Track and field, Midnight Sun and the City Mile
Adam won gold for the steeplechase the Northern Ireland Championships with another fantastic run. His time was particularly impressive given a solo run (he won by a minute) in torrential rain.
“I could try and put my failure to run a British championships qualifying time down to the rain,” says Adam. “Being honest though, I missed the time by a bit over seven seconds, running 9:12 when I needed to under 9:05, so that's a very charitable interpretation.
“However, with more than a month of proper experience in the event I hope to pull on a national vest in August. As an added bonus, having fallen rather foul of the final water jump in the South of England championships I successfully leapt over it and buried some aquatic demons!”
If you’d like to see Adam going over the second barrier as the rest of the field are going over the first, check out the YouTube video. Sadly there’s no audio because of a copyright claim. (On the commentary of over 8 hours of elite Northern Irish track and field. I’m not sure who would have made the claim, but I don’t think I’ll be buying their album any time soon.)
Only one AKS race to report this week? Like heck - while he was over in Northern Ireland he also took part in the Lisburne 10k: “I was defeated by my rival Chris Madden in the the local 10k, despite running a road 'PB' of 32:10 for second.” Sounds like the lad can run. Can he jump though?
Adam wasn’t the only one going for national championship honours: Adrian Essex was in pentathlon action at the British Masters Champs. Says Adrian: “I just scraped the M65 pentathlon with 2915 (cruelly denied the 3000 points by a ferocious headwind in the 200m (and my sad lack of ability in throwing events).”
In the free Amba City of London Mile, we had 17 Heathsiders tearing round St Pauls. Star of the show was Rebecca Piggott who bulldozed her way to a new club record and demolished the rest of the field in the women’s mile event, finishing clear in first by about 18 seconds. On the men’s side, Allan and Kimon went inside 5 mins running in wave one.
Jake ‘TMI’ Spencer sent over a veritable Nordic saga of a report from the Midnight Sun Marathon in Tromso which, out of consideration for our long-suffering readers (or my own sheer churlishness), I’ve condensed into the following:
“I thought it would be relatively flat with just a large bridge that needed crossing twice in the first half. After seeing the bridge out of the plane window however I realised just what a beast that was going to be. I arrived at the start line to have a helpful fellow runner tell me if my target was 2:58:00 I would finish top 10 based on last years results.”
After a sprightly start, Jake had to dig in pretty hard but was rewarded with 15th place, a PB of 3:02 and, with it, a last-minute London GFA qualification that he promptly flew home to apply for.
“I am still chasing that sub-3 and the ability to do a marathon without being physically sick,” gurgles Jake. “But I am sure it will come.”
Back over here, Olivier was second in the Ranelagh Harriers Richmond 10k in a new PB.
Rachel Newstead (remember her?) reports: “On June 11th I ran the Endurance Life Classic Quarter in Cornwall. It's a 44-mile epic along the South West Coastal path from The Lizard to Land's End. It was pretty tough with lots of climbs and scrambles along the coast, but some lovely trails and stunning views. I finished in 8 hours 37 minutes in 20th place (out of 200 starters) and 5th lady. I'd highly recommend it to anyone considering an ultra, great organisation, great support and a great route. But be sure to wear sunscreen!”
We had a few Heathsiders out at Lee Valley on Sunday for more track and field fun in the London Inter-Clucb Challenge. It looks like all of them had been in action the day before and this week’s AKS award for doing too many races goes to Kim, who’d even raced the City Mile earlier in the day.
Trent Park Triffic Trail
Seventeen Heathsiders ran last Sunday in the Triffic Trail 10K race in Trent Park, a scenic but difficult race over Trent Park’s major hills, made more difficult by the rare hot weather. Joanna Brown ran well to lead the team home in 43:44, finishing both 2nd V35 and 3rd woman. She was followed soon after that by Elizabeth Drake (46:58) and Hassan Nahal (48:06). Caroline White ran well to finish in 50:50, whilst Lyn Evans (57:37) showed great form, coming 3rd in the V60 category, giving everyone something to aspire to.
