Victorious vets, successful seniors - Heathside's golden Saturday

After a quiet week last week, Heathsiders made up for it this week, with numerous victories and no fewer than 15 events to report on, participating in races under ideal conditions in Victoria Park and as far afield as Loch Ness and Berlin.  

Many of us probably still remember Great Britain’s Golden Saturday during Olympics…Well, last Saturday was perhaps Heathside’s closest equivalent, when veterans were victorious in the aptly named “Victoria Park”. On this day, Dan Madams, for the third successive year, retained his V40 title there, Chris Hartley (head of cross country) was the first V50, setting a new club record, and Bridgit Napleton was first V45 lady. Not to be outdone, the seniors were highly successful too, with star performances in a high quality field from Leigh James, coming in third lady, and Andrew Brooker, coming second U23 and 13th overall. Both of them set impressive PBs.

Elsewhere, Martin and Jackie came first, again in the veteran category, in the Hever triathlon, a few escaped to Ealing to run the half marathon, and a select duo could be tracked down in the Berlin marathon. Near to home, Cathy put in another consistently fantastic run in the Last Friday of the month 5k, coming in first lady. Belatedly, we also have some great results to report on from the Master’s championships in Birmingham, as well as what seem to be record-setting performances on the track in Watford.

Further details of these and other races, along with the results, are provided below, starting with the track and field, and followed by the road races, triathlons and parkruns. The times for each can be found at the end.

Middlesex 10K, Victoria Park, 27th September

There was a huge turn-out for the latest race in the club championship series, with 42 Heathsiders taking park in the Middlesex 10K in Victoria Park. This makes it the third most popular road running event for Heathsiders, after the Cabbage Patch 10 and the Crouch End 10K.

Gavin Evans picks up the story:

“Heathsiders went home with a brace of medals after Saturday’s Middlesex County Athletic Association 10k road race at Victoria Park on Saturday.
 
A total of 42 of us turned out in perfect conditions (no wind, not too muggy) on an almost flat, three-loop course.
 
Perhaps the most impressive performance of the day belonged to our intrepid cross-country captain, Chris Hartley, who not only won the Middlesex County V50 medal with a time of 35:23 (only four seconds off his PB), but also shattered the club V50 record by a massive 88 seconds.
 
Also worth highlighting was Leigh James’s 3rd place among the women in a PB time of 37:34, which should serve her well in her forthcoming marathon.
 
Other medals were won by Dan Madams (first V40 in both the race and the county championships in 34:52), John Driscoll (3rd V40 in 36:05), Bridget Napleton (first V45 woman in 43:28), Caroline Boyle (2nd V35 woman in 44:47) and Gavin Evans (2nd Middlesex County V50 in 37:16). And, of course, we were the first male veteran (V50) team.
 
First home among our lot, and 14th overall, was the rapidly improving Andrew Brooker, whose 33:27 was a PB. He was followed by Chris Norris in 34:36; then by Dan, Chris and Adam Mitchell (35:54).
 
Among our women, Leigh was followed by Celine Murray (41:14), Elinor East (41:23) and Lyndall Alston (42:08).
 
In all, 20 of our 42 entrants broke the 40-minute mark and 31 broke the 45 minute mark, which must be a record of some kind.
 
One more detail worthy of mention: The first V60 was 61-year-old David Cox of Woodford Green in an astonishing time of 35:27.”


Since Gavin submitted the report, we have heard that London Heathside was the second team in each of the M40, overall women’s and women’s master’s categories, and the men made up the third team overall.

These results have some exciting implications for the championship league table, which is available on the championships page of the website.  Click here for the womens table and here for the men's.  
For example, the absence of the two front-runners from the Middlesex 10k (Cathy Jeremiah and Caroline White) has allowed Caroline Boyle to move up the woman’s table, making her in contention of the coveted title itself…  In the men's table things are equally interesting, with Robert Bowler potentially still staying ahead and only a few points separating the next three athletes (Gavin Evans, Dominic Jackson and Dan Madams).  For both men and women, the positions lower down the tables have also been reshuffled and things may change again in a few weeks time, following the Cabbage Patch 10…

Track and Field

Watford Open, 24th September 2014
Last Wednesday, several runners participated in the Watford Open with some good performances, particularly from Michael Bense, who was just 0.8 of a second short of the club record for the V40 category, according to the records table on the website. David Spencer also did well in his age category (V65). He may have also made history by setting the first ever London Heathside club record for the V65 category, judging from the lack of records for this category on the club website.

David Spencer writes: “On a personal note I was delighted just to be able to race after running for only one month in March and also the last 3 weeks in the last 15 months due to injuries/operations. A not very good 66.78 400 got me ranked 5th in the 0/65 category so can’t complain. With Adrian Essex leading the way with a p/b and silver in the Masters 0/60 Pentahlon, Neil Davies with a bronze in the Masters 0/65 800 metres and some brisk times from our 0/50’s the silver haired mob aren’t doing too bad a job on the track.”

