There are a huge number of results to get through this week and I have next to no time in which to publish them so, with apologies to those who had brilliant runs and aren’t going to get specific mentions (of whom there are many), I’m afraid it is results only this week. Apart from those below we also had lots of youngsters running in the mini-marathon trials after our 5 Mile race, but I don’t have those results yet. Here are those I do have:

Self Transcendence 10 Mile Road Race, Battersea Park, 6/3/10:
4th Steve Monaghan 58m 29s
91st Maxine Kelly 83m 43s

Finsbury Park 5k parkrun, Finsbury Park, 6/3/10:
2nd Tony Killilea 18m 20s
8th Graham Bell 19m 49s

North West London Young Athletes Cross Country League, race 5 (of 5), Wormwood Scrubs, 6/3/10:
Under 11 Girls (1700m approx):
3rd Ottavia Laidler 6m 59s
10th Molly Harrison 7m 17s
15th Jessica Godden 7m 44s
20th Phoebe Crockford 8m 04s

27 finishers in all, team (3 to score) 4th

Under 13 Girls (2200m approx):
8th Genevieve Weston 9m 23s
12th Harriet Mackinney 10m 02s
13th Lily Beckford 10m 19s
14th Ellen Bolger 10m 25s

20 finishers in all, team (3 to score) 5th

Under 15 Girls (3000m approx):
7th Kathleen Jackson 13m 47s
9th Jade O’Brien 15m 03s
10th Ellen Jackson 15m 03s

10 finishers in all, team (3 to score) 3rd, final league position 3rd

Under 11 Boys (2200m approx):
7th Cameron Mackinney 9m 10s
12th Antanas Weston 9m 35s
17th Thomas O’Shea 10m 00s
20th Jack O’Shea 10m 26s
21st Harry Robinson 10m 28s

24 finishers in all, team (3 to score) 3rd

Under 13 Boys (3000m approx):
5th Max Robertson 11m 31s
7th Johnny Naylor 11m 58s
8th Max Heap 12m 01s
19th Luc Hohmann 13m 31s

21 finishers in all, team (4 to score) 3rd

Under 15 Boys (4400m approx):
7th Miron Woldemichael 16m 35s
9th Renat Hammet-Millay 16m 50s
12th Jordan Tompkins 17m 25s
18th Callum Jackson 19m 40s

21 finishers in all, team (4 to score) 2nd, final league position 3rd

Additionally, despite missing the last race, the U17 women were 3rd team overall and Lottie Sorbie was 3rd individual, and the U17 men were also 3rd team overall.

Heathside 5 Mile Road Race, Finsbury Park, 7/3/10:
4th Martin Potter 27m 22s (1st V40)
7th Alex Macaulay 27m 57s
8th Declan Hamblin 28m 31s
10th Ken Heney 28m 57s
13th Leo Burningham 29m 47s (2nd V40)
19th Paul Churton 30m 47s
23rd Jo Green 31m 27s (4th V40)
24th Dominic Jackson 31m 44s (5th V40)
26th Graham Bell 32m 28s (6th V40)
30th Terry Lines 33m 00s
31st Hassan Nahal 33m 05s (2nd V50)
33rd Patrick Kiernan 33m 21s (3rd V50)
36th James Joseph 33m 45s
38th Jackie Wastell 33m 53s (1st woman, 1st V45)
47th Nigel Tonks 34m 34s
48th Andrew Hudson 34m 40s (5th V50)
56th Alex Beattie-Child 35m 59s
57th David Matty 36m 07s
62nd Miranda Stephens 36m 43s (5th woman, 4th V35)
63rd Ursula Wilson 36m 44s (6th woman, 5th V35)
64th Karen Levene 36m 45s (7th woman, 6th V35)
65th Jo Irwin 36m 47s (8th woman, 7th V35)
69th Katie Wraight 37m 01s (10th woman, 8th V35)
71st Chris Hewertson 37m 30s
72nd Susie Brighton 37m 30s (11th woman, 9th V35)
74th Neil Kimberley 37m 48s
75th Ken Townson 38m 04s
77th Steve Murphy 38m 16s
78th Oliver Brownlow 38m 34s
82nd Andy Conway 39m 08s
83rd Almudena Garcia 39m 12s (13th woman)
85th Sue Eedle 39m 15s (14th woman, 2nd V45)
86th Gabi Johnson 39m 18s (15th woman)
89th Sandra Buckton 39m 42s (16th woman)
125th Victoria Phillips 45m 41s (29th woman)
128th Ben Clarke-Janssen 47m 04s
130th Resi Dzialdow 47m 28s (33rd woman)
135th Rick Baker 48m 55s (I think he ran an extra lap by mistake)
144th Esther Pierce 52m 03s (41st woman)
149th David Sorensen 53m 46s

151 finishers in all, including 46 women. I assume we won both men’s and women’s team events.

