Sorority success and San Sebastian

There was yet more cross country this weekend with the Northwest Young Athletes League and the combined Fraternity / Sorority Cup and North London Championships at Trent Park.

Well done to the younger athletes for a great turnout, especially in the U13 boys with Ruairi McGonagle again outstanding in second place. A very strong U17 team won the fixture, led home by Jem O'Flaherty in second and Liam Garrett in third. Results are below, although organisers were unable to allocate some times, plus names may not necessarily be spelt as usual.

In the senior race, the only one of the four trophies available we didn't win last year was the ladies' Sorority Cup. The good news is, our team of Rebecca Bunting, Cas Wright, Sarah Swinhoe and Sandra Buckton put that right, finishing comfortably first; the bad news is, we lost all the other trophies, including the vets pots. On the men's side, Jack was our quickest runner ahead of a returning Andy Barnes and Kimon. It wasn't enough to prevent a strong Highgate side from taking home the prizes, although our men's team did earn third-place medals.

From sunnier climes, Caroline reports: "A group of twenty Heathsiders flew over to northern Spain at the weekend to race in the fast, flat marathon/half marathon/10k in beautiful San Sebastian. Despite the wall-to-wall tapas bars, and the sangria, red wine and beer indulged in or perhaps because of, there were many, many PBs and everyone greatly enjoyed this event.

"Race day was sunny and cool, pretty much perfect conditions. It was a slightly twisty course for the half, with a fair amount of doubling back on ourselves and with the whole marathon being a repeat of the half. But it was as flat as a pancake, very well supported all the way round with music, excitable onlookers and plentiful water stops.

"The sweet black tea at the end, although a bit bizarre-sounding, was in fact the perfect recovery drink. More wine beer and tapas afterwards helped with refuelling and the home football team Real Sociedad playing Barcelona in the evening in the stadium in the centre of town added to the party mood. A highly recommended race and venue by all.

"Oh and the results are as follows: – Francois Barou was the only Heathside marathon runner to complete the full marathon which he did in a speedy time of: 3.04.12 (a PB), while in the half, new club member Carlos Casal Perez led the way coming in 19th in 1.13, followed by Leo a few minutes later, and then amongst the other front runners there was a closely fought battle between Richard, Liam and Marco with only seconds between them, and Liz and Satu were also seconds apart having run together all the way to the last stretch. Ken (always the gentleman) let Edyta beat him by 1/10th of a second. Emilia was very pleased with her best half marathon time since 2004, and Nilesh managed to chop nearly 9 minutes off his last PB. Magdalena was the only representative in the 10K (having downsized from the half marathon), manfully completing it in an excellent time of 50.57 considering she was running on an injury."

John L returns with the following report from America: "Last Thursday, 24 November, Jessica and I ran our annual Thanksgiving Day morning Prince William 5k Turkey Trot in Manassas, Virginia.

"3 things stood out: 1) At least one other bloke in the world runs in the same shorts as Kimon; 2) Theresa May has an 18-year-old namesake who is a pretty handy road racer; and 3) Jessica's PB." (Results below.)

Elsewhere

• Rebecca Bunting followed up her outstanding XC run on Saturday with a win on Sunday in the Bassingbourn Belle 10 miler. "It really was beautiful, but with mile markers in an awkward font that was difficult to read," reports Bun on her way to Specsavers.

• Pete Northall a festive Santa 10k in Northamptonshire (in November!) on Sunday, and was the first Santa across the line, in 35:20. Pete: "Perhaps if I'd dressed up as a more athletic Christmas character, I'd have broken 35 mins... "

• Joe G, Ed, Adam C, Alun and Fabienne ran the Last Friday 5k with PBs for Joe and Fabienne.

• This week's parkrun results include first place finishes for Tom Aldred, Adam Kirk-Smith, Ula Cartwright-Finch and Martin Potter.

• Laura B is aiming for 10 x 10 mile races this year, applying a neatly decimal concept to a stubbornly imperial distance. Her latest outing involved a trip to the VeloPark for 10 laps.