British Masters Decathlon & Heptathlon championship, 21st September 2014

Two athletes, Gianni Colli and Adrian Essex represented London Heathside in the British Masters Decathlon & Heptathlon championship in Birmingham, on 21st September. Gianni Colli writes: “Adrian Essex and I competed over the weekend in the British Masters Decathlon & Heptathlon championship in Birmingham, respectively in the 60 and M40 categories. For me it was a first, and I was just happy to finish the competition; Adrian did more, defending his 2013 Silver medal.”

In response, Adrian Essex writes: “Adrian would like to thank Gianni for his enthusiasm and support over several months of training, and Zac, Rob and Chris, the tribal elders of our coaching team, whose help and advice contributed to a 1.58 second PB improvement over the 100m hurdles.”

Biggleswade Open Meeting, 27th September 2014

Finally, Paul Lemmon was the only Heathside representative in Biggleswade on Saturday, completing 1500M in 4:56.7, less than 4 seconds slower than the club record for the V50 category.

Cross country

Dan McKeown, decided to put in some cross country training this week-end, ahead of the big Met league fixtures, running in the Streatham 6 mile XC race. He ran well to finish 17th, in a time of 45:15.

There was another major XC event, this time for the juniors, at Horsenden Hill on Saturday. Unfortunately, the results for that aren’t in yet, but please look out for those in a separate report.

Road Races

5Ks and 10Ks elsewhere:

Cathy Jeremiah had yet another great run in the Last Friday of the month 5K in Hyde Park last Friday, finishing first lady. Alun Nash also completed the run, finishing in 24:27.

Laura Boothman reports from her run on Saturday:
“Sarah, her friend Marita and I looped our way around Finsbury Park on Saturday (27 Sep) in honour of Sarah's birthday in the Women's running magazine 10km series. We took a turn on the podium for the fun of it.”

 

Half marathons

Whilst those who ran in Victoria Park and elsewhere were recovering, fifteen Heathsiders ran the Ealing half marathon on Sunday. Rebecca Bunting had a great run, just two weeks after completing the Talinn marathon, finishing in 1:28:52 and coming 8th. We also had strong performances from others, including Adam Kirk-Smith (1:16:16) who came 16th, George Stewart (1:19:25) and Constantinos Stavrianakis (1:25:22). Other notable performances came from Gavin Parish who appears to have improved by almost 5 minutes on his half marathon time in Burnham Beeches.

Meanwhile, Henry Andrews ran well in the Tunbridge half marathon, finishing in 1:33:24, Robert Salter had a good run in the Redcar half marathon, finishing in 1:21:59 and three (Kathryn Cresy, Usman Hasan and Eleanor Jones) completed the Windsor half marathon in approximately 2 hours.


Marathons

Harvey Vaknin and David Hellard ran in another historic marathon in Berlin, where the men’s world record finally reached sub 2:03. The two were a little slower than this, although Harvey did very well, finishing in 3:11:32, whereas David appeared to be taking a break from his marathon pace-setting activities.

Meanwhile, three Heathsiders (Mary Gatehouse) and Oliver and Victoria Pound ran in the scenic Loch Ness marathon, finishing in around 4 hours. Oliver describes the run as follows:

“Me and Mrs P went off to Inverness to run the Loch Ness marathon this year.

We arrived at the bus pick up point at 7.15, and were driven down to the south side of the loch in a bus, which seemed to be intended for children, or maybe, people who don't value their knees. The start line in the middle of nowhere, Proclaimers on the stereo and a pipe band firing up... It was time to get a shimmy on.

Downhill we went for the first 9 miles, with the occasional sharp up. That sounds nice until you do it - and you find your legs getting minced. You then get onto the side of the Loch where the scenery somehow gets even better. I saw a banner that said 'toenails are for sissies! #hardcore' and later a chap who'd turned up with his stereo to play some ceilidh music for/at us. There were of course more bagpipes.

Into Dores at mile 18, and, helpfully warned by Dan Mckeown not to get too excited by the locals cheering, it was time to go uphill for 2 miles. Even with the inside knowledge, this provided a sense of humour failure, which took a bit of walking to recompose from.

The final few miles were down to pure stubbornness, albeit at a crawl of a pace. Eventually for me missing out on 4hrs by a few minutes. Mrs P wasn't far behind, and looked far too cheerful for my liking.

Any of you looking for a PB - there are much faster courses out there. If you want a unique event though that you won't forget, with some outstanding organisation - then have a look. It's a wee beauty.

Never again.”