Newham London Run 10k Road Race, Olympic Park, 7/3/10:
1st Jacob Howe 36m 32s
79th Dave Walton 42m 39s
297th John McConnell 46m 44s
332nd Julie Khan 46m 58s
841st Fran Norman 53m 07s

Barcelona Marathon, Barcelona (Spain), 7/3/10:
1047th Trevor Wilson 3h 08m 48s
5316th Simon Clarkson 3h 48m 34s
7176th Jim Hodges 4h 03m 54s
8727th Monika Thaler 4h 26m 08s

Bath Half Marathon, Bath, 7/3/10:
203rd Tom Ashby 83m 22s

Berkhamsted Half Marathon, Berkhamsted, 7/3/10:
13th James Pickett 79m 57s
19th Gavin Evans 82m 34s (2nd V45)
23rd Alex Armstrong 83m 05s
61st Robin Tremaine 89m 03s (2nd V50)
247th Jas Bolla 99m 44s

Men’s team (4 to score), 3rd

Mornington Chasers Monthly 10k Road Race, Regents Park, 7/3/10:
91st Andy Buckwell 48m 05s

Llanelli Waterside Half Marathon, Llanelli (South Wales), 7/3/10:
3rd woman Leigh James 86m 13s

Middlesex Indoor Track & Field Championships, Lee Valley, 7/3/10:
Under 15 Boys:
60 Metres: 4th Colin Kpodonu 8.28s (8.21s in heat)
6th Tokunbah Pakeye 8.56s (8.43s in heat)
200 Metres; 2nd Tokunbah Pakeye 27.70s
High Jump: 3rd Aidan Ishack 1.60m
Under 17 Men:
60 Metres: 2nd Jordan Glaze 7.21s (7.16s in heat)
400 Metres: 1st Joe Silva 56.59s
Under 20 Men:
Triple Jump: 3rd Jacob Wilson 12.19m

Last summer I discovered the attraction of off-road marathons with highly enjoyable adventures through the countryside of the South Downs, Salisbury and the Fairlands Valley Challenge in Stevenage. With the exception of the odd shower in the last of the three, these were generally run in sunny conditions along dusty trails or well worn paths. Following several weeks of rain, there could not have been a greater contrast with last Saturday’s experience in Leicestershire.

Late last year, I realised that if I was to squeeze in a UK marathon a couple of months before London, it was either going to be the Belvoir Challenge or this weekend’s hilly Steyning Stinger in Sussex. On the basis of race reviews and the prospect of unlimited post race homemade cakes, I chose the former.

The first challenge was finding the village of Harby where the race begins. Located some ten miles west of the A1, it’s one of many tiny villages sitting in a triangle formed by Grantham, Nottingham and Melton Mowbray. The day is undoubtedly one of the major occasions of the year for the locals as more than 1,000 runners and walkers descend upon their narrow streets for either the 16 mile or 26 mile challenge.

Thanks to the wonder of Google Maps, I had managed to do some advanced planning and had discovered that only about three miles of the route was on road. However, what I had not fully appreciated was the fact that the other 23 miles was either mud, boggy track or ploughed field. Throw in a few modest hills and plenty of surface water and you probably get an idea of the sort of conditions that runners and walkers had to endure.

It soon became evident that staying upright rather than speed was going to be the main priority as three runners hit the muddy deck less than a mile out of the village. After a couple of miles, the two routes split, with marathon runners heading off towards the first of four cake filled checkpoints at 6.8 miles. This was reached after a brief diversion as I foolishly followed a group along a country lane rather than across a field. Reaching this point in a little over an hour, it was clear that times would be meaningless.

The next fifteen miles took runners through small villages with quaint names like Croxton Kerrial and Woolsthorpe where sheep and cows outnumbered the locals along the route. Marilyn, however, provided admirable support, appearing at each of the first three checkpoints with a selection of shoes and socks just in case I suffered a recurrence of blister problems with my Inov-8 Roclites. Thankfully my feet survived intact without the need to slip into something drier.

At 21.4 miles, the routes merged and it became easier to identify the route with plenty of 16 mile walkers to follow rather than having to look out for red and white tape. By this time, I had settled into a steady plod but was weighed down by sodden socks and muddy shoes. After a few more boggy paths, swampy fields and a couple of country lanes, I was back at the village hall in a largely irrelevant time of just over four hours. The free soup and cakes available to all finishers were most welcome.

Analysis of the results was quite revealing. The winner’s time was only a couple of minutes under three and a half hours, whilst three recent sub-3 hour marathon runners completed the course in times of between 3.45 and 3.50. Times may have been 20 minutes or so quicker had it not rained so often in the preceding days and weeks.

In summary, the Belvoir Challenge is a tough event that should not be taken too seriously and provides good distance training two months before the London marathon. Well worth the trip.

