Rust puts the shine on silver as Heathside Women finish second at the London X/C Champs
This was another busy week, with many fantastic runs in extremely difficult and muddy conditions on Parliament Hill, as well as a handful of runs elsewhere, including a marathon in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Despite a busy and successful Met league race last week-end, few Heathsiders decided that it was time for a break from running. Instead, almost 100 Heathsiders bravely raced in Parliament Hill, one of the toughest, muddiest and hilliest cross country venues in London. Given the conditions, everyone did amazingly well to complete the cross-country race. Star of the day was undoubtedly Ruarai Mcgonagle, who came 2nd in the under 11 boys race and Rose Garrett (20th in the under 11 girls’ race). There were many great runs in the seniors, led home by Sue Rust (13th in the women's race) and Tom Aldred (6th in the men's race).
A select few chose to do races away from Parliament Hill. Phil Hogg completed the marathon in Stratford-upon-Avon in a great time (3:08:26) and recommends it as being “very accessible, very cheap, well organised and flat”. Louisa Pointon completed the Gosport half marathon, in what appeared to have been a very wet morning and a few also completed the 10k in Regents Park. There were a few parkrunners, with Leigh James coming first in Finsbury Park and Rebecca Bunting using the Oakhill parkrun as a warm-up, before excelling in Parliament Hill later that day (second Heathsider over the line).
The remainder of this report includes a write-up from Ruth and Chris on the cross-country, followed by the results from these and other races.
London Youth Games XC, Parliament Hill (report by Ruth Miller)
27 London Heathside youngsters competed in the London Youth games x country at Parliament Hill, representing their local borough Haringey, Islington, Hackney and City of London. Really gutsy performances from all in very muddy conditions and of course those famous hills. Our under 11 athletes again shone, with another inspiring run from Ruairi to get a very close 2nd and Rose Garrett to get 20th, followed by good performances from new comers Arthur Reed and Annie Walker helping the Haringey U11 boys to win the teams race and the Haringey U11 girls to get second team. Other notable performances from Liam Garrett 35th U15 Boys , Genevieve Weston 33rd in the U17 women and Johnny Naylor 35th in the U 17 men.”
Full results www.londonyouthgames.org [and below]; apologies if I have left any one out (hard to spot with all the different boroughs).
London Cross country championships, Parliament Hill, 15th November 2014 (report by Chris Hartley)
Plenty of rain during the preceding few days meant that the iconic course at Parliament Hill, with its panoramic views over London, and nasty, nasty hills, was muddy and slippery in places on Saturday. What with the longer races, it was clear to all participants that we are now getting stuck into the cross-country season proper. Nonetheless, a rip-roaring good afternoon was had by all.
Cometh the hour, cometh the woman. Sue Rust set her injury worries aside, pulled on her spikes and romped up and down the hills in the accidentally extended women’s race (officially 6km but probably nearer to 7km, owing to a marshalling error) to finish a magnificent 13th from 186 taking part, in a time of 26m 11s. Leading a contingent of 21 Heathsiders, Sue inspired impressive runs from the ever-quicker Rebecca Bunting (who is actually starting to convince some of us that a pre-race Park Run is the secret of her success), who finished 18th in a time of 26m 55s, skipping Aussie Captain Cathy Jeremiah (24th), and this season’s breakthrough runner, Celine Murray (35th). In the four-to-score team event, Heathside finished second, a great achievement for a competition that includes all of London’s many running clubs. Congratulations, ladies! Take a bow.
Further down the field there were excellent runs from Jane Higgins (44th), who is running better than anyone who has been injured for so long has any right to expect, Jackie Wastell (49th and 11th Vet) and Bridgit Napleton (65th and 18th Vet). I’d like to give a special mention to new member Noelle O’Regan, dragged along to cross-country for the first time last month by Richard McCaulay. Noelle ran and finished a creditable 119th on Saturday despite Richard pulling out of the men’s race in advance with injury. Been bitten by the X/C bug by any chance, Noelle?!
In the Men’s race, it was business as usual at the sharp end for Tom Aldred, who raced to a superb 6th place finish from 348 finishers over the 10km course in a time of only 34m 25s. That’s up hills, through sticky mud, and round sharp, slippery corners. 34.25. Think about it for a moment. Not far behind, in the Heathside contingent of 48 men, was early race leader Adam Kirk-Smith (16th, in 35.09). Adam was barely 40 seconds behind Tom, and that is really saying something. George Stewart (36th and 4th Vet) nipped ahead of Chris Norris (37th) and James Wooldridge (42nd). James was 3rd Under-20, and will be snapping at Adam and Tom’s heals before long. Nice run, James. Chris Burn rocked up and breezed round to finish an impressive 89th. Just ahead of Chris, Matt Collins negotiated his first hilly cross-country race to finish 75th. Good to see Howard Gold back on the trail. Solid runs also from Carl Heap (254th and 83rd Vet), Chip Hamer (270th and 91st Vet), Simon Hazel (282nd) and the ever reliable Ken Townson (329th). Many thanks also to all those I have not mentioned. There were plenty of excellent performances.