Triathlons

Martin Potter, Jackie Wastell, Alison Harrow, Howard Gold, Marco Luna, Ruth Miller and Briony Faye represented Heathside in the Hever triathlon on Saturday. Martin and Jackie had great performances, finishing first the V40 category and Ruth also did well, finishing 5th in the V50 category. Alison had an eventful and memorable day.

Martin describes what happened below, with input from Alison (and minor editorial changes to keep the flow of the original text):

“In near perfect conditions, a hardy bunch of Heathside Triathletes took part in the late season Hever Castle Triathlon. First off was the Henry VIII, Sprint plus of 800m swim, 40km bike and 8km run. Marco had the usual speedy swim, but was overhauled by Howard and Martin on the bike. This left the run for Martin to be first Heathside man home. Additionally Martin was 1st Vet 40 in the field. Not to be outdone, Jackie compensated for her steady swim to zoom round the bike entering T2 in 5th place. In the run Jackie managed to overhaul the remaining competitors apart from the leader to finish in 2nd place overall. Not bad for a Super Vet.

The Anne Boleyn Super Sprint was next. Alison had a brilliant swim, but was handicapped by a truly agonising 18 minutes by a flat tyre on exiting T1. Knight in shining armour, Dave Walton, arrived in time to change the tube and ensure not all was lost. Alison continued, determined that her hard training would not go to waste and refusing to allow her pride to come before what would be an embarrassing chip-time. Ruth made her extensive experience show by providing a master class of how to pace a triathlon to finish first of the Heathsiders. Briony Fane was ecstatic to get round and even completed the 4km run leg whilst walking in a not too shabby 25 minutes. All this was completed before most people have even thought about leaving their beds on Saturday morning.”

Swims


Julia Kelk reports from her swim on Saturday:

“Tom Upchurch and I did the Human Race 3km swim race at Sandbanks, Poole, on Saturday the 27th.  There were 191 swimmers in the 3km race and around 500 swimmers in total (the 750m and 1500m races were all held together). Tom placed 36th in 51:39 and I was 82nd in 58:22 (27th woman). The ocean was 16 degrees, not too windy but there was a fair bit of current and a bit of chop.”

Parkruns

The number of Heathsiders running in parkruns last Saturday was lower than usual. However, several Heathsiders ran well, with three (Alice Lighton, Richard Macauley and Luke Wynne) coming in first.

Results

 

 

Track and Field

 

British Masters Decathlon & Heptathlon Championships 21st September 2014, Birmingham

 

M60 2 Adrian Essex, 5394 points

(13.53, 4.19m, 7.70m, 1.36m, 65.32;

19.41, 24.14m, 2.00m, 27.85m, 6:05.73)

 

M40 1 Gianni Ciolli, 2329 points

(14.31, 4.12m, 7.50m, 1.34m, 79.13;

24.00, 18.58m, 2.10m, 19.28m, 7:03.93)

 

 

Watford Open Graded Meeting 24th September 2014

 

100m Race 3 Wind 0.4 M/S

2 Cono Arith M50 13.42

4 Alishia Abodunde U23F 13.85

 

100m Race 4 Wind 1.1 M/S

2 Jeff Rice SM 12.21

4 Michael Bense M40 12.62

 

400m Race 1

3 David Spencer M65 01:06.8

 

200m Race 1 Wind 0.1 M/S

1 Cono Arith M50 28.7

2 David Spencer M65 29.83

 

200m Race 2 Wind 0.4 M/S

3 Alishia Abodunde U23F 29.34

 

200m Race 3 Wind 0.3 M/S

1 Michael Bense M40 25.93

 

200m Race 4 Wind 0.3 M/S

3 Jeff Rice SM 25.18

 

3000m Race 1

11 Richard Macaulay SM 09:29.0

24 Paul Lemmon M50 10:33.8

 

No of competitors 157  Entries 179

 

 

Biggleswade Open. 27th September 2014

Pos Name Time

5 Paul Lemmon M50 04:56.7

 

 

Cross country

 

Streatham Common 6-mile XC Champs, 27/09/2014

Pos Name Time

17   Dan McKeown   45:15

 

 

 

Road races

 