Belvoir Challenge Marathon (27 February 2010):
1. Tom Bullock (Park Peak Fell Runners) 3 hrs 27 mins 24 secs
21. Graham Bell 4 hrs 2 mins 56 secs
253 finishers

The biggest race of the Cross Country season, the English National Champs, took place in Leeds at the weekend, and 18 Heathsiders travelled up to take part. The course was generally quite undulating with 1 very steep uphill and 1 even more ridiculously steep downhill in each lap. The first race off was the under 15 boys where we had 3 competitors and Miron had a particularly good run to be 1st home, with Joe and Renat not too far behind. Soon after this it was the turn of Bibsi in the under 20 women’s race. She had a rather shorter journey to get there than the rest of us as she is at Uni in York, and not having had to get up early seemed to help her as she had one of the best Heathside runs of the day to finish in the top 50. Things did not go so well for Mehretab in the equivalent age group for the men however as, after being in 2nd place for a while and still with the leaders after the first of 3 laps, he dropped out due apparently to a problem with the new spikes he was wearing. Then it was the under 13 Boys race and all 3 of our competitors performed excellently, with Max R starting fast and holding on despite Max H and Johnny’s attempts to catch him. It was just a shame that Jasper was ill and couldn’t take part or we would have had a full team well up the standings.

By the time of the women’s race the course was getting seriously muddy, despite the fact that (unlike in London I believe) there was hardly any rain on the day. In a strong field Sue was always gaining places and ended up in the top 100 with plenty to spare, while Jackie and Ruth both also ran well to finish towards the middle of the pack. Finally it was the men’s turn and right from the start there was no doubt that Martin was going to be first home for us. In the end the gap over John and Richard, who had a very close battle over the last few hundred yards, was about 3 minutes. Norman was close behind them with Andy and myself completing the scoring team. We felt that 36th was a pretty good team result given that all 6 of us are over 40 and at least 4 of us have had injury and/or illness problems over the winter. And well done to Carl too for a good solid run to ensure that we still had a full team even if something had happened to 1 of the other 6 of us.

There don’t seem to have been many Heathsiders competing elsewhere over the weekend, but of those who did Steve ran a pretty good time in a very strong wind at Hyde Park, while Jacob managed to be unhappy despite winning the race at Finsbury Park, though at least part of the reason for his less than wonderful time was because he took a wrong turn at one unmarshalled corner. Results as follows:

Last Friday of the Month 5k Road Race, Hyde Park, 26/2/10:
7th Steve Monaghan 17m 27s

Finsbury Park 5k Parkrun, Finsbury Park, 27/2/10:
1st Jacob Howe 18m 13s

English National Cross Country Championships, Roundhay Park (Leeds), 27/2/10:
Under 13 Boys (3k approx):
159th Max Robertson 13m 20s
215th Max Heap 13m 42s
248th Johnny Naylor 13m 57s

374 finishers in all

Under 15 Boys (4.5k approx):
263rd Miron Woldemichael 16m 54s
299th Joe Silva 17m 18s
315th Renat Hammet-Millay 17m 33s

387 finishers in all

Under 20 Women (6k approx):
42nd Bibsi Haywill 25m 57s

91 finishers in all

Senior Women (8k approx):
84th Sue Rust 32m 48s
234th Jackie Wastell 36m 39s
292nd Ruth Miller 38m 11s

543 finishers in all

Senior Men (12k approx):
206th Martin Potter 44m 34s
409th John Flahive 47m 42s
413th Richard Browne 47m 45s
446th Norman Mitchell 48m 12s
586th Andy Owen 50m 08s
644th Paul Lemmon 50m 57s
1096th Carl Heap 58m 05s

1428 finishers in all

Team Results (6 to score):
1st Aldershot 182
2nd Leeds 208
3rd Bedford 291
36th London Heathside 2704

107 teams finished.

Hotelympia 10k Road Race, Excel (Docklands), 28/2/10:
11th Tom Ashby 37m 29s

As I wasn’t at and don‘t know much about any of the races for which I have the results today (though I do know it was very muddy at both Cross Country venues), I won’t spend too much time trying to write them up. Suffice to say that the top performance of the weekend came from Sue with an excellent 2nd place at Trent Park, missing out on victory by just 7 seconds, while Alex’s 7th at Cassiobury Park was also a great run. Meanwhile 2 of the other best performances came from people who must have joined the club very recently and who I have never heard of, James Pickett and Simon Hazel, which is a nice change from the same old names week after week I guess. Results as follows (as usual, positions are finishing order but times are by chip, hence the apparent inconsistencies):

Finsbury Park 5k Parkrun, Finsbury Park, 20/2/10:
1st James Pickett 18m 10s

Brighton 5k Parkrun, Brighton, 20/2/10:
8th Mark Derry 19m 08s

Chingford Cross Country League, Trent Park, 20/2/10:
U13 Boys (2.6k approx):
6th Johnny Naylor 13m 49s
U13 Girls (2.6k approx):
11th Ottavia Laidler 15m 44s
Senior Women (8.4k approx):
2nd Sue Rust 31m 31s

