reports

14 Heathsiders headed north to St Albans for the Fred Hughes 10 miles on Sunday 19th.  It was crisp and cold, but good for running apart from some frosty sections, especially on the first lap.  Sara Black won her category (Women 45) and was the 8th woman overall in I hour 5mins 50.  Natan Doran was the first Heathsider home, followed by Dominic Jones.  A bit lower down the field, Sif Sumarlidadottir and Filipe Cardoso ran together and pushed each other on for much of the way, with Sif 4th in the W45 category.  Caroline White was second in the W55 category.  Next stop on the way to the Rob Jackson Trophy: the Watford Half on 2 February." 

A number of Heathsiders got more XC action in the Sunday League.  However the performance of the weekend belonged to U13 star Mia Rosen in the Southern Indoor Championships, whose time of 2:29.93 in the 800 was a championships best, club record and a new national leading time this year.

Our women, once again, excelled in the mud over the 8km, three-hill distance with Beth Hawling taking third place and Rebecca Bunting fifth. They are top of the table and on their way to yet another trophy.

The Weekend's Action took us to the squelching mud of Wormwood Scrubs where Heathside mauled the opposition in most of the races at the Middx XC. Meanwhile, in Viccy Park, Alex Sweet pressed his Turbo Boost button to deliver a quite astonishing performance in the Half Marathon.

Pride of place must go to Seyfu Jamaal for breaking the club road 5K record, formerly held by Adam Kirk-Smith, and setting a new mark of 14min 42sec. Jem recorded 15min 11sec, and Heathside not surprisingly recorded a 1-2 in the race. Definitely worth a round of applause ! 

This week’s extra-special Christmas highlights include a sports personality of the year award for Thomas Archer, the December minithon, new club records, the third instalment of the Sunday league cross-country and another well-deserved win for Sara.

No cross country this weekend, but plenty of other races to keep people busy. Chris ran a fast five miler at the Welwyn Festive Five, a small group headed to Malaga for some winter sun and a marathon, and there were some PBs at the Christmas Victoria Park 5k, 10k and Half marathon, and a late report from Liam from his Angkor Wat Half where despite the heat he managed a PB.

The senior women were missing almost a handful of A-team scorers from previous fixtures but still managed to come second on the day, which is really impressive -- and a relief. We're still top of the league, above Victoria Park & Tower Hamlets and Highgate.

There’s a huge menagerie of results from Heathsiders this week, with several outstanding performances: Seyfu Jamaal ran 14:40 in the Dulwich Parkrun (5k), the fastest in the country, Julia Bijl ran a PB of 2:47:24 in the Valencia Marathon, putting her in the top 50 in the country; Rebecca Piggot ran a PB of 36:19 in winning the Grizzly Bear 10k at Battersea Park; Tom Aldred was the first veteran in the Perivale 5 in 26:34; Rosa Serafini and Catrin Tyler ran PBs of 17:50 and 17:52 in the Ladywell Winter 5000 in Catford while at the Lee Valley Open our juniors broke seven club records.