Middlesex 10K, Victoria Park, Saturday 27th September 2014

Pos Name Time

14. Andrew Brooker – 33:27

25. Chris Norris – 34:36

28. Dan Madams – 34:52 (1st V40)

31. Chris Hartley – 35:23 (1st V50 in county & 3rd overall)

36. Adam Mitchell – 35:54

37. Andy Barnes – 36:02

39. Philip Freeman Bentley – 36:05

41. John Driscoll – 36:05 (3rd V40)

50. Mark Anderson – 36:53

53. Chris Shipley – 37:05

55. Gavin Evans – 37:26 (2nd V50 in county & 4th overall)

59. Leigh James – 37:34 (3rd woman)

64. James Lynch – 37:51

68. Andrew Dunderdale – 37:58

71. Phil Wright – 38.17

73. Gareth Marshall – 38:19

75. Michael Bironneau – 38.22

76. Jonathan Hopkin – 38:22

86. Kris Milovsorov – 39:37

88. Joe McKeown – 39:44

104. Tim Marshall – 40:49

107. Celine Murray – 41:14

108. Elinor East – 41:23

112. Lyndall Alston – 42:08

115. Mark George – 42:40

121. Bridget Napleton – 43:28 (1st V45)

126. Joanna Rota – 43:47

127. Emilia Vynnycky – 43:48

128. Andrew Hudson- 43:58

134. Robert Bowler – 44:36

135. Caroline Boyle – 44:47

145. Jo Irwin – 45.34

146. Claire Thornhill – 45:36

162. Alun Nash – 47:36

163. Ken Townson – 47:44

164. Raymond Watts – 47:50

166. Tom Bedwell – 48:11

168. Tim Sander – 48:27

169. Tammela Platt – 48:33

171. Edyta Szot – 48:58

177. Neil Davies – 50:04 (2nd V65)

185. Rebecca Taylor – 53:46

Last Friday of the Month, Hyde Park, 26th September 2014 

Posn Name Time

34 Cathy Jeremiah 19:05 SL (1st F)

150 Alun Nash 24:27 V50

 

Women's running magazine 10km series, Finsbury Park, Saturday 27th September, 2014

Posn Name Chip

14 Marita Neville 48.15

43 Sarah Illingworth 51.50

155 Laura Boothman 57:56

 

 

Ealing half marathon, 28th September 2014

Posn Name Chip

16 Adam Kirk-Smith 01:16:16

36 George Stewart 01:19:25

100 Constantinos Stavrianakis 01:25:22

162 Rebecca Bunting 01:28:52 (8th W)

221 Tom Ashby 01:30:34

247 Daniel Johns 01:32:08

292 Alan Smith 01:32:59

320 Doug Rendle 01:33:47

416 Gavin Parish 01:35:56

492 Henry Hamilton 01:37:10

497 Michael Cockings 01:37:19

826 Nick De Sausmarez 01:42:59

992 Carl Heap 01:45:16

2467 Roger Wagland 02:02:31

3168 Frances Powrie 02:18:20

 

 

Tunbridge half marathon, Sunday 28th September 2014

Posn Name Chip Time

96 Henry Andrews 93:24

 

Redcar half marathon, Sunday 28th September 2014

Posn Name Chip Time

32 Robert Salter 81:59

 

Windsor half marathon, Sunday 28th September 2014

Posn Name Chip Time

971 Kathryn Creaney 01:56:02

1014 Usman Hasan 01:56:34

1467 Eleanor Jones 02:03:13

 

Berlin marathon, 28th September, 2014

Posn Name Chip Time

22206 David Hellard 06:56:51

2275 Harvey Vaknin 03:11:32

 

Loch Ness marathon, 28th September, 2014

Posn Name Chip Time

914 Mary Gatehouse 04:00:02

985 Oliver Pound 04:03:54

1578 Victoria Pound 04:33:42

 

Hever castle triathlon, Kent, 27th September 2014

 

Super Sprint – Anne Boelyn 400m swim, 20km bike, 4km run 1,132 finishers

Ruth Miller 11.27, 44.26, 20.35 = 1:20:48 16th lady, 5th V50

Alison Harrow (based on Garmin**): 10:51, 54:32, 22:48, 665th overall :

Briony Fane 11.18, 51.49, 25.59 = 1:36:09 668th overall

 

Sprint Plus – Henry VIII 800m swim, 40km bike, 8km run 388 finishers

Martin Potter 16.02, 73.47, 31.55 = 2:06:33 4th overall, 1st V40

Howard Gold 18.59, 73.15, 33.15 = 2:09:19 10th overall

Marco Luna 13.29, 77.48, 35.20 = 2:12:06 15th overall

** The original breakdown was 10.51, 72.44 1006th. However, Alison mentions that the 72:44 should have been subtracted by 18:12 to give 54:32. Also the published run results showed her T2 as 22 hours.

29/9/2014 Dawlish Sprint distance triathlon, Devon  750m sea swim, 21km bike 6km multi terrain run

226th Gabi Johnson 1hr36min   (15.59 swim, 43.34 bike, 31.49 run)  12th vet woman

 

Sandbanks, Poole, on Saturday the 27th

36 Tom Upchurch 51:39

82 Julia kelk 58:22 (27th woman).

 Parkruns

The following link has the results: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=2017&eventdate=2014-09-27