Wokingham Half Marathon, Wokingham (Berks), 21/2/10:
184th Simon Hazel 86m 15s
209th Jaimie Hunter 86m 45s
243rd Graham Bell 86m 57s
260th Mark George 87m 58s
845th Sarah Dean Hart 1h 44m 35s
1828th Joanne Preddy 2h 13m 17s

Sussex Beacon Half Marathon, Brighton, 21/2/10:
333rd Will Wall 91m 14s
350th David Bird 90m 54s
456th Mhairi Mackenzie 93m 03s
567th Adam Robinson 95m 29s
1329th Simon Clarkson 1h 44m 22s
2090th Sally Crew 1h 50m 48s
4871st Luci Etheridge 2h 10m 56s

Sunday Cross Country League, race 5 (of 5), Cassiobury Park (Watford), 21/2/10:
Men (10k approx):
7th Alex Macaulay 42m 59s
26th Pete Crockford 45m 32s (3rd V50)
31st Robin Tremaine 46m 14s (5th V50)
58th Will Whitaker 49m 19s
105th Nik Skipper 54m 57s
121st Andy Conway 56m 49s
146th Pete Webster 62m 05s

167 finishers in all. Team finished 10th on the day 11th overall, vets team finished 7th on the day 9th overall.

The final Met League fixture of the season took place on Saturday at a cold but dry Horsenden Hill and, depending on how you look at it, we either missed an opportunity or we got away with it. We had a disappointing turnout of just 13 men and a considerably worse than disappointing turnout of only 3 women, but as the fields in general were much smaller than usual with only the clubs in contention for top place showing up with big numbers, none of our A teams ended up more than 1 place lower in the league than would have been the case if we’d been at full strength.

The first Heathsiders to run however were the Under 15/Under 17 Boys and, although they were also 1 short of a full team, the weakness of the field overall led to them achieving one of their better results of the season and almost making the top 10 in the final league table. As all 3 of them are at the lower end of this age group there is a good chance of even better results over the next 2 years. Although we didn’t have any Under 13 Boys or Girls running on Saturday their teams finished 12th and 10th respectively in the league.

The women’s race was dominated by Highgate who took the first 3 places and had 10 of the top 40 in a desperate but unsuccessful attempt to topple Woodford and win the league. As for the Heathsiders, Jackie had another good run to lead the team home, though she felt that the less hilly course and the shorter distance probably worked against her after the previous 2 races. Ruth and Karen also had decent runs, but with only half a team 14th on the day was one of our worst ever results. Fortunately however they remained 4th in the final league table and even a full strength team would have struggled to make 3rd. At least all 3 are vets, but there the lack of a 4th runner to complete the team probably did cost them 3rd place overall.

In the men’s race Woodford and Serpentine battled for superiority taking the top 4 places between them, but with 10 in the top 24 it was Woodford who took the honours both on the day and overall. For Heathside, Martin had a great run to beat George and be our first man home, though sadly he missed out on being 1st vet by just 1 place and 5 seconds. Mike also ran well to make the top 50 and Richard seemed less affected by his dodgy hamstring than in recent races. The rest of us were all spread out with only Phil and Stuart having any sort of internal battle. Most of the rest of us hardly saw another Heathside vest from beginning to end! Teamwise 8th on the day was better than I’d feared, though 3rd (admittedly a very distant 3rd) would have been comfortably achieved with anything like a strong 12. Again however it would only have gained us 1 place in the final table and 6th or 7th out of 15 really doesn’t make a lot of difference. It was clearly the youngsters who weren’t there though, as the Vets won the team race as easily as normal to run away with the league. In fact Phil was the only non-vet running for us, and even he will be joining the rest of us in less than 3 weeks.

Of the other events I know about, George’s second race of the weekend up in Stamford was clearly the standout performance. I hope I have managed to pick out all the Heathsiders who ran both there and at Bramley, but apologies to any I may have missed either in 1 of those races or in some other event I didn’t spot at all. Results as follows:

Middlesex Schools Cross Country Championships, Harrow, 11/2/10 (race distances unknown):
Under 13 Boys:
27th Luc Hohmann 13m 06s
Under 15 Girls:
47th Kathleen Jackson 14m 32s
Under 15 Boys:
51st Jasper Crockford 16m 43s

Brighton & Hove 5k Parkrun, Brighton, 13/2/10:
18th Mark Derry 19m 26s

Metropolitan Cross Country League, race 4 (of 4), Horsenden Hill (Perivale), 13/2/10:
Under 15/Under 17 Boys (3.5k approx):
24th Miron Woldemichael 14m 25s
26th Joe Silva 14m 31s
28th Renat Hammet-Millay 14m 37s

37 finishers in all

Team Results (4 to score):
1st St Marys Richmond 121
2nd Newham & Essex 112
3rd Hillingdon 101
7th= London Heathside 36

