*************************************************** RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 339 20 October 2010 Editor: Steve Rowland mailto: steverowland@ranelagh-harriers.com *************************************************** HEADLINE NEWS ************* * Surrey League - men win Division 2 race, women 5th in Division 1 * Phil Killingley and Iona Robertson lead our teams * Estelle Damant wins the Leicester Half Marathon in 79.51 * Medals for Kathy Mallett, Sonia Rowland, John Shaw, Chris Owens and Simon Hedger in the Surrey Vets Championships * Steve Whitehead (55.43) and Sara Grosvenor (65.48) lead our Cabbage Patch 10 runners * Fast times in Italy by Gavin Jones * All needed for our home mob match v South London Harriers this Saturday * Book for our Quiz Night on Saturday evening * parkrun placing for Mark Herbert * Sign up for the Ranelagh forum SEE HERE ******** MOB MATCHES Everyone is needed for our first mob match on Saturday! Niall O'Connor writes: "Dark nights and cold weather can only mean one thing - mob match season is approaching! Our first match is against South London Harriers at home this Saturday. Register at the clubhouse from 1pm with the race start time set for 2:30. Entry is free and this is one of the few occasions where, as a club, irrespective of standards, we compete together. Last year SLH beat us so will be aiming for three in a row this year. Please make an effort to come along even if you want to use it as a training run. Covering 7.5 miles of cross-country will take nearly the same effort as a flat 10 mile road race. It's a great trail run and will make a good beginning to a spring marathon training program. SLH are one of the few clubs that are older than us and have a batch of Olympians on their honours board. Luckily for us the days of Gordon Pirie and Derek Ibbotson have passed and our record against SLH in recent years has been respectable. We have tended to win at home and lose away - however overall they lead us by about 50 wins. Please make an effort to get to the start line - Ranelagh needs you!" This race is also the club championship for the Wynne Cup. QUIZ NIGHT Our quiz night takes place at the clubhouse after the South London mob match on Saturday. The plan is to start the quiz at about 6.30pm with a break for a fish and chip supper (or veggie alternative) at about 8pm. The cost will be a tenner per head to include the supper. Maximum four people per team - either make up your own team or link up with others on the day. Beer, wine and soft drinks will be available. Please contact Andy Hayward (andrewhayward@catalinare.com or at the clubhouse) to reserve a place. RANELAGH FORUM Marc Snaith writes: "We have created a forum called ranelagh-talk.com so that we can discuss racing and training without the need to send millions of emails. It is new so it is lacking in both posters and posts. Hopefully once the season is in full swing it will start to pick up. I have created a thread for the Winter Diamond series under the Surrey League Cross Country topic. Please sign up!" PRE-EXERCISE STRETCHING? Paul Rider sends this link: www.wired.com/playbook/2010/10/forget-pre-exercise-stretching. WHAT'S COMING ************* More details of the following from Marc Snaith (07717 213035 mailto ( mdsnaith5@hotmail.com ) or Marie Synnott-Wells (07956 431319 (After 5pm Weekdays) / mailto nandmwells@aol.com ) Saturday 23rd October Stubbs Cup mob match v South London Harriers in Richmond Park. 2.30pm start. See above. Followed by Quiz Night in the clubhouse Saturday 13th November Surrey League race 2 - men at Wimbledon Common, women at Denbies Vineyard, Dorking Saturday 20th November Mob match v Thames Hare & Hounds in Richmond Park parkruns every Saturday at 9am Bushy Park Diana Fountain car park Richmond Park Richmond Gate Wimbledon Common Windmill car park Banstead Woods Car park off B2219 Park Lane, Chipstead Bedfont Lakes Bedfont Lakes Country Park, Ashford, Middlesex Kingston The Hawker Centre Old Deer Park Pools in the Park on the A316 Other venues, more details and registration at www.parkrun.com WHAT'S HAPPENED *************** SURREY LADIES CROSS-COUNTRY LEAGUE DIVISION 1 Saturday 9th October in Richmond Park The opening fixture of the women's Surrey League was on the familiar territory of Richmond Park though not on our course. Kingston & Poly were the hosts and the races started and finished just inside Kingston Gate. Our team was a pleasing mixture of new faces, old faces and haven't-seen-you-for-ages faces. We were sadly without the two runners who have been setting the tracks and roads alight during the summer - Liz Kipling (injured) and Estelle Damant (running a great half marathon the following day - see below). Instead we welcomed two very capable substitutes in Iona Robertson and Claire Donnelly for their first League races. Clare King, Jenny Lloyd-Jones and Bonnie Morgan all returned for their first League events since motherhood. Marie Synnott-Wells, as ever, was there and so was Jo Ronaldson continuing her comeback after a long absence through injury. The senior race started with a climb up the relatively narrow path beside the Gallows Pond. With over 320 runners representing 35 clubs competing in the two divisions this meant a fast start was essential to get a good position at the top of the hill. Our leading runners were all caught out to some extent but they were soon making their way through the field, led by Iona with Marie and Claire close behind. This trio continued to make progress throughout and at the finish Iona was in 12th place in Division 1. Marie and Claire were 16 and 17th. These were great debut performances by Iona and Claire. Jo Ronaldson had been our fourth runner on the first of the two laps but her lack of training caught up with her and she struggled on the second circuit. Clare King had made her customary cautious start and surged through to pass Jo and finish as our 4th scorer in 47th place. Jo just held of Jenny to close in our 'A' team in 66th place. In what was a very high-quality race the team placed 5th. Jenny, Bronwen Fisher, Karen Weir, Bonnie and Sonia Rowland made up the 'B' team which finished 20th overall and 6th 'B' team. It was good to see enough Ranelagh runners taking part to make up a full 'C' team and even a one-woman 'D' team in the shape of Jo Knight. The 'C's - Louise Piears, Alison Dicks, Kirsty Bangham, Heather Martingell and Tamsin Burland - were the second placed 'C' team in 25th overall. It was also good to see Ranelagh represented in the junior events, Marie's daughter Laura in the under 17s and two Izzies, Wateridge and Chant, in the under 13s. Under 17 1 H Wilson (SLH) 14.55 45 Laura Wells 24.02 Under 13 1 V Picken (HHH) 14.40 24 Isabella Wateridge 18.09 25 Isobel Chant 18.14 2XU SURREY LEAGUE DIVISION 2 Saturday 9th October at Lloyd Park, Croydon After last season's struggle we were unable to avoid the drop to Division 2 for the first time since the 2005/2006 season. Phil Killingley won the last two races that year and in 2010 Phil picked up where he left off with a half minute victory on the undulating Lloyd Park course and he led the team to a 44 points victory. Captain Marc takes up the story: "A superb start to the season with first place and some great individual runs. Phil Killingley extended his unbeaten streak in division two to five years and Chris Illman paid a visit en route to Stockholm to pip Peter Haarer to fourth place. Nathan Mills was our other runner in the top fifteen and was only a handful of seconds from finishing 8th. Ed Barker and Trevor Maguire ran strongly inside the top thirty and John Shaw, Gareth Craft (club debut) and Chris Bundhun (scoring debut) also made our scoring team. I benefited from the Owens effect (the ability to run faster once Chris Owens glides past) to eventually catch up league debutant Ted Mockett and complete the scoring team. It was great to see so many runners making their Surrey League debuts. Other than those already mentioned, Ian Kenton, Peter Faull, Alex Fordham, Peter Fordham and Aiah Songu-Mbriwa donned the blue vest for the first time in league action. Phil Aiken was our final finisher completing the 5.3 miles in just over 50 minutes, so if you think you can run faster then join us at Wimbledon Common on 13th November. With Andy Bickerstaff supporting from the sidelines it left David Rowe as longest haired Harrier - great barnet that man!" We also made a good start in the individual competitions: Phil of course heads the senior table with Chris I in fourth place, Peter and Trevor were first and fourth over 40s and John and Chris O finished second and fifth among the over 50s. SURREY