Results

San Sebastian Marathon, Half marathon and 10K, 27.11.16

Marathon
439th Francois Barou 3.04.12

Half Marathon
19th Carlos Casal Perez 1.13.47
394th Leo Pemberton 1.31.29
415th Richard Peachment 1.32.47 (PB by 3 mins 50)
421st Liam Hazelton 1.32.56 (PB by 4 mins 36 seconds)
456th Marco Masarati 1.33.23 (PB by 56 seconds)
541st Liz Drake 1.36.11 (PB)
546th Satu Heitanen 1.36.18 (PB 3 seconds)
566th Louisa Pointon 1.37.31
661th Catherine Doherty 1.39.29
820 Bas Vlaming 1.41.29
773 Emilia Vynnycky 1.40.32 (best since 2004)
829 Esti Guijarro 1.43.02
871 Nilesh Goswami 1.43.30 (8 PB by 8 mins 52)
1115th Caroline White 1.48.24
1112 Steve Betts 1.48.33
1261st Edyta Szot 1.51.46
1262nd Kenneth Townson 1.51.47
1690th Emma Gregory 1.59.31 (PB by 1.23)

10K
387 Magdalena Kopolova 50.57

Northwest London Young Athletes League

U11 1400m
4 H. Munday LH 7.45
22 R. Beliossi 8.54
34 N. Rennard 9.34
38 R. Graburn 9.48

U13 2450m
4 R. Garrett
39 F. Weston

U15 3000m
19 E. Conlon

U17 4200m
12 P. Crockford

U11 2450m
8 M. Deasy 11.31
13 S. Hasson 11.55
36 C. Keating 14.08

U13 3000m
2 R. McGonagle 12.22
3 T. Archer 12.41
19 O. O’Connor 13.41
28 L. Maher 13.54
30 K. Naylor 14.03
37 A. Reed LH 14.3
39 E. Cardiff 14.4
51 A. Stern 21.39

U15 4200m
33 L. Selwyn 20

U17 5600m
2 J. O’Flaherty 21.3
3 L. Garrett 22.06
12 A. Weston 25.02
13 L. Gray LH 25.15
14 K. Boulton 26.11

Sorority Cup / North London Championships

3 Bunting. R. 30.46
5 Wright. C. 32.00
6 Swinhoe. S 32.11
21 Buckton. S. 36.11
42 O'Regan. N 39.11

Fraternity Cup / North London Championships

13 Farley. J. 27:45
16 Barnes. A. 27:59
23 Doulis. K. 28:28
27 McKeown. D. 28:46
31 Macaulay. R 28:59
32 Shipley. C. 29:08
35 Cadete. M 29:12
41 Fancett. T. 29:25
43 Meiklejohn. S. 29:28
45 Hartley., C. 29:29
55 Driscoll. J 29:51
58 McKeown. J. 29:57
59 Garrett. E. 30:02
66 Lynch. J 30:28
67 Browne. D 30:29
72 Connor. L. 30:41
75 Jefford. M 31:00
76 Litchfield. J. 31:03
77 Marshall. G. 31:04
78 Spencer. J. 31:10
80 Flahive. J. 31:14
82 Rigby. J 31:18
83 Ratan. R. 31:20
85 Owen. A 31:32
93 Evans. G. 31:56
100 Unknown 32:29
104 Crockford. P. 32:37
107 Shulman. R 32:47
124 Prestone. D 33:59
128 Hewertson. C. 34:06
132 Hamilton-Gould. H. 34:18
139 Costley. J 34:52
146 Unknown 35:21
158 Reed. E 36:12
159 Redfern. C 36:17
163 Wrapson. D 37:27
175 Sander. T. 39:27
195 Unknown 45:28

Last Friday 5k

24 Joe Garrood 17:40 PB
27 Edward Samuel 17:50
95 Adam Coffman 20:30
203 Alun Nash 24:59
244 Fabienne Weston 27:42 PB

Runthrough VeloPark 10 mile

30 Laura Boothman 01:33:49

Prince William 5k Turkey Trot

14th (2nd V40-44), 18:05, Jonathan Litchfield
57th (3rd W35-39), 20:53, Jessica Vinluan (PB)

Bassingbourn Belle 10 miler

12 Rebecca Bunting 01:02:12