Unfortunately, it’s been hard to get complete results for this race. However, I’m sure that Heathside Men finished outside the top three in the Team event, although there is a strong rumour that we were fourth, which is none too shabby. Well done, men!
The only fly in the ointment of a rather splendid afternoon’s running on Parliament Hill was that H*ghgate were crowned both Men’s and Women’s champions. Next year, Heathside, next year.
London Youth Games XC, Parliament Hill, Saturday 15th November, 2014
U11 Girls: 1500m
20 Rose Garrett 6.13
55 Annie Walker 6.51
U13 Girls 2000m
118 Ella Conlan 10.04
184 Silvia Allan 11.10
191 Katia Sanigar 11.26
205 Aaliyah Lakeman 12.40
U15 girls 2000m (looking good for the team next Saturday U15 girls! )
83 Meg Naylor 9.28
84 Phoebe Crockford 9.31
91 Lily McKay 9.33
150 Rachel Finke 10.39
163 Naomi Conlan 10.51
U17 women 3000m
33 Genevieve Weston 14.12
52 Molly Harrison 15.13
96 Dorothy Wright Spinks 18.26
102 Grace Wright Spinks 19.10
U11 Boys 1500m
2 Ruari Mcgonagle 5.10
63 Arthur Reed 6.14
U13 Boys 2000m
98 Marco Flower-reeve 8.57
146 Zac Paul 9.30
188 Lucas Elgueta 10.09
U15 boys 3000m
35 Liam Garrett 11.52
66 Antanas Weston 12.20
67 Luke Gray 12.20
91 Atlas Turl 12.46
U17 Men 5000m?
35 Johnny Naylor 19.10
56 Jacon Philips 19.59
London Cross-Country Championships, Saturday, 15th November 2014
Senior Women (6+km, 186 finishers)
13. Sue Rust 26.11
18. Rebecca Bunting 26.55
24. Cathy Jeremiah 27.21
35. Celine Murray 27.58
44. Jane Higgins 28.48
49. Jackie Wastall (11th Vet) 29.03
65. Bridgit Napleton (18) 29.54
67. Alice Lighton 30.07
85. Elspeth Storrar 31.03
90. E. Beard (26) 31.20
100. Victoria Pound 32.01
105. Jo Irwin 32.16
112. Edyta Szot 32.38
115. Ruth Miller 32.49
117. Fiona Holland (39) 32.53
119. Noelle O’Regan 32.58
125. Claire Thornhill 33.20
126. C. Alder 33.21
154. Caroline Essex 36.02
166. Sandra Buckton 38.23
175. Helen Mary Kehoe 40.14
Senior Men (10km, 348 finishers)
6. Tom Aldred 34.25
16. Adam Kirk-Smith 35.09
36. George Stewart (4) 37.03
37. Chris Noris 37.11
42. James Wooldridge 37.28
50. Martin Potter (11) 37.48
60. Dan Madams (14) 38.16
70. Ryan McCrickerd 38.48
72. John Driscoll (18) 38.55
75. Matt Collins 38.59
89. Chris Burn 39.29
91. Chris Hartley (21) 39.30
101. Sam Thompson 39.53
105. Andy Barnes 40.05
123. Dan McKeown 40.37
125. Adam Ibrahim (?) 40.43
134. Costi Stavrianakis (29) 40.51
135. Jonathan Litchfield 40.51
138. Howard Gold (31) 40.55
142. Norman Mitchell (38) 40.58
143. Gavin Evans (34) 40.59
144. Andrew Dunderdale 41.00
157. Dom Jackson (39) 41.30
187. Rob Shulman (50) 42.38
192. Gareth Marshall 42.44
194. Kris Milovsorov 42.54
202. Joe McKeown 43.23
204. Marco Luna 43.27
206. Richard Hewitt 43.30
217. William Wagstaff (64) 43.54
219. Patrick Waldron (65) 43.59
250. Chris Hewertson 45.49
252. Alan Latham 45.50
254. Carl Heap (83) 45.54
261. Lee Connor 46.28
270. Chip Hamer (91) 46.47
272. Andrew Smith 47.01
281. Oli Pound 47.41
282. Simon Hazel 47.42
283. Andrew Sulston 47.49
288. Elliot Reed 48.09
290. Hassan Nahal 48.15
306. Charles Redfearn 49.56
320. Alun Nash 51.37
322. S. Bailey 51.54
323. Declan McIntyre 52.37
328. Dave Walton 52.56
329. Ken Townson 53.28
Raceways Autumn Shakespeare Marathon, Stratford-upon-Avon, Saturday 16th November, 2014
(8 big laps and one small one around Longmanston (disused) airfield)
17 Philip Hogg 03:11:26
After Adoption Regents Park, 10K, Sunday 16th November, 2014
382 Amy-Jane Twelvetrees 53:08
597 Frances Powrie 58:42
621 Terry Vickers 62:29
Gosport, half marathon, Sunday 16th November, 2014
32 Louisa Pointon 01:39:20
Parkrun results
http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=2017&eventdate=2014-11-15