Final League Table:
1st St Marys Richmond 718
2nd Herts Phoenix 670
3rd Shaftesbury Barnet 649
11th London Heathside 231
23rd London Heathside B 4

Senior Women (6k approx):
42nd Jackie Wastell 26m 09s (15th vet)
57th Ruth Miller 27m 19s (23rd vet, 2nd v50)
65th Karen Levene 27m 46s (28th vet)

101 finishers in all, including 53 vets

Team results (6 to score):
1st Highgate 567
2nd Woodford Green 522
3rd Shaftesbury Barnet 503
14th London Heathside 142

Final League Table:
1st Woodford Green 2691
2nd Highgate 2633
3rd Serpentine 2352
4th London Heathside 2080
17th London Heathside B 923

Vets Team Results (4 to score):
1st Highgate 201
2nd Woodford Green 161
3rd= Ealing & St Albans 146
7th London Heathside 96

Final League Table:
1st Highgate 845
2nd Woodford Green 758
3rd Ealing 693
4th London Heathside 661

Senior Men (9k approx):
29th Martin Potter 32m 04s (2nd vet)
34th George Stewart 32m 18s (4th vet)
44th Mike Stocks 32m 42s (6th vet)
66th Richard Browne 34m 04s (15th vet)
73rd Norman Mitchell 34m 22s (20th vet)
96th Paul Lemmon 35m 36s (25th vet)
114th Andy Owen 36m 22s (33rd vet)
147th Robin Tremaine 38m 09s (43rd vet)
167th Phil Hogg 39m 05s
171st Stuart Amblin 39m 21s (54th vet)
209th Dave Walton 42m 00s (76th vet)
225th Nik Skipper 43m 48s (88th vet)
238th Ken Townson 45m 51s (98th vet)

260 finishers in all, including 119 vets

Division 1 Team Results (12 to score):
1st Woodford Green 2072
2nd Serpentine 1958
3rd Thames Valley 1336
8th London Heathside 1119

Final League Table:
1st Woodford Green 8394
2nd Serpentine 8265
3rd Highgate 6727
7th London Heathside 5546

Division 2 Team Results (12 to score):
1st London Frontrunners 550
2nd Mornington Chasers 412
3rd Enfield & Haringey 295
13th London Heathside B 18

Final League Table:
1st London Frontrunners 3952
2nd Mornington Chasers 3092
3rd Hillingdon B 2516
8th London Heathside B 1454

Vets Team Results (6 to score):
1st London Heathside 648
2nd Woodford Green 529
3rd Ealing 525
11th London Heathside B 328

Final League Table:
1st London Heathside 2901
2nd Woodford Green 2398
3rd Ealing 2322
11th London Heathside B 1541

Bramley 20 Mile Road Race, Bramley (near Reading), 14/2/10:
47th Gavin Evans 2h 10m 29s
94th David Hellard 2h 15m 13s
110th Dominic Jackson 2h 17m 19s
141st Graham Bell 2h 20m 23s
436th Rosaire Gray 2h 47m 48s

Stamford Valentines Day 30k Road Race, Stamford (Lincs), 14/2/10:
8th George Stewart 1h 50m 17s (3rd vet)
131st Jules Weall 2h 15m 46s (12th woman)
192nd Ursula Wilson 2h 21m 50s (22nd woman)

After 2 weeks where Cross Country was to the fore, this weekend, for the seniors at least, it was a road race that took precedence with the first event of this year’s club championships, the Watford Half Marathon. A good number of Heathsiders turned out on a cold, breezy and dull Sunday morning to take part and it was unsurprisingly Mehretab who led them home with an excellent debut over the distance gaining him 3rd place. Ken and Gavin also had good runs to make the top 50 overall while Robin also had a good result within his age group. As for the women it was Jules who took the Heathside honours, with Emma and Ursula close behind, though Susie had led all of them for the first half of the race. Despite the hilliness of the course there were several PBs achieved, apologies if anyone else did one that I didn’t know about. Unfortunately the organizers managed to make an even worse mess of the team results than last year (when they didn’t give our women a team prize because they thought Jaimie was a man). This time they just didn’t bother to list the club name at all for most of the runners, which almost certainly cost our men either 2nd or 3rd place. The other effect of it was that I may well have missed several Heathsiders in the below results, as in most cases I just had to try and recognize names. Thanks to everyone who helped me by emailing to say they had run and apologies to anyone who I have still missed out.