VETERANS CHAMPIONSHIPS Saturday 16th October in Richmond Park As usual, we were the hosts for the Surrey vets championships and a total of over 150 runners took part in the women's 6km event or the men's 10km. We were rewarded with a handful of medals and an equal number of near-misses, though only Kathy Mallett won gold. Kathy was the leading over 55 and she was followed home by Sonia Rowland who won the bronze medal in the same category. That was it as far as medals in the women's race were concerned, but the over 35s team of Sandra Prosser, Karen Weir and Wiebke Kortum were not far off in fourth place. In the men's race Trevor Maguire kept up his recent good form and finished in 9th place overall, a frustrating three seconds behind the bronze medal winner in the over 45s category. Paul Doyle, who won this race back in 2007, continued his return to fitnessin 12th place and the over 40s team was closed in 5th place by John Ricketts. There was more luck for the over 50s, however. John Shaw ran well for 14th overall and the over 50s silver medal. Chris Owens was less pleased with his run but still took silver in the over 55s. John and Chris together with Simon Hedger won another silver in the over 50s team race, just a single point behind winners South London. The over 60s Mike Peace, Steve Rowland and Tom Reay finished in third place but owing to the small number of entries only gold and silver medals were awarded. CABBAGE PATCH 10 miles Sunday 17th October We had about fifty runners amongst the 1,600-odd finishers, including two who had run the Surrey vets race the day before. It was a fine day for running and while a Kenyan and an Ethiopian were making mincemeat of the home runners (though not approaching Richard Nerurkar's legendary course record), Steve Whitehead ran yet another personal best to lead our mob, recording 55.43 for 21st place. After yesterday's exertions Trevor Maguire put in a second good performance to duck inside the hour. Ian Kenton, Mark Herbert, Ted Mockett and Alan Elder followed in the mid-60s before our first woman, Sara Grosvenor. Sara took four seconds off her personal best with 65.48. Simon Burrell and Chris Read were home inside 70 minutes and then we started flocking in, including Rachel Rowan, Lee Coole, Karen Weir (the other indefatigable Surrey vets runner) and Rachael Holmes all inside 73 minutes. Lee's 71.37 won the women over 55 age group and puts her firmly at the top of Ranelagh's over 55 rankings. I'm sure there were plenty more personal bests throughout the field - congratulations to all who broke new ground. Bev Ali adds "A View from the Back": "The marshals led the runners out onto King Street. As a slow runner, I was at about the ¾ point from the front. By the time I set foot onto King Street, it was obvious that the starter's orders had been sounded, although we did not hear them, since the runners in front of us had broken into a jog. I received inspiration at this point from a pair of runners just about 50 metres in front of me: two women from Metros - one wore a t-shirt with the logo 'Blind runner'. They were tethered together at the wrist and moved as one. If you have ever tried running a three legged race, you know what kind of team work and coordination of movement this requires to be successful. These two ladies did not miss a beat. They slowed down for kerbs and speed humps, but they were out of my line of sight after about 3 miles and looking at the results, they did not slow down for anything else! Who says running is always an individual sport? A little past the halfway point, another runner, a gentleman with whom I have spoken on other occasions, and I slowed/stopped to inquire after a runner who was in some obvious distress, but was being looked after by a marshal. As we continued on our way, I asked after his marathon running etc and was told he had just been diagnosed with Parkinsons, and after some further conversation, he took his leave and ran on ahead! My goodness, if they can do it so can I, was the mantra that kept me going for the second half! So, I was beaten by a blind runner, a man with Parkinsons and our own 75 year old John Hanscomb (just barely...) but it was such a beautiful day, and such a well managed race (as usual) that I suddenly felt blessed by the day and by the fact that I did finish and I did