up our C team and finished in 35th place. Well done to them and a special mention to Dominic, who crossed the finishing line and had to sprint to be in the team photo. James Rigby and Carl Heap, putting in another good performance, also ran but did not have a full team. A special thank you to James for getting over to Scrubs.

All in all, a fun and productive afternoon of running great Heathside camaraderie.

Postscript from Gavin: the men’s individual results are finally up. Charles Hardy was our fastest man in 23rd place (out of 185 in 14:30), followed by Kimon Doulis (41st in 14:59), Dan Johns (67th in 15:43) and B-teamers Sergio Di Noto (71st in 15:49) and Jonathan Litchfield (97th in 16:23), and C-teamer Ed Adams (98th in 16:24). Also worth mentioning is D-teamer James Rigby whose 16:48 put him in 116th position (our 8th fastest man).

Abingdon Marathon, Sunday October 21

Phil Hogg and an injured Rob Shulman ran this autumn perennial, with Phil putting in his usual 3:04 (this time, he says, he made the mistake over over-cooking the training mileage and under-cooking the racing and speed sessions). Ultra-man Rob, not quite fresh from his Comrades heroics, started hobbling and, for once only, was unable to finish.

Here’s Phil’s report: “I ran a 3:04 in Abingdon marathon again…. for the third year in a row!  Good organisation as always, a touch windy but not too bad. I am going to campaign for club prize for consistency of running, because if there were such a prize I may win it ;-) Joe Mckeown had done better in previous years though, running the exact same marathon time, to the second, on two different courses.”

Parkruns

Forty-seven of our runners raced in Parkruns on Saturday, with women’s first places for Chiara Borg in Oak Hill (20:45), Jennifer Wing in Southwark (22:05) and Lily Woolcock in Ally Pally (22:21). For full Heathside results: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=2017&eventdate=2017-10-21

Results 

SEEA Cross Country Relay Champs – Wormwood Scrubs, Saturday October 20

Women (3km) – 137 finishers 

A team: 3rd (bronze) – Bethany Grace Scott (9th - 12:23); Kelly Thorneycroft (22nd - 12:45); Rebecca Piggott (6th - 12:02 – 6th)

B team: Sue Rust (42nd - 13.20); Sarah Swinhoe (32nd - 12:58), Lucy Mauger (59th - 13:53)

Men (5k – allegedly) – 185 finishers 

A team: 14th – Charles Hardy (23rd – 14:30); Kimon Doulis (41st – 14:59); Chris Hartley (114th – 16:45); Dan Johns (67th – 15:43)

B team: 25th – Sergio Di Noto (71st – 15:49), Steve Armstrong (99th – 16:26); Jonathan Litchfield (97th – 16:23); Jake Spencer (133rd – 17:07)

C team: 35th – Ed Adams (98th – 16:24); Sam Thompson (148th – 17:37); Gavin Evans (162nd – 18:09); Dominic Jackson (138th – 17:13)

D team (incomplete) – James Rigby (116th – 16:48); Carl Heap (178th – 19:25).

Abingdon Marathon, Sunday October 21 (794 starters; 751 finishers)

124th Phil Hogg – 3:04:50