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Newsdesk 2004
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RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 146 21 JULY 2004
Web site: www.ranelagh-harriers.com
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HEADLINE NEWS
* David Benton 3rd in British Duathlon Championships
* Coad Cup win for Gareth Davies
* Stephen Instone bares all
DON'T MISS THIS!!
Ranelagh's Greek scholar Dr Stephen Instone was featured a few years ago in
a radio programme about the ancient Olympics, which amongst other things
featured Stephen running in Regents Park clutching a dustbin lid and
saucepan in an attempt to recreate the armour race. Stephen also recounted
an experiment he had conducted on a remote Greek beach, in which he
concluded that he could cover 200 metres faster when naked (as the ancient
Greeks themselves competed) than when clothed.
A BBC2 programme called "The First Olympians" to be broadcast this Friday at
9pm recreates this experiment, though as it pitches a now 49-year-old
Stephen against top club sprinters, it is perhaps not altogether a fair
test! Read all about it at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3860261.stm.
CORRECTION
John Hanscomb's South of England AA "long service" award made at the club
AGM was the silver (30 years) and not the bronze (20 years) as reported in
the last e-news. Sorry, John, you must be even older than I thought!
REMINDER
My e-mail address is now steverowland@ranelagh-harriers.com. My old fax
number is also no longer accessible.
ELMBRIDGE 10Km Sunday 25th July
This is the next race in our GP series and in the Surrey Road League. Note
that the 600 runner limit has been reached, so entries are now closed.
COAD CUP 5 miles handicap Wednesday 14th July in Richmond Park
Christian Vaughan reports:
"Apart from winning the Clutton as a kid 16 years ago, my experience of
handicaps is that you put a lot in and get very little out. The Handicapper
has a long memory and there is always a grandson of a former Club President,
who appears on the day and carries off the trophy.
The only way I would ever win one again would be to put on a lot of weight,
take 5 years off and then get fit very quickly - whilst losing said weight.
I managed the first bit with ease but the second bit is 'ongoing'. I might
have blown it with 4th place at this year's Clutton in March, but some
stunningly poor performances since then had obviously caught Handicapper
Will's eye, and he obliged with a competitive handicap for the Coad last
Wednesday.
The results, of course, show that it wasn't to be for me. Tim Nash was first
across the line, quickly followed by Gareth Davies. As Tim was sporting the
'G' for guest, Gareth took the trophy and 3rd fastest on the evening to
boot. I was next across the line, followed closely by country-member Geoff
King and first lady to finish, Frances Wray. Captains Andy and Anna were the
fastest man and woman on the night, respectively, by a fair distance each.
And who said wisdom doesn't come with age? As I passed Jim Forrest, I
inquired of him who was ahead that I had to catch. He answered: 'Some bloke
in blue!' That narrowed it down a bit for me, thanks Jim.
Anyway, congratulations to the winners from an almost gracious loser".
BRICKMAKERS' ARMS MARATHON RELAY Saturday 10th July at Windlesham
This is the only road relay I have ever run where the competitors are
obliged to carry batons as in track relays. Most lug the thing round in the
conventional manner but a few prefer to stuff it down bras or shorts ("Is
that a baton down your shorts or are you just pleased to see me?").
Most of the entertainment, however, is provided at the change-overs.
Athletes schooled in the great tradition of British sprint relay baton
changing can be seen juggling with the baton, facing the wrong way, tieing
shoelaces, pirouetting and all but stopping for a chat. Some seem strangely
reluctant to give up the baton at all. But nobody gets disqualified for
passing outside the zone, so that's all right.
The scratch Ranelagh team acquits itself well enough in 10th place, though
only some quick thinking by Wyn Williams gets us into the race at all. At
start time captain-for-the-day Phil Aiken and designated first stage runner
Bob Beatson are still languishing in a traffic jam, so Wyn grabs a number
and sets off with no warm-up. Bob eventually runs stage 6 and is our fastest
of the day and Sonia Rowland is the quickest of the women, though Michele
Gibson would have been closer had she not developed a preference for running
the course in the wrong direction.
See www.windlevalley.com for full results and some jolly photos. The first
leg is 2.8m, the rest 2.6m.
