The second to last Southern Women's League match takes place on Saturday, 7 August at Parliament Hill, Hampstead Heath. That's right, Parliament Hill. Nice and local, so you can pop on by at your leisure and ... take part!

We're up against four teams: Highgate Harriers, Woking, Southend and Andover.

The match kicks off at noon, and as always, it would be great to have as many ladies participating as possible. If you're interested, get in touch with Kabir (07515 280173) or myself (07810 352290). I'll wrap up with my usual comment: it's fun!

Cheers,

Sue

Two dates for your diary if you are interested in championship 10K road racing:

10.30am on 5th September 2010 - Middlesex 10K at Victoria Park
Entry form at http://sites.google.com/site/middlesexcountyaa/forms/Middx10kEntryForm.doc?attredirects=0&d=1​

11am on 3rd October 2010 - SEAA 10K champs
Details at http://www.seaa.org.uk/ if the site gets going again

The Track & Field season continues this Saturday 10th July with the fifth round home match for the men's A team at Parliament Hill track, nearest station for anyone who's not been before is Gospel Oak on the London Overground Line. Events kick off at 1pm. Anyone interested in competing that I haven't caught up with already can call me on 07968 772792.

The B-team are at Havering, and meeting at 11.00 am at Finsbury Park Endymion Road entrance for car sharers and train users. The track address is MAYESBROOK PARK ARENA, Lodge Avenue, Barking, Essex, RM8 2JR. Contact Peter Snell on 07941 179129

Both A and B teams are in lowly positions in our respective divisions and a good turnouts and spectator support would be very welcome.


Best
John Flahive
Senior Mens A-team Manager

Good news. Prices for London Heathside's ten year anniversary party this Saturday (July 10th) are fixed at £25. Tickets must be booked in
advance. Please refer to the website page for details:

http://www.londonheathside.org.uk/our_club/social/summerparty10.php?

The last day for booking is Thursday 8th July.

I look forward to seeing you all there

Marilyn

Ironman Zurich 2010

Laura and I arrived in Zurich on the Friday morning having driven down with a stop over in Strasbourg. With the 'mandatory' race brief on the Friday afternoon, a quick lunch by lake Zurich, was all we managed before walking round to Landiwiese to register, pick up the obligatory merchandise and cram ourselves into a packed marquee for the brief. The rain that had greeted us on arrival into Switzerland continued to tip down and combined without the unrestricted access to the briefing, the result was an uncomfortable hour, half in and half out of the marquee entrance, surrounded by buggies, umbrellas and supporters. The brief was however, well worth attending, providing a good insight to what lay ahead and at one point, a wave of panic was sent through the crowd when a non-wetsuit swim seemed a real possibility with the present water temperature at 24.4 degrees. The brief also succeeded in stressing me out about my weakest discipline, the bike. The draughting, blocking and many other rules all punishable by time penalties and disqualification, all added to my concern over getting through this discipline.

Bike racking was the next on the agenda, the following day, Saturday. Fortunately, I thought, my time slot was first at 15:30. On arrival in the continuing rain, it was impossible to get the car anywhere near due to there being a series of olympic and sprint distance events going on, and when we did eventually get there the information on where to queue and management of slot allocation was very poor; in fact I suspect that very few people paid any attention to their racking time, and the mass of bikes and athletes just seem to surge from every angle. The weather had started to clear and I was determined just to relax and not let this chaotic swarm irritate and frustrate me.

Eventually, my bike was racked, complete with complimentary bike cover, my route in and out was rehearsed and we were back on the number 2 tram to our hotel. We turned up at a local Italian near our hotel, expecting it to be packed out, for an early evening pasta meal, to find we were the only there. It was only six pm, but with a 03:15 start the next day, an early diner and early to bed was always in the plan. The food was nothing to write home about, but provided the fuel and ticked another box in the preparation build up.