The previous day the young athletes had rather better weather for their Cross Country race at Copthall. We had at least 2 runners in 6 of the 8 races and there were some very good performances, although none of the teams quite managed to make the top 3 on the day. There was very little to choose between the performances of several of the runners, but I think this time I’d award the run of the day prize to Miron narrowly from Genevieve and Jessica. Results of these and other events as follows:

Finsbury Park 5k Parkrun, Finsbury Park, 6/2/10:
10th Steve Williams 21m 06s

North West London Young Athletes Cross Country League, race 4 of 5, Barnet Copthall, 6/2/10:
Under 11 Girls (1960m):
9th Jessica Godden 9m 51s
18th Phoebe Crockford 11m 08s
19th Nicole Bowen 11m 32s

Under 13 Girls (2360m):
7th Genevieve Weston 11m 58s
15th Harriet Mackinney 12m 43s
20th Ellen Bolger 13m 10s

Under 15 Girls (3050m):
5th Kathleen Jackson 16m 41s
9th Ellen Jackson 17m 44s

Under 11 Boys (2360m):
14th Cameron Mackinney 11m 59s
18th Jan Hellebo 13m 01s
21st Tom O’Shea 13m 42s

Under 13 Boys (3050m):
12th Jasper Crockford 15m 13s
20th Luc Hohmann 16m 35s

Under 15 Boys (3750m)
7th Miron Woldemichael 17m 04s
10th Jordan Tompkins 17m 28s
20th Callum Jackson 20m 05s

Watford Half Marathon, Watford, 7/2/10:
3rd Mehretab Solomon 68m 15s (PB, club U20 record)
25th Ken Heney 78m 01s
40th Gavin Evans 81m 27s (7th V40)
103rd Dominic Jackson 85m 47s (PB)
118th Trevor Wilson 87m 07s
125th Robin Tremaine 87m 42s (6th V50)
161st Graham Bell 89m 05s
198th Mark George 90m 35s
243rd Matt Fassnidge 92m 42s
260th Jules Weall 93m 22s
284th Carl Heap 94m 25s
346th Emma Grayson 96m 02s
371st Ursula Wilson 96m 41s
378th Rick Hewett 96m 55s
407th Ray Yau 96m 33s
465th Susie Brighton 99m 07s
624th Joanne Irwin 1h 42m 45s (PB)
681st Alexandra Czerniewska 1h 44m 04s
784th Simon Clarkson 1h 45m 58s (PB)
995th Gabi Johnson 1h 50m 43s (PB)
1295th Justine Turner 1h 57m 21s
1735th Resi Dzialdow 2h 17m 23s

1846 finishers in all

Mornington Chaser’s winter 10k Series, Regent’s Park, 7/2/10:
43rd Stuart Carcary 41m 28s
110th Martin Hill 45m 53s

The Southern Champs were held in bright but cold conditions at Parliament Hill on Saturday. In the morning the ground was still hardened by frost and the younger runners were therefore able to run on unusually firm ground for much of the course, but by the time the later races took place the vast majority of the course had turned into the usual quagmire! Usual in most ways anyway, but unusual in that, for the senior men anyway, it was even longer and hillier than usual!

As mentioned before, the youngsters were first to run and the Under 13 Boys were clearly our best performers in the early races with 6 competitors and Max + Conor having a race to the line for the honour of being first home. If we can keep this group together as they move up through the age groups they could be a formidable force by the time they become seniors. The Under 15 Boys also finished a team and the Under 13 Girls weren’t far from doing so, though in both cases they tended to be a bit further down the field anyway.

After his excellent victory in the County Champs last week, all Heathside eyes were on Mehretab when the Under 20 Men’s race got under way. By the time he came past our ‘camp’ half way up the first hill he was in 2nd place and when he came back into view at the end of the first lap he had moved into a clear lead. As we listened to the commentary from out on the course however it became clear that he was being caught, but he held on for a magnificent 3rd place and Heathside’s first individual medal in the Southerns for a very long time. This was all the more impressive as he had complained of not feeling great before the race began, which perhaps explains why his second lap wasn’t as good as his first. Hopefully he will be fully recovered in time for the Watford Half Marathon on Sunday where he will be looking for victory.

In the women’s race it was Sue who led the Heathside contingent right from the start with Claire making a relatively steady start about 20-30 places behind. In the latter stages however Claire’s strength from her Marathon training showed and she overtook Sue in the latter stages to come home 8 seconds ahead. Behind them Mhairi’s swift improvement continued and gained her a place in the top 100 while Louise took the final place in the scoring team ahead of an ailing Jackie. It wasn’t only Jackie who felt ill however, with Susie having to stop to throw up mid-race then storming past 7 or 8 athletes in the final straight before promptly collapsing on the line and needing help from the St John’s guys. Don’t worry, she’s fine. The team performance in finishing 8th was excellent, particularly given the absence of Sarah, Jaimie and Tess for various reasons, all of whom could have made it even stronger.