ANGLO-CELTIC PLATE UK 100 Kilometres championship Sunday 27th June at
Cardiff
Andy Hayward's latest madness (his words, not mine!):
"Bute Park Cardiff was the venue for the annual Anglo Celtic Plate UK 100
Kilometre Championships. Teams of five runners with three to score on the
men's side, and teams of three with two to score for the ladies represented
the countries of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic
of Ireland. Unfortunately not all the nations fielded complete teams, but
all were represented. An open race saw 43 entries, of which 39 toed the
starting line at 7:30am. It was already warm and humid, so there were not
many doing warm-up runs! The course in Bute Park is in the centre of
Cardiff, right behind the castle, close to Glamorgan's cricket ground, and
with impressive views of the Millennium Stadium. Unfortunately, the park is
not that big, so it required 31 laps of an exact two mile circuit to
acheive the 62.1 miles/100 kms course. The obvious disadvantage to this is
the almost terminal boredom, even though much of the two miles was on a
paved path in woods and open parkland. The positive was that every fifteen
minutes (at least initially) one passed the aid station/supporters/lap
counters etc. so there was a lot of encouragement. Also, it was easy to get
splits, not only every two miles, but it was easy to work out the ten,
twenty etc. splits. It was a narrow oval, with the start/finish area in the
middle on one side, so the one mile point was about 400 yards from the
start/finish, which made it easy for the helpers to see their runners twice
on every lap if they were so inclined. You were never further from the
finish area than half a mile, so in the later stages the temptation to just
stop and end the misery was great.
Feeling good to half way, I went through 50km (31 miles) in 3:59 - bang on
my target time of sub 8 hours. However, as the laps wore on, my recent
training schedule (largely enforced by lots of business travel) of many
marathons and ultras, but a much lower weekly base mileage than I really
needed, took its toll. By 36 miles I started to struggle. I knew I had done
a full marathon plus ten miles, and I still had another full marathon to go.
I pushed on to 40 miles before I allowed myself to walk through the water
station. After that, I began walking through the water stop on about every
other lap, for about 500 yards, before running the rest of the lap and the
next one. After 50 miles I walked that distance on each lap for a few laps.
I got though 56 miles, and knew that that was the furthest I had ever run
(previous longest was three London to Brighton 55 milers). I also knew that
I would finish. Slower than hoped, but finish. I managed to keep going at a
reasonable pace for the last four miles, and was encouraged over the line by
all the supporters, lap counters, marshalls etc. My time had slipped to
8:45, so I had quite a big positive split, but still a reasonable position.
Positives out of the event were there, despite the disappointment of the
time, and the fact that I had to walk a little. I finished tenth overall of
the 25 finishers in a UKA Championship race. I stayed ahead of people that I
felt I should have been with at the Sutton Park 50km race in May. Of the
nine ahead of me, only one other was not representing a national team (as
were most behind me). Unfortunately, four of the five England runners were
ahead of me (the fifth dropped out at around 40 miles). However, I beat the
entire Welsh team, so like the footballers, if I can find out that my
grandmother visited Wales once, I may qualify for a national vest! (Dream
on!)".
1 B Hennessey (Crawley) 7.07.23
10 Andy Hayward 8.45.47
BEGINNERS' COURSE Tuesday 29th June 2.8 miles in Richmond Park
Sixteen women "graduated" from our 2004 beginners' course with a fun run of
two laps around Sidmouth Wood.
1 Consi Dworschais 26.14
2 Louise Neville 27.43
3 Tanya Wolken 27.43
4 Diane Wilson 28.24
5 Aileen Cahill 31.38
6 Caroline McClune 32.33
7 Sian Tingley 33.11
8 Louise White 33.14
9 Jane Tilley 33.34
10 Lorna Boyd 33.56
11 Sue Jamal 34.14
12 Amy Lowman 34.33
13 Helen Bradley 35.15
14 Jacqui Mellan 35.21
15 Margaret Fenn 38.23
16 Angela Smith 38.23
BRITISH DUATHLON CHAMPIONSHIPS Sunday 11th July at Llanelli (10km run /
40km bike / 5km run)
David Benton reports:
"Ever since my 'breakthrough' race at the Ashbourne Duathlon in April, I
have been targeting the British Duathlon Champs in Llanelli as a chance to
take on the best duathletes in the country - and to hopefully win selection
for the GB "Elite" team for the European Champs in Swansea in September.
The first run (10k) was two laps out and back. After a steady first
kilometre, current champion Martin Yelling put in a burst which split the
front of the field. I closed the gap and at the first turn, we were joined
by Mark McKay (winner at Ashbourne). I got dropped at around 4k and was a
lonely third for the rest of the first run. Given the bike leg was "draft
legal", I eased back towards the end of the run (still clocking 32:15 for an
apparently accurate 10k) and allowed the chase group of 5 to catch up on the
first part of the bike.
The bike leg was 40km over 6 laps. Our group of 6 worked well to chase down
the two leaders, cutting their initial 1 minute lead to around 25 seconds by
half way. McKay dropped back to the pack soon after half way, having fallen
out with Yelling who had tried to drop him! We caught Yelling with 10k
remaining and the group of eight came into the second transition more or
less together.
I was 4th into T2 and 7th out of it - a bit more transition practice needed
I think! I quickly got back into 4th again and felt to be running strongly.