It's incredible how easy it is to get up at 3 in the morning when you've got so much to look forward to that day. How Laura does it though, is another question; she as ever was there throughout the weekend supporting better that anyone. Breakfast was laid on with pasta and rice available for those who wished, but I stuck to my oats and dried fruit all the way from London. We boarded a transfer coach to the start, with everything I could possibly need to effectively re-build my bike (just in case!) and several kilos of energy gels, bars and dried fruit. After checking the bike, adjusting the tyre pressure and attaching all my nutrition needs to the frame, a series of toilet visits and re-checking of the bike followed until I could do no more.

At 06:00 a wetsuit swim was confirmed and the 2200 lycra clad competitors morphed into thousands of identical neoprene vacuum packed potential Ironmen.

Having spoken with Martin Potter about the event, I took his advice and tried to get over to the boundary of the ladies only start, and get a bit of clear water. However, no sooner had I swam out to the start line, the gun went and so it's swim for your life or be swam over.

Now on my way I tried to relax into a rhythm and did find some clear water, but soon realized this was because I was already heading off course. A realignment of my direction, took me back into the mass field and I accepted that, as in many events I've done before, I'd be battered about but I'd give as good as I got and so headed for the turning buoys as direct as possible. Unfortunately, my initial misdirection meant I had the very outside line on the first turning point and as I cut in I took a couple of sharp blows in the back and one in the head dislodging my goggles. I managed to get my goggles back on with most of the water cleared other than a little left sloshing around in my left eye, which I did nothing further about. The turning points continued to be mayhem and the exit from the water at half way, run over an island to get back in proved to be something new and just as manic, but with some periods of relaxed melodic swimming seeing the sun rising on every breath, and the views surpassing those of the Virgin Active 20m pool, my swim was completed in just over 69 mins.

As I had gone into the event with no aspiration for time related satisfaction, but to enjoy as much as I could, I got out of the swim very relaxed and jogged into transition. My wetsuit seamed to slip off with little resistance and my socks, shoes, helmet, glasses and race belt all were donned with no mishaps. I even had a wee tidy of my transition area, tucking my wetsuit neatly under my racking space with my hat and goggles out of the way. I trotted out of the transition with no urgency to pass people, content to get over the mount line in my own time and then my shoes just slipped sweetly into the cleats. This was all going rather well. T1 00:02:27.

As I settled into a fast paced first section of the bike, I was finding it very difficult to avoid draughting with large groups of cyclists all around me that I was catching and being caught by. I kept thinking that it's all about 'intent' and that if I settled into my own pace and avoided where I could sitting on someone’s rear wheel, my intent is not to draught. As the route turned off the side of the lake it became more undulating before several long climbs and fast descents and a further fast flat section took us back to Landiwiese before a small loop including climbing 'Heartbreak Hill' completed the lap.

By the second lap I'd become uncomfortably desperate to empty my bladder and very aware of an increasing problem with my left eye. I had been aware from early stages in the bike that I needed the loo, but was keen to avoid loss of time by stopping, and therefore on the second lap I learned a new skill let's say, which resolved this issue. My eye however, was an issue that was not so easy to resolve. It had become more and more irritated and it was becoming very difficult to keep open and see. I began to have to slow the downhill sections right down, as it really was dangerous cycling with impaired vision at 45mph and above in some sections, and I found myself looking forward to flat sections and uphills.

My second lap as a result, was slower but I had managed to keep up a good pace. During all 112 miles I had also kept to a strict nutrition plan, eating a little frequently, of dried apricot, power bar pieces, power shots and gels all washed down with water or some isotonic cocktail. When I got off the bike I was fuelled to the max and delighted to be running; at least running with one eye is a lot easier than cycling.

Again, I seemed unnaturally relaxed through transition. I found my racking slot, slipped on the runners and cruised out without incident for a T2 time of 00:01:26.