It wasn’t such a great day for the men with too many of us still too far from full fitness after recent injuries etc. Martin had no such problems and had another excellent run to come close to the top 100, but a gap of nearly 3 minutes after him before Ed came in led to a slightly below par team result of 19th, despite John, Sergio, Norman and an injured Richard coming in close together to complete the 6. We fared rather better in the 12 to score event with the next 6 of us all close together during the middle lap, but Marcus reacted immediately to me briefly overtaking him at the half way stage to storm well clear, while Nick and David both overtook me close to the end in order to give me a perfect view of their private battle for 369th spot up the finishing straight! Thanks to everyone who was out supporting us, I hope you didn’t freeze. Results of this and of Nick and Claire’s warm up race the previous day as follows:

Last Friday of the Month 5k Road Race, Hyde Park, 29/01/10:
13th Nick Jellema 18m 09s
24th Claire Gibson 18m 46s (3rd woman)

South of England Cross Country Championships, Parliament Hill, 30/01/10:
Under 13 Girls (3k):
153rd Genevieve Weston 15m 33s
210th Harriet Mackinney 18m 21s
213th Ellen Bolger 18m 38s

219 finishers in all

Under 13 Boys (3k):
96th Max Robertson 13m 18s
97th Conor O’Shea 13m 18s
123rd Max Heap 13m 34s
129th Johnny Naylor 13m 48s
150th Jasper Crockford 14m 10s
206th Tom Gage 16m 30s

212 finishers in all. Team (4 to score) finished 22nd out of 34.

Under 15 Boys (4.5k):
153rd Miron Woldemichael 18m 45s
183rd Jordan Tompkins 19m 28s
196th Joe Silva 19m 42s
225th Renat Hammet-Millay 24m 34s

228 finishers in all. Team (4 to score) finished 28th out of 28.

Under 17 Men (6k):
188th Jamie Armstrong 29m 43s

189 finishers in all

Under 20 Men (8k):
3rd Mehretab Solomon 27m 26s

99 finishers in all

Senior Women (8k):
31st Claire Gibson 34m 20s
36th Sue Rust 34m 28s
86th Mhairi Mackenzie 36m 59s
105th Louise Waldman 37m 42s
145th Jackie Wastell 38m 46s
195th Ruth Miller 40m 56s
200th Jules Weall 41m 03s
232nd Ursula Wilson 42m 41s
261st Susie Brighton 44m 03s

357 finishers in all. Team (4 to score) finished 8th out of 38.

Senior Men (15k):
115th Martin Potter 59m 13s
202nd Ed Samuel 62m 09s
242nd John Flahive 63m 15s
244th Sergio Di Noto 63m 20s
249th Norman Mitchell 63m 38s
264th Richard Browne 64m 02s
319th Marcus Tillotson 65m 32s
369th David Bird 66m 49s
370th Nick Jellema 66m 51s
375th Paul Lemmon 67m 10s
386th Danny Jacobson 67m 39s
391st Gavin Evans 68m 08s
454th Pete Crockford 70m 18s
470th Robin Tremaine 70m 53s
47nth? Paul McCrossin 71m approx (arrived at last minute so ran round with no chip, therefore no official result)
570th Hassan Nahal 74m 46s
598th Carl Heap 76m 05s
604th Phil Hogg 76m 42s
704th Nik Skipper 83m 07s

806 finishers in all. Team (6 to score) finished 19th out of 54, 12 to score finished 10th out of 17.

At last! The snow has gone (though I guess it may yet come back) and races took place as planned, so for the first time this year I have a decent sized set of results to report on.

The main event of course was the delayed Middlesex Cross Country Champs at Ruislip on Saturday. Heathside had runners in 7 of the 9 races and made a pretty good start with full teams finishing in both Under 13 events. The Girls finished well down the strongest field of the day outside the senior events, though Genevieve only narrowly missed out on the top 12 placing which would have given her a chance of running in the Inter Counties. The Boys were more successful however with both Connor and Max R making it into the hallowed 12, though they will still presumably need a couple of others to drop out for them to get a run on the day. Sadly however, in a ridiculously close 4 way team battle, they ended up 4th and thus missed out on medals despite being only 6 points behind the winners. If it was 4 to score like it always used to be they would have been an even closer 2nd.

Unexpectedly we didn’t have a full team of Under 15 Boys, but Joe and Miron at least had a good race with each other in the middle of the field. As expected however, our best individual performance of the day came in the Under 20 Men’s race which Mehretab won by nearly a minute. He should have a much tougher race in the Southern Champs next week, but will certainly be hoping for a very high finish there too on current form.

The Senior Women were next to race and, while it was disappointing that we only had 5 competitors given the large numbers we’ve had at most races this season, disappointing was the last word that could be used to describe the performances of those who were there. Sue had another excellent run to finish 4th, albeit well adrift of the top 3, and should now get selected for the Inter Counties event. Andrea may well join her there after a top 10 finish while both Jackie and Karen had their best races of the season so far. Ruth too ran well and would have ensured the team of silver medals even if any of the others had failed to finish. Given the absentees, it was an excellent performance to push Highgate so close for gold, though if Anna still ran first claim for us rather than West 4 we would have beaten them by the perfect margin of 1 point!