The second run of 5km was 3 laps round a lake so no chance of short cuts! I
caught Martin Yelling after a mile and he dropped out immediately, claiming
cramp. After that, I put in a big effort to move into 2nd with 1km to go.
Unfortunately the guy I had caught, Mike Jubb, was an 8:50 steeplechaser,
who hung on and out-sprinted me for silver.
Still - bronze medal in a National Championship was a great result. It's
certainly something I never thought I'd achieve in my athletic career and I'
m now waiting to hear whether I've got the GB vest to accompany it!
1 Mark McKay 1:48.35
2 Mike Jubb 1:48.54
3 David Benton 1:48.55
P.S. For those who want to see a picture of my bike (with me on it of
course!) have a look at the July issue of '220' magazine for an action photo
from the world age group races in Belgium".
JIM BRABEN 10Km Sunday 11th July at Wimbledon
Tim Woods finished second veteran.
1 T Berg (Morn Ch) 33.08
16 Tim Woods 37.30
22 John Kipps 38.47
298 David Meaden 56.25
SUMMER EVENING 10Km Wednesday 14th July at Reigate
1 D Robinson (Herne H) 33.58
7 Mick Lane 36.32
PORTSMOUTH PROMENADE 5Km Wednesday 7th July
Allan Lang battled gale-force winds to finish 2nd over 60 in 21.45.
SELF TRANSCENDENCE 2 miles series
These races are held on Monday nights on the roads of Battersea Park. Jacqui
Reid and John Pratt have been regular competitors and Jacqui has shown
impressive improvement through the series. In the first event on 14th June
she recorded 14.31 then in subsequent weeks 14.05, 13.28, 13.41 and 13.25.
In two of these she was 2nd woman home and in the latest she managed to beat
John for the first time. John himself has run three of the races, with
admirable consistency: 13.38, 13.25 and 13.32.
The vets track league also takes place on Monday nights in Battersea Park,
and Jacqui has twice gone directly on from the road race to tackle a couple
of track events!
RATCHFORD RELAY Tuesday 20th July in Richmond Park
No less than 49 women took part in this year's Ratchford Relay, and after Jo
Ronaldson had blazed round the lap in 2.52 on the opening stage her team was
never headed. Full details next time.
KRISTINA SEMPLE...
...sends an update on her triathlon career:
"Just wanted to update you with the news that I took part in my first
International Points Triathlon, in Holten, Holland, and came 9th which mean
I am now World Ranked!! I ran 38.06 for the 10k. (It comes out as 39mins
in the official results, as the time include the transition off the bike)".
1 R Lisk (Germany) 2.04.42
9 Kristina Semple 2.11.51
You can catch up with Kristina's latest news on her own excellent web site
www.kristinasemple.co.uk.
SURREY 10km CHAMPIONSHIPS
We can now confirm that we can expect a brace of both individual and team
golds in this championship, which was incorporated in our Dysart Dash 10km
on June 27th. Paul Doyle and Jo Ronaldson are the individual champions and
the Ranelagh teams of Paul, Mick Lane and Steve Whitehead and Jo, Marie
Synnott-Wells and Sara Grosvenor also came out on top.
LDWA FOUNDERS' CHALLENGE
Peter Saw would like to see a few more Ranelagh Harriers tackling this event
in the Surrey Hills on Sunday 17th October. It starts in Peaslake and it's
the full marathon distance of 26 miles but you can walk, jog or run as you
please. The time limit is nine and a half hours. More details from Peter or
pick up an entry form from the clubhouse.
WELCOME...
...to new members Karen Vinicombe, Vicci Hollis, Lukas Appenzeller and
Alexander Woods.
CONGRATULATIONS...
...to Sophie Timms and Chris Spink on their engagement.
NEXT...
A provisional fixture list for the 2004/05 winter season, 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 Anna McLaughlin (07971 606521 /
mailto:anna.mclaughlin@itv.com ).
Sunday July 25th Elmbridge 10km at Walton. Ranelagh Road
GP race 8 and Surrey Road League race 4. See www.elmbridgeroadrunners.co.uk
for details. Entries now closed.
Friday July 30th Wedding Day 7km in Bushy Park.
Ranelagh Road GP race 9. Start 7.30pm. See www.stragglers.org/weddingday.htm
for details. Probably no entries on the day.
Sunday August 22nd Surrey 5km at Wimbledon. Ranelagh Road GP
race 10 and Surrey Road League race 5. Entry forms at the clubhouse or just
send your details to Derek Crookes, 209 Lynmouth Avenue, Morden, Surrey SM4
4RX. Entry fee £3 payable to Surrey County AA. Entries usually also accepted
on the day (£4).
Steve Rowland
e-mail: Steve Rowland