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 RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 135                   7 APRIL 2004
 Web site: www.ranelagh-harriers.com  
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 HEADLINE NEWS
 *  Baker Cup win for Ian Grange and women's course record for Allison O'Neill 
 *  Paul Doyle finishes 2nd in the Thames Towpath 10
 *  Marie Synnott-Wells under 3 hours in Paris
 *  Another record for Ed Whitlock
 *  Building Fund Draw

 THE ANNUAL "BAKER CUP" SUPPER AND PRIZE-GIVING  Saturday April 24th
 A reminder that this will take place on Saturday April 24th upstairs in the
 Dysart. Price not yet fixed, but probably about a tenner. Book with Carol
 Barnshaw on 020 8898 9285 or c_barnshaw@yahoo.com. 

 LONDON MARATHON ACHES AND PAINS PARTY  Sunday April 18th
 Our usual get together after the race will take place at Janet and Manuel's
 pub 'The Wych Elm'  in Elm Road, Kingston. All runners (+ medals!),
 spectators and couch potatoes welcome - from about 7.30pm.

 GREEN BELT RELAY  Saturday May 8th and Sunday May 9th
 It looks like we'll have four teams out in all, including women's and men's
 teams, but there are still a few places left to fill. So if you fancy taking
 part, fast or slow, please let me know straight away. You have to be able to
 run at some time on both days, but you don't have to give up the whole
 weekend. Stage lengths average about 10 miles. See the race web site
 www.greenbeltrelay.org.uk for more info. You can find a summary of the stages
 at www.greenbeltrelay.org.uk/stage.htm
   

 BAKER CUP 3 MILES ROAD HANDICAP  Saturday April 3rd in Richmond Park
 Handicap specialist Ian Grange pulled off another coup by storming through
 the pack ahead of him to secure another trophy for the Grange mantlepiece.
 He already looked a winner at the half-way point, but as the runners set off
 on the final leg of the course it was Bert Grieco who was still grimly
 holding on to the lead. Ian was tiring but ran Bert down before the last
 turn and came home with 18 seconds to spare. Bert ran in strongly for the
 silver, followed by Jamie Atkins and Deborah Blakemore who were both
 competing as guests. So it was Liz Kipling, 5th across the line, who will
 take the bronze medal. Hot on Liz's heels came Adam Tapley, setting the
 day's fastest time of 17.28. 

 Adam's run thwarted what would have been a historic performance from Allison
 O'Neill. As it was she set a women's course record, but in the end there was
 only Adam between her and the day's fastest time overall - a feat never yet
 achieved by a woman. Allison did secure second fastest and Chris Owens was
 third. It was good to see some of our juniors well up, Richard Sim finishing
 as 7th fastest, Matt Hirschler only six seconds behind in 8th and Jamie
 Atkins 15th. The Lotinga Cup will go to Richard for the fastest junior time
 of the day.                                                                 

     
 FULLERS THAMES TOWPATH 10 MILES  Sunday April 4th at Chiswick    Ranelagh
 Grand Prix Race 1
 Paul Doyle put in another good road performance - or in this case road and
 towpath - to finish an isolated 2nd and kick off the Ranelagh Road Grand
 Prix with maximum points. Stephen Instone and Trevor Maguire followed on at
 a respectable distance and then came Liz Kipling and Kathy Mallett, 4th and
 5th in the women's race and both inside 70 minutes. Brownie points to Liz,
 John Hughes, Corinne Bishop, Janet Turnes and John Hanscomb who had also run
 the 'Baker' the day before! 

 
 PARIS MARATHON  Sunday April 4th
 Our new second-claim member Marie Synnott-Wells ran exceptionally well to
 duck under the 3 hour barrier. "The last six miles were awful," she writes,
 "But the flavour of the day ensured that I finished".
 Martin Harrison comments:
 "The course starts down the Champs Elysees from the Arc de Triomphe and is
 simply stunning. Despite the numbers (30,400) the start corrals were pretty
 well organised. The course then runs across the city to the east side before
 turning round and coming all the way back to the Avenue Foch by the Arc de
 Triomphe. Apart from a couple of 3/4 mile stretches in the parkland of the
 Bois de Vincennes and the Bois de Boulogne, you run through crowded streets
 of cheering supporters, passing one well known landmark after another. The
 weather was relatively kind (sunny skies with a stiff breeze) so combined
 with the Parisian hospitality and enthusiastic support, this goes down as
 one of the truly great experiences, not to mention a great excuse for a long
 weekend away in a marvellous city".
 Marina Quayle adds:
 "Jo and I had a brilliant time in Paris, particularly Jo of course who
 finished the marathon in 4.01 a PB 1 hour and 6 min faster than Vienna! I
 followed her around the course on the metro and managed to see her five
 times, she looked really strong all the way through. The weather was perfect
 and Jo was positively glowing when she finished. In
 the evening we went to celebrate at Chez Paul near the Bastille, a
 restaurant which I knew from having lived in Paris, typically French protein
 laden food! Jo wore her medal and was loudly applauded by another table when
 she got up to go the toilets and got a standing ovation from the whole
 restaurant when we left! We even managed some shopping the following morning
 before catching the Eurostar home! Vive la France!" 