As I started running, I clocked my watch properly and couldn't quite register the time, later to be verified as 05:28:54 for the bike. I had planed for a 6h20 so was getting a bit excited in km 1 of the run as possible finish times started to register in my mind. I made a toilet stop then settled into a comfortable pace wandering if I could keep to sub 5min kms, disbelievingly amazing myself each km as I kept getting further and further ahead of this pace. As cramping of my adductors started at 7km I thought it would be the start of my demise, but I forced myself to run through the pain of this with success. I focused on clean rhythmic running, with no sharp changes of direction and as few kerb drops as possible, getting to the end of the first 10.5km lap in just under 47mins.

Water and sponges at every feed station, with gel at every 2nd station was a strategy I used to get me through my previous Ironman marathon, and one I stuck to again here. I ran through cramping of adductors on both legs, both quads and my left hamstring but each time gritted my teeth and forced the pace to continue. I did slow down as the time marched on and distance increased, and I still was struggling with sight in my left eye, but I knew I was on for a good time if I just kept up the fuelling strategy and worked at this pace. With more and more people joining the run course, there were more and more people to focus on passing and I was seriously enjoying the ability to manage this pain and push harder and further.

With a few kms to go I still deliberately held myself back, as one sharp change in pace could result in catastrophic cramping and a very slow last mile, but by the time I'd reached 41.5km I couldn't help but stride out and take in the applause and atmosphere. Into the finish chute, I felt so strong I could have been at the end of a short training run, threw my arms into the air a lived that moment. Elated in disbelief I then stopped, and that is not easy as my legs went and my balance faltered momentarily, as the Swiss finish line support held me up for just one second. 3h22:15.

In the finish area, there is an amazing array of food, which is bewildering in some cases; chicken stroganoff didn't appeal at that very moment in fact nothing did. I tried a little muesli but could stomach it, so just had some hot tea and water. I showered and then decided I could ignore the fact that I was still partially blind, and visited the medical tent. They immediately diagnosed conjunctivitis from lake swimming, flushed out my eyes and sent me on my way with a bottle of eye drops, and I suspect an invoice will soon arrive, but I had to drive back to London so eye sight was important!

Back at the hotel, I managed a burger and chips in the bar, struggling to keep my one eye open as I fought the desire to sleep until at least I'd managed to eat. Into the hotel room following my last chip and the lights go out.

Delighted with a finish time of 10:04:07, 286th out of the field, I really caught the Ironman bug this time, and I can't wait till the next one. With a bit of work on my swim technique and some more time on the bike, and perhaps both eyes next time, there's still a better time in me yet. I’m loving a sport that’s not all about running, but a good marathon at the end of the day certainly helps.

Kenneth Heney, Ironman!

It was a relatively quiet weekend for Heathside, but as I now have the results of the final Young Athletes match of the season from the previous weekend I will start with them. As expected we finished 3rd on the day and 3rd in the final league table but there were some excellent performances, most notably from new member Xelia who broke the club U15 record in the Javelin and wasn’t far off doing so in the 800 Metres too. In fact the U15 Girls were our best age group with Selam also picking up 2 victories and getting close to the club record in the Discus. We picked up good points in the U15 Boys as well, especially in the throws where Colin had 2 victories on his comeback from a very long time off after last year’s broken leg. Amongst the U17s, Daniel and Miron had good wins in very hot conditions, though admittedly there were very few other competitors in either event, while the U13 Boys and Girls also performed well and picked up plenty of points.

As the week progressed Tony had a few more races out in Hungary and, although not picking up any more medals, will be very satisfied with his week’s work. Then moving on to the weekend there were several PBs, despite the warm conditions, at the Harlow 10 where Ricardo was our leading man. Finally last night Miron, Daniel and Alex got together again at Battersea to get a very good result against senior opposition in the 3 x 1 Mile relay. Results of these and other events as follows:

National Young Athletes League Southern Div 2 Thames, match 4 (of 4), Mile End, 18/07/10:
Under 17 Men:
100 Metres A 4th Tufor Kinik 13.6s
1500 Metres A 1st Daniel Szajna 5m 08.1s
3000 Metres A 1st Miron Woldemichael 11m 19.9s
B 1st Alex Beattie-Child 11m 49.0s
Long Jump A 3rd Tufor Kinik 4.03m
Javelin A 2nd Tufor Kinik 21.23m
Under 15 Boys:
100 Metres A 4th Mark Harris 13.0s
B 5th John Harris 15.5s
200 Metres A 3rd Aidan Ishack 26.8s
B 2nd Tukumbah Fakeye 27.3s
400 Metres A 3rd Colin Kpodonu 59.4s
800 Metres A 3rd James Wooldridge 2m 25.7s
B 2nd Jasper Crockford 2m 42.3s
1500 Metres A 3rd Max Heap 5m 21.0s
4x100 Relay 2nd Colin, John, Aidan, Tukumbah 50.6s
Long Jump A 2nd Aidan Ishack 4.85m
B 2nd Mark Harris 4.12m
High Jump A 2nd Max Heap 1.25m
Shot A 1st Colin Kpodonu 9.35m
B 1st Mark Harris 7.69m
Discus A 1st Colin Kpodonu 17.87m
B 1st John Harris 12.05m
Javelin A 2nd Aidan Ishack 28.46m
B 4th Jasper Crockford 12.97m
Under 13 Boys:
100 Metres A 4th Spencer Mulcahy 15.3s
B 3rd Harry Johnson 14.7s
200 Metres A 5th Yohannes Asefa 33.3s
B 3rd Ryan Napleton 32.8s
800 Metres A 3rd Johnny Naylor 2m 38.7s
B 1st Harry Johnson 2m 46.2s
1500 Metres A 3rd Filmon Woldemichael 6m 09.7s
B 3rd Spencer Mulcahy 6m 32.1s
4x100 Relay 3rd Spencer, Harry, Yohannes, Ryan 61.7s
Long Jump A 5th Yohannes Asefa 3.40m
Shot A 2nd Yohannes Asefa 6.51m
B 1st Ryan Napleton 5.63m
Under 15 Girls:
100 Metres A 3rd Xelia Mendes-Jones 14.2s
B 3rd Selam Asefa 16.3s
800 Metres A 1st Xelia Mendes-Jones 2m 34.1s
B 1st Lily Beckford 2m 56.0s
Discus A 1st Selam Asefa 17.00m
Javelin A 1st Xelia Mendes-Jones 19.89m (club U15 record)
B 1st Selam Asefa 16.76m
Under 13 Girls:
75 Metres A 4th Jessica Godden 12.7s
150 Metres A 4th Morwenna Taylor 24.5s
B 4th Ottavia Laidler 25.7s
800 Metres A 3rd Jessica Godden 2m 59.5s
1200 Metres A 2nd Ottavia Laidler 4m 46.3s
70M Hurdles A 3rd Morwenna Taylor 15.8s
B 3rd Ottavia Laidler 15.9s
Long Jump A 3rd Jessica Godden 3.36m
B 3rd Morwenna Taylor 3.21m

Overall Match Result:
1st Victoria Park & TH 378
2nd Highgate 375
3rd London Heathside 256
4th Medway Park Phoenix 212
5th Ilford 135
6th Queens Park 108

European Veterans Track & Field Championships (continued), Nyiegyhaza (Hungary), 19-23/07/10:
V45 Men:
400 Metres 19th Tony Killilea 57.72s
1500 Metres 10th Tony Killilea 4m 45.26s
5000 Metres 9th Tony Killilea 17m 30.04s

Self Transcendence 5K Road Race, Battersea Park, 19/07/10:
12th Steve Monaghan 17m 54s

Brighton 5k parkrun, Brighton, 24/07/10:
15th Mark Derry 19m 29s

Elmbridge 10k Road Race, Walton-on-Thames, 25/07/10:
27th Ed Samuel 35m 22s

Harlow 10 Mile Road Race, Harlow, 25/07/10:
10th Ricardo Suarez-Lee 58m 11s
133rd Jas Bolla 75m 28s (PB)
155th Simon Clarkson 78m 19s (PB)
156th Maxine Kelly 78m 28s (PB)
224th Gabi Johnson 85m 05s (PB)
275th Resi Dzialdow 90m 57s

