Team Easter goodies in VP5 and Regent's Park 10k

Despite some delay (apologies) in reporting them to you the facts of the Easter weekend remain the same: it was a good ‘un for Heathside, with three team podium finishes across the Victoria Park 5 and the London Easter 10k, and cheerful reports of races elsewhere in the country. 

Sorry for the late race report folks, it’s been busy in debt capital markets journalism this week and I wasn’t organised enough to re-allocate report writing duties in time to ensure a punctual delivery of the latest Heathside results. Many thanks to John and Dan for bringing you the news from the first track & field league match in the meantime – you heard ‘em, we need a better turnout next time, especially from us ladies! Saturday, 17 May – put it in your diary! I updated that report with some quality results from Wednesday's Watford Open by the way, so do scroll down and take a look and the times some of our young athletes put down.

Away from the tartan Heathside came away with the men’s team prize in the Easter Monday 10k in Regent’s Park, led by Tom Stephenson in third place overall with a PB run of 36:13 and backed by up Andrew Dunderdale, who also ran in the Vicky Park 5 on Saturday, and Alun Nash. 

As the fourth instalment in the 2014 club road race championship Saturday’s Vicky Park 5 drew the biggest Heathside crowd (just look at that photo - what a handsome bunch!), with Dan Madams first of our lot home in 23rd and Caroline Boyle our first woman over the line. Philip Bentley and Andrew Dunderdale completed our men’s team for third place overall, with Tammela Platt, who is steadily and determinedly returning from injury, and Barbara Tomaszczyk, who also claimed 1st V50, making up the rest of the women’s three-to-score for a second place team finish. Well done team! Photos available here on the Heathside Flickr page, courtesy of Leigh: https://flic.kr/s/aHsjXtKEJt

Further afield Dan McKeown added victory in a Coventry Easter Sunday 5 miler to his innovative marathon recovery programme that had the day before involved a promising debut over the 400m hurdles in the SAL opener. As to Sunday's race, we all know that no-one says it better than the man himself, so: “Forget Vicky Park - there was a famous Heathside victory on Sunday in the Easter 5 in Coventry. Although I was pretty sure all I'd be taking home from the race was sore legs, I overhauled the long-time leader with about a mile to go, and nursed a slender lead to the line. My delight at picking up the winner's gong was offset by the fact they decided to give me the Vets prize as well - I'm only 35.”

The Folkestone 10 made a few Heathsiders very happy – Mr and Mrs Pound because it was fast and allowed them (with the help of a bit of training, too, no doubt) to shave 7 minutes off their previous PBs, and Alison Harrow because she finished inside her target time and has hopes that the race is a sign of a comeback. Here’s her heartwarming report:

“A lovely, bright, wind-less day for a 10-miler…after messing up Fred Hughes 10 in January due to illness, I needed to get my own back. And after years of injury, this was the perfect race to do it. A lovely flat course out and back along the promenade from Hythe and Folkestone. I’d chosen it as my friend’s Mum lives on that particular 5-mile stretch, so had some ‘cheerers’ at both 3.5 miles and 7 miles. And what a lovely surprise to see Heathsiders, Jackie Wastell and Martin Potter shouting merrily too, who ‘just decided to come along and watch me’. Last mile was very painful with my not-so-lovely plantar fasciitis playing up, but I finished within my target time-not a time that most Heathsiders would write home about, but hope this race marks my return to fitness. Congrats too to Ollie and Victoria Pound ….” 

Oh, and there were plenty of Heathside parkruns, unsurprisingly more scattered across the country than usual. Now where’s Blickley … ?

Results as follows, PBs stated where known:

Victoria Park 5, 19/04/2014

23Dan Madams 0:27:53

47Philip Bentley0:28:55

52Andrew Dunderdale0:29:10

58Andy Barnes0:29:53

100Andrew Hudson 0:33:48

111Luka Melon 0:34:51

114Anthony Chin0:35:05

116Tim Sander0:35:16

118Joseph McKeown0:35:27

125Caroline Boyle 0:35:57

126Robert Bowler 0:36:09

131Tammela Platt0:37:00

142Barbara Tomaszczyk0:38:49

149Gabi Johnson 0:39:26

158Di Gardiner0:40:49

177Louise Cripps0:44:42

London Easter 10k, Regents Park, 21/04/2014

3 Tom Stephenson36:13(PB)

9 Andrew Dunderdale  38:36 

132 Alun Nash 49:21

136 Richard Clay 49:31

205 Greg Bell  54:12

Folkstone 10, 18/04/2014

167th Ollie Pound 1hr 17.14 (PB)

233rd Victoria Pound 1hr 22.39 (PB)

355th Alison Harrow 1hr 33.56

Massey Ferguson Runners Easter 5 (Coventry)

1 Dan McKeown 27:49

Parkruns

http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=2017