St Albans cross country relays, Great North Run, Pride 10k and others

The start of the cross country season officially began for London Heathside on Saturday afternoon as we gathered in Verulamium Park, St Albans. We were all feeling a bit nervous, particularly as there seemed to be an abundance of young sprightly athletes at the start line. However the race results show that age is no barrier to success and our women’s A team proved the fastest team of the day and our B team (comprising 3 vets) was not only the fastest B team of the day but the fifth team overall. 

Sue Rust ran an excellent first leg for the A team but was racing against the woman who actually ran the fastest leg of the day. Sue kept just behind her for most of her leg and Sarah was able to take the lead on the 2nd leg and both Claire and Fiona ran very well in 3rd and 4th to keep and increase the lead and win the race.
The B team were led out by Jackie who had a good first leg and looked strong and comfortable throughout. Ruth did well on her 2nd leg and ran confidently. Karen and Ursula had great runs to lead the B team into fifth place overall.

Stephanie ran well in the first leg but we unfortunately did not have enough runners to make up the third team. She had an excellent run despite not having time to warm up and her time would have earned her a place in the A team. 

The Heathside men’s teams put in respectable performances and turnout was good despite the absence of some of our faster cross country runners.  The A team was ably led by Martin putting the team into a strong position from the outset.  Martin was followed by Paul who had arrived at the venue a little later than ideal causing him to miss his preferred opening leg.  Richard ran an excellent race, followed by Andy and Anthony who both managed to overtake runners from the opposing teams and John finished strongly bringing the team home in ninth place. 

Elsewhere we had runners in various 10k road races including six runners among 54,000 others at the Great North Run, a 13th place finish for Simon Nash at the Pride 10k in Victoria Park, and an age category win for Louise Cripps at the London Zoo 10k.  Rob Salter, who has just moved up North to further his studies, led the way at his new local parkrun with a win at Newcastle. 

On 12 September we also had some impressive performances at the Highgate Late Season Open at Parliament Hill, in what I am told where pretty unpleasant wet and windy conditions, with two PB's for Richard Macaulay ran only a few minutes apart.  

There seems to be an increased interest in multi-sport events within the club and on Sunday Caroline, Barbara and Briony took part in the Eton Dorney triathlon - they did the Olympic distance relay comprising a 1500m Swim, 42.4km Bike and a  10km run. Caroline tells me it was a beautiful day with pretty much perfect conditions (although Barbara tells me it was rather windy on the bike which was incidentally not a road bike which would have caused her to work much harder).  Briony ably took the swimming leg and had a great two lap swim, Barbara did 8 speedy laps on the bike (her first ever cycling event I believe) and Caroline completed the final leg running 4 x 2.5 k circuit in a very respectable 46 minutes. 

Results are as follows with apologies for any omissions:

St Albans Cross country relays

Women’s A Team, 1st team

Sue Rust 17min 24sec (2nd Fastest time of the day)
Sarah Swinhoe 18min 03sec (3rd fastest time of the day)
Claire Morrissey 19min 56sec
Fiona Alston 19min 27sec

 Women’s B Team 5th team, 1st B team

Jackie Wastell 19min 41sec
Ruth Miller 20min 59sec
Karen Levene 20min 04sec
Ursula Wilson 19min 51sec

Women’s C Team (incomplete)

Stef Lemmon 18min 50sec

Men’s A Team, 9th team

Martin Potter 16min 05sec
Paul Lemmon 17min 40sec
Richard Macauley 16min 16sec
Andy Welshman 16min 52sec
Anthony Hall 16min 26sec
John Flahive 17min 01sec

Men’s B Team, 12th team

James Josephs 17min 31sec
Howard Gold 17min 22sec
Anthony Chamowitz 18min 37sec
Norman Mitchell 16min 47sec
Miron Woldemichael 16min 57sec
Leo Pemberton 19min 18sec

Men’s C Team, 15th team

Robin Tremaine 18min 20sec
Mark George 18min 40sec
Daniel Szajha 18min 05sec
Dominic Jackson 17min 39sec
Izaiah Turner 21min 13sec
Melvin Wochira 18min 13sec

Men’s D Team (incomplete)

Alex Sweet 18min 22sec
Nick de Sausmarez 19min 55sec
Jerry Odlin 21min 41sec
Zac 19min 22sec

BUPA Great North Run, Newcastle, 16/9/12
520th Nick Jellema 1hr 26min 53sec
995th Henry Hamilton 1hr 30min 42sec
1326th James Hedgeman 1hr 32min 48sec
1703rd Chris Burrows 1hr 34min 46sec
8910th Sarah Illingworth 1hr 51min 29sec
23119th Stephanie Hedgeman 2hr 13min 31sec

London Zoo Stampede 10k, 16/9/12
302nd Louise Cripps 55min 52sec (1st V55)

Stirling 10k
143rd Angela Howe 39min 27sec (27th woman, 8th V40)

The Pride Run 10k, Victoria Park, 15/9/12
13th Simon Nash 35min 09sec
38th  Andrew Murphy 38min 31sec
75th  Henry Andrews 40min 45sec
506th Robert Watts 55min 10sec

Bacchus Half Marathon, 9/9/12
411th Claire Sliwerski 2hr 56min (PW - helped along wine and fancy dress!)

HSBC Triathlon, Dorney Lake
Caroline White, Briony Fane and Barbara Tomaszczyk
Total time: 2hr 57min 51sec (3rd all female relay team)
Swim 32min 59sec
T1 01sec 06min
Bike 1hr 35min 57sec
T2 01min 02sec
Run 46.45

Highgate Late Season Open, Parliament Hill, 12/9/12
100m SX5
5th Michael Bense 13.58sec

100m SX8
3rd Izaiah Turner 14.76sec

400m SX3
3rd Richard Macaulay 55.44sec PB

1500m SX 1
7th Richard Macaulay 4min 35.42sec PB

1500m SX2
6th Daniel Szajna 4min 43.74sec

1500m SX3
1st Izaiah Turner 5min 29.37sec
2nd Michael Abrahams 5min 32.80sec
4th Katherine Vinnicombe 5min 42.99sec

3000m SX1
9th James Wooldridge 9min 51.31sec

3000m SX2
2nd Max Robertson 10min 02.46sec

PARKRUN ROUNDUP:

Ally Pally parkrun
1st Liam PROUDLOCK 18min07sec   
2nd Rob SHULMAN 19min23sec
9th Gavin PARISH 22min06sec   
31st Shouma KHAN 26min10sec   
35th Alice PARISH 26min45sec   
41st Louise CRIPPS 30min17sec

Cannon Hill parkrun
88th John DOWD 21min50sec

Coventry parkrun
4th Daniel MCKEOWN 17min26sec

Finsbury parkrun
7th Sean Thomas CASEY 19min29sec   
15th Carl HEAP 20min23sec
54th Caroline BOYLE 23min24sec   

Hampstead Heath parkrun
19th Andrew SULSTON 22min 53sec
43rd Bob GOULD 25min 25sec

Newcastle parkrun
1st Rob SALTER 17min 33sec  

Whitstable parkrun
26th Julie KHAN 23min 28sec