Finally it was the men’s turn and here we had a much better turnout which led to a better than expected result too, with a closer 2nd place even than the women. George and Martin had terrific runs to make the top 10 and possible inter-counties selection, while Ed’s form continues to improve apace. John performed solidly as normal and Richard ran particularly well given the hamstring problems which have affected his training over the last few weeks. Sergio completed the scoring 6, holding off Norman comfortably in the end. If any of Andy, Dan or myself had been less affected by our recent illnesses/injuries and thus been running at our best, we may even have managed to edge ahead of Highgate. However the result was probably fair as, for reasons unknown, Highgate’s highest finisher didn’t count for their team and they would have been much further ahead of us if he had. Results of this and other events as follows:

Middlesex County Cross Country Championships, Ruislip, 23/01/10:
Under 13 Boys (3k approx):
11th Connor O’Shea 12m 19s
12th Max Robertson 12m 26s
15th Max Heap 12m 36s
18th Johnny Naylor 13m 00s
26th Jasper Crockford 13m 13s

Team results (3 to score);
1st Harrow 32
2nd Thames Valley 33
3rd St Mary’s Richmond 35
4th London Heathside 38

Under 13 Girls (3k approx):
13th Genevieve Weston 14m 05s
30th Harriet Mackinney 15m 48s
36th Lily Beckford 16m 54s
37th Ellen Bolger 16m 54s

Team results (3 to score):
1st St Mary’s Richmond 12
2nd Enfield & Haringey 15
3rd Ealing 26
7th London Heathside 79

Under 15 Boys (4k approx):
19th Joe Silva 15m 58s
20th Miron Woldemichael 16m 01s

Under 17 Men (6k approx):
27th Alex Beattie-Child 27m 05s

Under 20 men (8k approx):
1st Mehretab Solomon 28m 03s
18th Jay Beattie-Child 40m 33s

Senior Women (8k approx):
4th Sue Rust 34m 43s
10th Andrea Devine 35m 48s
13th Jackie Wastell 37m 33s
17th Karen Levene 38m 22s
29th Ruth Miller 40m 55s

Team results (4 to score):
1st Highgate 37
2nd London Heathside 44
3rd Serpentine 82

Senior Men (12k approx):
5th George Stewart 43m 45s
8th Martin Potter 44m 00s
18th Ed Samuel 45m 58s
25th John Flahive 46m 53s
27th Richard Browne 47m 13s
31st Sergio Di Noto 47m 34s
36th Norman Mitchell 48m 13s
42nd Andy Owen 49m 01s
50th Paul Lemmon 50m 27s
53rd Dan Miller 50m 38s
55th Pete Crockford 51m 06s
81st Carl Heap 56m 05s
88th Alan Dickson 57m 20s
99th Nik Skipper 60m 44s

Team results (6 to score):
1st Highgate 111
2nd London Heathside 114
3rd Harrow 126

Brighton 5k Parkrun, Brighton, 23/01/10:
18th Mark Derry 19m 28s

British Masters Indoor Pentathlon Championships, Lee Valley, 24/01/10:
Men 55-59:
3rd Adrian Essex
60M Hurdles 12.42s
Long Jump 4.12m
Shot Put 7.87m
High Jump 1.33m
800 Metres 3m 51.89s

Total 2578 points

Vets A.C. Indoor Track & Field Championships, Lee Valley, 24/01/10:
60 Metres Bill Birmingham 9.48s
800 Metres Bill Birmingham 2m 41.38s

Unlike last weekend there were a couple of intrepid Heathsiders racing this time. Here are the results. Let's hope the weather allows for a rather longer post next week!

Finsbury Park 5k Parkrun, 16/01/10:

38th Maxine Kelly 24m 33s
55th Monika Thaler 27m 25s

Brighton & Hove 5k Parkrun, 16/01/10:

7th Mark Derry 20m 14s

Happy New Year to all of you!

There isn’t much to report this week, though doubtless some Heathsiders took part in events in weird and wonderful parts of the country which I haven’t found out about. Doubtless too, several Heathsiders will have run in the Sunday League Cross Country race at Royston yesterday, but there are no results available for that yet. All I can pass on therefore are the results of 2 10k races and 1 10 miler, from which Patrick’s run at Regents Park is clearly the star performance. Results as follows:

Buntingford 10 Mile Road Race, Buntingford (Herts), 28/12/09:
57th Graham Bell 68m 08s

Serpentine New Year’s Day 10k Road Race, Hyde Park, 1/1/10:
63rd Graham Bell 41m 43s
92nd Tony Chin 43m 32s
124th Emilia Vynnycky 45m 17s (3rd FV40)
201st Andy Conway 49m 10s

Mornington Chasers Winter 10k Road Race Series, race 4 (of 6), Regents Park, 3/1/10:
29th Patrick Kiernan 40m 09s (2nd V50)
51st Rick Hewett 41m 55s