 1 A Tolosa (Ethiopia) 2.08.56 
 1266 Marie Synnott-Wells 2.58.17  (chip time 2.57.55)
 14729 Martin Harrison 3.59.56  (3.52.56)
 17804 Jo Turner 4.10.11  (4.01.15)
                                                         
 OMAGH HALF MARATHON  Saturday March 27th
 Trevor Maguire reports:
 "This was quite a big race with a lot of runners from all over Ireland. I
 finished 47th out of 391 finishers and my time was 1 hr 25 mins 22 sec. This
 was a PB and funnily enough I also did a PB for 10 miles - 1 hr 5 mins 40
 secs - which was 1 sec faster than I did in the 10 miles last weekend on the
 Thames Towpath 10!"

 PADDOCK WOOD HALF MARATHON  Sunday March 28th
 Tom Reay finished in 1.40.21.

 23rd CORRENDO NEI GIARDINI 10k   Sunday 7th March 2004 at Ladispoli, Italy 
 Sandy Clark reports:
 "After the despair of watching Scotland sucumb to the might of Italy in the
 Six Nations there was only one way to restore national pride; take the
 locals on in a road race! So it was that having caroused the bars of Rome
 until 2am and fuelled by Frascati and Grappa I received the wake up call at
 6.30 am for the 35 mile journey up the coast from Rome for this 10k race.
 Naturally the skies opened the moment I left the hotel to walk to Termini
 station and prompted some self doubt as to the sense of this exercise.

 Arriving in Ladispoli it was apparent the race was actually taking place,
 however with a two hour wait until the off there was plenty of time for a
 warm up and a few large espressos to counter the previous night's alcohol.
 By the start of the race numbers had swelled to a few hundred and within the
 first few hundred yards the rain had started again and the wind got up; so
 much for the Mediterranean weather I had expected. Having got into a stride
 of sorts through two kilometres my confidence was dented by an attack of the
 Grappa effect and an increasing lethargy in my thighs before the course
 suddenly veered off the road and down country tracks into "la campagna". Of
 course I was unprepared for this having brought neither dry socks nor a
 change of T-Shirt to change into after the race. The country aspect was akin
 to running a few laps around the pen ponds on a wet January day with similar
 enormous puddles. Concentrating on not tripping and falling into a puddle
 seemed to relieve the Grappa and the 7k mark arrived without further
 incident. The last 3k was into  the wind and the finish along the beach
 front promenade was reached in an approximate time of 44 minutes (the full
 results and official times have yet to be put on the organizing club's web
 site).

 With 90 minutes to wait until the train back to Rome I had time to watch the
 prize-giving ceremony and reflect that at least the gift of a bumbag for
 finishing was better than the tray of artichokes won by one lucky lady. What
 that could have done to my guts! The conclusion? - well I was not last and
 there were a good few Italians behind me which was more than the rugby team
 could say for themselves".

 ED WHITLOCK...
 ...writes from Canada:
 "My problems seem to be in remission at the moment and a couple of weekends
 ago I managed to beat the M70 world indoor 1500m record 5:12.22 without any
 speed work. Long, slow, distance seems to work well for me". Photo
 

 DEVIZES TO WESTMINSTER CANOE RACE
 The very best of luck to Milos Dusek and Bridget Cuthbert who have teamed up
 to attempt this gruelling 125 mile race over the Easter weekend. They have
 already completed the Devizes to Newbury 35 miles event as a warm-up, which
 they finished in just over 6 hours. This puts them on schedule for a 22 - 24
 hours time for the full Monty. Bridget writes: "We should be at Teddington
 Lock between 7-9 am on Easter Sunday morning, so come along and support if
 you fancy it!  Maybe a run/ride along the river towards Westminster.  Our
 race number is 345 and our boat is orange".

 BUILDING FUND DRAW
 Winners of the draw made after the Baker Cup race:
 Alan Meaden £150, Carol Barnshaw £63 and Chris Read £37.

 MARGARET AUERBACK'S...
 ...e-mail address is now margaret.auerback@btinternet.com 

 TUESDAY NIGHT SESSIONS
 Speed / hill sessions lined up to torture you over the next few weeks -
 starting from the clubhouse at 7pm. Marathoners excused!
 April 13th 7 x (30 secs + 1 min) Holly Lodge Hill
 April 20th 3 x 5 mins and 3 x 3 mins
 April 27th 1500 metres time trial + 3 x 3 mins

 NEXT...
 The 2003/04 fixture list, together with details of the 2004 Ranelagh Road
 Grand Prix, can be found on our web site.

 More details of the following from Andy Bickerstaff (07966 552302 /
 mailto:andy@norris-hobs.co.uk ) or Paul Graham (mailto:paulgraham28@hotmail.com )
 or Clare Nicholson (07710 348030 / mailto:clarenicholson@hotmail.com ). 
  
 Sunday April 18th                 London Marathon.  Ranelagh Road GP race 2

 Sunday May 2nd                    Sutton 10km.  Ranelagh Road GP race 3 and
                                                 Surrey Road League race 1

 Saturday May 8th / Sunday May 9th       Green Belt Relay 

 FINALLY
 The Scottish Schools Football Association have decreed that any match where
 the half-time score exceeds 5-0 should be restarted at 0-0 in the second
 half with the losing side allowed an additional two players.
 This is a splendid idea which we could very well adapt to our cross-country
 season. Mob matches, for example, could be stopped after one lap and
 restarted with the last placed runner setting off first. That might put
 Thames Hare & Hounds in their place.... 

 Steve Rowland
 e-mail: srowland@calor.co.uk
 Tel: 01926 318734
 Fax: 0870 4006901