Sunshine for Bramley, Brighton and last Sunday League XC

It was a busy running weekend with glorious sunshine and a good mix of distances, but the longer runs definitely coming in thick and fast now, as Spring marathons approach. Tom Aldred stormed in to second place in the Brighton half,  and the last Sunday league XC ended in disaster!
ROAD RACES
In the Brighton half, Tom Aldred had an amazing run, and knocked a minute off his PB for this distance, coming in second place, in 1.06, just two seconds after the winner. In the Bramley 20, four Heathsiders started off, but Julian Ferraro pulled out with injury, leaving Gavin Evans to come in 47th place and first V 50, Patrick Waldon 102nd place and Claire Sliwerski happily achieving a PB. Also of note -  Leigh James had a fantastic run in the Exeter half, coming in 13th, and  2nd woman in a time of 1.23, Tom Ashby completed the Valentine’s 10K in 38.46 and Rebecca Bunting was first lady in the Hillyfields Parkrun!

MUDDY RACES
Sunday league XC# 5, WatfordIt was the last Sunday league this weekend – and despite the sunshine and perfect conditions all did not go quite according to plan.  Gavin Parish signs off as Sunday League rep for this Spring with the full sorry tale (with thanks also to Laura Boothman):

“Watford result void due to runners going off course”  Runherts website

“Sorry folks. This is not news I was looking forward to sharing with those members of the club who made it to Watford for this final race of the season. My sympathies must go out to participants and organisers in equal measure, as I gather the best laid plans rapidly fell into disarray in the woodland of Cassiobury Park, with the frontrunners the only ones to do the ascribed route, and some runners only completing a single lap of the two-lap course.

Needless to say, after the race the organisers were mortified, and although results are provided below, there was no option other than to declare the race void, meaning that Heathside’s men and ladies’ teams both finish sixth overall this season out of eighteen clubs taking part – a huge improvement on our standings in 2012-13. Although as Laura noted, had Watford been included, the ladies may have scored higher.

Amongst the (almost full-strength) ladies team applause is due to Lyn and Sarah for super solid debut performances, and to Louise for a strong finish to a great first XC season (many thanks for driving us all there too). Thanks also to the men taking part, including Laurence and Andy for the first time this season - it isn’t usually like this, I promise!

Now a challenge from Laura, who would like to see all five races attended by a minimum of five women for the 2014-15 season. And it would be great if we can field a full men’s team (eight) consistently as well, although being less injury-prone myself next season would be a good start!

If we made it to sixth place this year with one race void and another (Royston) hugely under-represented, Heathside has what it takes to go higher in this league – we might even challenge the top three next year…”
Claire Miller and Dave Hellard took part in the Brutal 10 in Windmill Hill, Surrey  a 10k race - “an off-road mud run, like cross country on steroids with a few bogs thrown in” . Dave came in 6th and Claire first woman by about 5 minutes – full results are not yet up.

TRACK RACES
Michael Bense took part in the South of England Masters and Gianni Ciolli in the British Masters Indoor Pentathlon, both held at Lee Valley,

Full race results

Bramley 20, Bramley, Reading 16/04/1347th Gavin Evans – 2:06:46 (1st V50)
102nd Patrick Waldron – 2:16:27
620th Claire Silwerski – 3:12:48 (PB)   

Brighton Half marathon, Brighton, 16/02/20142nd  Tom Aldred   01:06:54 PB
179th   Kev Gadd   01:25:12 
667th   Monika Newton   01.34.23
4075th  Louise Breuer   02:02:50 
5512 Tony Shepherd  02:16:38 
6237 Esther Pierce   02:28:53 

Exeter Half Marathon, Exeter 16/02/1413 Leigh James 83:58 (2nd woman)

Valentines 10k, Chessington 16/02/1438 Tom Ashby 38:46

Sunday league xc, Cassiobury Park, 16/02/14 – 6 milesMen75 Laurence Arnold 45:00
101 Andy Barthorpe 47:05
131 Jesper Lycke  50:18
137 Marco Maserati 50:58
158 Bob  Gould  53:41
180 StephenWoolf  60:53
Women50 Laura Boothman 54:50
62 Sarah Illingworth 56:37
76 Lyn Evans  59:29
78 Louise Cripps  59:51

(Total field: 186 men; 99 women)     

Brutal 10, Windmill Hill, Surrey 15/02/146th David Hellard
Claire Miller (1st woman)

South of England Masters 15/02/1460 metres6th Michael Bense 7.98

Pentathlon:Gianni Ciolli
60mH - 16"91
LJ - 3m 97
SP - 7m 20
HJ - 1m 39
1000m - dns

Parkruns

Ally Pally parkrun, 15/02/2014.11 Richard BUDD 00:22:09
36 Shouma KHAN 00:25:05
44 Alice PARISH 00:27:42

Finsbury parkrun, 15/02/2014.7 Andrew DUNDERDALE 00:19:12
9 Dominic JACKSON 00:19:37
17 Carl HEAP 00:20:44
29 Adam KIRK-SMITH 00:21:54
39 Caroline BOYLE 00:22:21
47 Jane HIGGINS 00:22:55
79 James PARKER 00:25:22

Hampstead Heath parkrun, 15/02/2014.3 Phil WRIGHT 00:18:44
6 John DRISCOLL 00:19:28

Highbury Fields parkrun, 15/02/2014.2 Leo BURNINGHAM 00:18:53
7 Asa CUSACK 00:19:34
47 Ben CLARKE-JANSSEN 00:24:11

Hilly Fields parkrun, 15/02/2014.
5 Rebecca BUNTING 00:20:59 (1s lady)

Preston Park parkrun, 15/02/2014.2 Mark DERRY 00:18:59