Self Transcendence 3x1 Mile Road Relay, Battersea Park, 26/07/10:
10th Miron Woldemichael 5m 37s
Daniel Szajna 5m 36s
Alex Beattie-Child 5m 45s
Total 16m 58s (1st U17 team)

The main event of the weekend was the final match of the season for our Young Athletes team. Although they couldn’t match their excellent win in the previous match they performed well again to finish a solid 3rd and confirm themselves as 3rd in the league. The full results aren’t available yet however so they will have to wait until next week. Pride of place this time therefore goes to Tony Killilea, who travelled to somewhere totally unpronounceable and picked up a bronze medal in the Steeplechase in the European Veterans Champs with what I believe was a huge PB. Wonderful stuff!

Closer to home, there were also some good performances at the LICC match at Lee Valley. Sue and Leigh both ran PBs in their main event while Mike also managed at least 1 season’s best. It’s good to see Jean-Paul getting his speed back too after going to the other end of the running scale by doing the Brighton Marathon in April. Results that I do have are as follows:

Watford Track & Field Open Meeting, Watford, 14/07/10:
100 Metres:
Mohamed Mohamed 12.11s
Nicky Famodun 12.90s
200 Metres:
Bill Awere 24.13s
Daniel Aka 24.50s
Mohamed Mohamed 24.65s
Nicky Famodun 26.77s
3000 Metres:
Paul Lemmon 9m 54.45s
Leigh James 10m 51.53s

Finsbury Park 5k parkrun, Finsbury Park, 17/07/10:
27th Dan Williams 25m 19s

London Inter Club Challenge, match 3 (of 4), Lee Valley, 17/07/10:
100 Metres:
Bill Awere 12.16s
Jean-Paul Hazeley 12.25s
200 Metres:
Mike Abrahams 31.07s
400 Metres:
Mohamed Mohamed 53.63s
Sue Rust 63.05s
Mike Abrahams 67.01s
Leigh James 70.87s
800 Metres:
Sue Rust 2m 20.59s (PB)
5000 Metres:
Leigh James 18m 58.22s (PB)
110 Hurdles:
Israel Nworgu 16.31s
400 Hurdles:
Israel Nworgu 59.49s

European Veterans Track & Field Championships, Nyiegyhaza (Hungary), 18/07/10:
V45 3000M Steeplechase:
3rd Tony Killilea 11m 00.70s (PB)

Heathside’s men’s track & field teams had their penultimate league matches of the season on Saturday afternoon. The A team put in a strong performance with the star being Ed with a big PB in the 5000 Metres despite the extremely hot conditions. Julian backed him up ably to get us our 2nd best result of the day, beaten only by the excellent double 1st in the Triple Jump from Nathan & Reg. A couple of slip ups + my absence at a wedding leaving us with only 1 Steeplechaser led to us being narrowly beaten into 4th however. We still gain a place to 22nd in the league, but with 20th our best possible finishing position now it looks certain that we will be relegated unless some sort of reorganization saves us. The B team found themselves in a very tough match but competed well all round and did enough to stay 3rd from bottom in their division so, if only 2 go down (as we hope) then they have a good chance of survival. Results from these matches and of other races as follows:

Southern League Division 2, match 5 (of 6), Parliament Hill, 10/07/10:
100 Metres A 3rd Luke McNally 11.9s
B 3rd Ky Chambers 11.9s
200 Metres A 2nd Ky Chambers 23.7s
B 2nd Ashley Baynes 24.9s
400 Metres A 3rd Luke McNally 53.5s
B 2nd Israel Nworgu 54.0s
800 Metres A 5th John Flahive 2m 17.9s
B 3rd Mohamed Mohamed 2m 12.6s
1500 Metres A 4th John Flahive 4m 37.5s
B 2nd Ken Heney 4m 41.2s
5000 Metres A 2nd Ed Samuel 16m 25.6s
B 1st Julian Ferraro 17m 01.1s
110 Hurdles A 2nd Israel Nworgu 15.9s
400 Hurdles A 3rd Mohamed Mohamed 62.1s
3000M Chase A 2nd John Flahive 11m 34.8s
4x100 Relay 3rd Ky, Bill Awere, Jean-Paul Hazeley, Luke 46.2s
4x400 Relay 3rd Bill, Ashley, Daniel Aka, Israel time unknown
Long Jump A 2nd Nathan Cyrus 6.16m
B 3rd Ashley Baynes 5.14m
High Jump A 2nd Luke McNally 1.70m
Triple Jump A 1st Nathan Cyrus 12.64m
B 1st Reg Stasaitis 12.51m
Pole Vault A 3rd Nathan Cyrus 2.80m
B 2nd Dave Walton 2.20m
Shot Put A 4th Nathan Cyrus 9.91m
B 4th Ashley Baynes 7.79m
Discus A 4th Nathan Cyrus 27.69m
B 4th Ashley Baynes 18.16m
Javelin A 3rd Nathan Cyrus 39.01m
B 3rd Eden Confino 32.80m
Hammer A 4th Dave Walton 18.91m
B 4th Ashley Baynes 16.94m

Overall Match Result:
1st Colchester & Tendring 122
2nd Windsor 118
3rd Vale of Aylesbury 105
4th London Heathside 103
5th Oxford 39

Southern League Division 3 North, match 4 (of 5), Havering, 10/07/10:
100 Metres A 4th Max Gamrat 13.2s
B 4th Ibrahim Ozen 13.5s
200 Metres A 4th Jacob Wilson 27.9s
B 4th Max Gamrat 31.1s
400 Metres A 4th Max Gamrat 63.8s
B 4th Ibrahim Ozen 71.9s
800 Metres A 3rd Norman Mitchell 2m 25.2s
B 3rd Alan Dickson 2m 47.5s
1500 Metres A 4th Tony Killilea 5m 15.7s
B 4th Alan Dickson 5m 38.9s
5000 Metres A 3rd Norman Mitchell 18m 54.4s
B 3rd Alan Dickson 21m 39.9s
400 Hurdles A 4th Norman Mitchell 77.2s
3000M Chase A 3rd Norman Mitchell 12m 21.2s
B 2nd Tony Killilea 12m 43.5s
Long Jump A 3rd Jacob Wilson 5.61m
B 3rd Ibrahim Ozen 4.61m
High Jump A 3rd Jacob Wilson 1.40m
B 3rd Peter Snell 1.00m
Triple Jump A 4th Jacob Wilson 9.80m
Shot Put A 4th Bill Washburn 8.27m
Discus A 3rd Bill Washburn 16.51m
B 4th Peter Snell 12.90m
Javelin A 3rd Jacob Wilson 31.72m
B 2nd Bill Washburn 21.64m
Hammer A 3rd Bill Washburn 21.23m
B 4th Max Gamrat 11.97m

Overall Match Result:
1st Bedford & County 121
2nd Barnet & District 85
3rd Peterborough 82
4th London Heathside 43

Finsbury Park 5k parkrun, Finsbury Park, 10/07/10:
6th Chris Thomas 19m 26s
32nd Dan Williams 24m 37s
33rd Barbara Tomaszczyk 24m 45s

Brighton 5k parkrun, Brighton, 10/07/10:
17th Mark Derry 19m 53s

Run The River Tottenham Marshes 5 Mile Race, Tottenham, 11/07/10:
5th Gavin Evans 30m 14s (1st V50)
6th Jo Green 30m 16s (1st V40)
22nd Nik Skipper 35m 07s
42nd Caroline White 38m 31s (1st FV45)
50th Jim Taggart 40m 54s

British 10k Road Race, Central London, 11/07/10:
?th Jayne Sales 53m 40s