“Although it’s not a race for PB-hunters, it’s highly recommended, both for its generous cash prizes for the first three in most age categories and its mystery spot prizes.” Emilia
“Apart from a cereal bar and a few flyers, the goodie bag only contained a bag of crisps. And a plastic 12-inch ruler” Greg
And finally: what is Otillo, I hear you ask...
Francois Barou reports: "I took part with my friend Chris Duval in the inaugural UK leg of the Otillo World Series, set in the Isles of Scilly. What is Otillo I hear you ask? It's the original / most popular form of SwimRun competition - trail runs combined with open-water swimming (with run and swim broken down into many sections) and which you do in pairs. You have to stay at all times with your racing partner, you wear a funny-looking kit and there are cut-off times to beat - a bit like an extended fancy-dress / fetishist steeplechase where you stalk a friend for 6 - 8 hours.
“Otillo Scilly was billed as 30K trail and 8K swim - we ended up doing 40K in total mostly because of the ocean currents and some less-than-professional sighting. We started slow and finished fairly strongly: 15th pair in 6:27, out of 85 starting pairs (15 didn't finish)”
“Pleased to report we overtook a tired-looking Serpie team towards the end. However the results were completely secondary to the enjoyment of discovering a new sport and a piece of paradise on earth. Next one in October for those who are tempted!"
Results
Triffic Trail, Trent Park, 19th June 2016
27 Joanna Brown 00:43:44 (2nd V35, 3rd F)
64 Elizabeth DRAKE 00:46:58
82 Hassan NAHAL 00:48:06
101 Emilia Vynnycky 00:49:38 (2nd V45)
117 Nilesh Goswani 00:50:37
128 Kerstin KINKELIN 00:50:47
123 Caroline White 00:50:50
192 Gregory BELL 00:54:36
212 Sarah Illingworth 00:55:35
253 Lyn EVANS 00:57:37 (3rd V60)
270 Tara TAPPER 00:58:29
292 Noora LAINIO 01:00:17
294 James Taggart 01:00:28
301 Jill GUNDRY 01:00:54
302 Jane Stephens 01:00:55
352 Raymond Watts 01:03:25
343 Louise Cripps 01:03:30
London Inter-Club Challenge, Lee Valley
100 SX 3
8 Ashley Braithwaite 12.04
100 SX 4
7 Darnell Plummer 11.94
100 SX 9
7 Helene Kehoe 15.48
200 SX 7
4 Helene Kehoe 31.6
400 SX 5
2 Tony Killilea 62.53
1500SC SM
1 Tony Killilea 5:26.85
1500SCW SW
2 Kimberli Butler 7:32.08
Watlington XC 10k Summer Run
1 Nick Haward 45:15
Amba Hotels City of London Mile
56 Allan Whatmough 00:04:51
89 Kimon Doulis 00:04:58
167 Rebecca Piggott 0:05:19
170 Jonathan Litchfield 00:05:19
175 Joseph McKeown 00:05:20
252 Kris Milovsorov 00:05:33
329 Robert Shulman 00:05:43
379 Mark George 00:05:50
397 Gavin Parish 00:05:52
404 Nick Dodd 00:05:54
460 Alun Nash 00:06:01
494 Mrs Alice Hosking 00:05:19
509 Tom Bedwell 00:06:07
564 Jodie Gray 00:06:14
604 Jessica Vinluan 00:06:21
722 Bas Vlaming 00:06:38
855 Kimberli Butler 00:06:57
19/6/16 Northern Ireland Championships, Belfast
3000m Steeplechase
1. Adam Kirk-Smith 9:12.48
Lisburn 10k (15/6/16)
2 Adam Kirk-Smith 32:21
19/6/16 Ranelagh Harriers Richmond 10k
2. Olivier le Polain 33:09 (PB)
147. Andrew Dunderdale 40:50
Midnight Sun Marathon Tromsø, Norway
15 Jake Spencer 3:02:20
BMAF Pentathlon Championships, 19 Jun 16
Adrian Essex
200: 29:45
1500: 6:13.84
LJ: 4.14
Discus: 24.19
Javelin: 25.43
Overall 1st place (2915 points)