finish under two hours. Ever onwards and upwards!" She's not a Ranelagh Harrier but I couldn't resist mentioning the splendid name of the lady who finished 1576th in just inside two hours. She is Tuesday Mundy. RAVENS QUARTERLY 5km Thursday 30th September at Wapping 1 D Moore (TH&H) 17.26 14 Andy Bickerstaff 19.45 19 Chris Read 20.57 24 Andy Hayward 21.51 25 Alan Davidson 22.01 26 Tre Roux 22.56 Next race Thursday 13th January, 1:15pm at Spirit Quay (near Tower hill) - all welcome. TROFEO SAN IPPOLITO 10km Sunday 3rd October at Fiumicino, Italy As a warm-up for his marathon the following week (see below), Gavin Jones ran his fastest 10km for some years. 1 E Elias (Eritrea) 30.46 11 Gavin Jones 33.57 KINGFIELD CANTER 2.85 miles handicap Wednesday 6th October at Woking 1 H Innemee (unatt) 25.21 (actual time 21.51) 12 Sonia Rowland 26.34 (20.34) 17 Steve Rowland 26.53 (20.53) 23 Alan Davidson 27.45 (20.45) WEST INDIES LAB 5 miles Saturday 9th October at St Croix, US Virgin Islands Andy Hayward reports: "Up at 4:45am (after 4 hours sleep) packed, got taxi to the start which was at 6am. Hilly course, 85'F and 95% humidity, due to the 14" of rain that had fallen in the three days I was there thanks to Hurricane Otto! The road was obviously quite wet (although it had stopped raining by now), the course was quite scenic - rolling hills along the coast road, and the sunrise over the most eastern point of the United States was spectacular. I struggled in the heat/humidity, clocking 41.50. Taxi waiting for me at the finish, back to the hotel to have a quick shower and pick up my bag, then straight on to the airport where I checked in at 8am for the 22 hour journey home. Phew! Nice to see some sunshine when I got home - hadn't seen any for three days in the Caribbean!" 1 T Holloway 37.22 5 Andy Hayward 41.50 LEICESTER HALF MARATHON Sunday 10th October A great performance by Estelle Damant who hacked a good two minutes off her personal best and ducked inside 80 minutes to win the women's section of the race by a clear 600 metres. She was 9th overall in a field of some 2,000. 1 N Stirk (Tipton) 1:09.37 9 Estelle Damant 1:19.51 MARATONA D'ITALIA Sunday 10th October at Carpi, Italy Gavin Jones writes: "I managed 2:35:46 at the Maratona d'Italia on Sunday. That got me 23rd place overall and 1st in the V45 category (I'll be 50 in February). According to the Power of 10 website that keeps tabs on UK marathon times it also puts me 3rd among all UK marathon runners in the V45 category this year. Not sure how reliable that is, but it sounds good, eh?!" David Wright adds: "He was planning to do the Cologne Marathon last weekend but didn't like the look of the weather forecast so instead ran at Carpi. He ran a negative split which indicates there is more to come. As he said in his text: 'very very happy, on bad day I wasn't running much faster 20 years ago!'" 1 M Kosgei (Kenya) 2:09.00 23 Gavin Jones 2:35.49 ROYAL PARKS FOUNDATION HALF MARATHON Sunday 10th October There may have been more Ranelagh participants, but no clubs are shown in the results and 12,500 finishers are a little too many to trawl through! 1 E Kipkorir (Kenya) 1:05.40 (chip time 1:05.38) 85 Simon Hedger 1:25.45 (1:25.38) 9862 David Rowntree 2:50.06 (2:36.44) HENLEY HALF MARATHON Sunday 10th October 1 B Reynolds (unatt) 1:15.15 (chip time 1:15.15) Tony Appleby 1:46.08 (no chip) 403 Jose Scheuer 1:48.06 (1:47.20) CROYDON 10km Sunday 10th October 1 S Mehretab (Lon H) 30.54 94 Alan Davidson 47.04 PROFEET KINGSTON RUNS Sunday 10th October 8.2 miles 1 J Smith (unatt) 49.52 11 Andrew Forth 52.18 16 miles 1 B Whitby (WSEH) 1:20.51 (chip time 1:20.48) 206 Heather Martingell 2:13.06 (2:12.56) 290 Roger Wilson 2:21.45 (2:21.30) KINGSTON 10km Sunday 10th October 1 T Shirebaw (Eth) 30.51 59 Sharon Dooley 50.46 BRIDGES 2.3 miles handicap Wednesday 13th October at Westminster Alan Davidson writes: "A novel feature of today's handicap was not the customary chill blast along the Thames (even hard man Hanscomb may have felt that as he is just back from hot Cyprus) but having to be diverted off the embankment path onto the road between Lambeth and Vauxhall bridges to run through a corridor of police doing random checks - I was waved through with a 'well run, sir'."" 1 K Burnett (SoC) 19.49 (actual time 22.19) 8 John Hanscomb 20.50 (23.50) 11 Alan Davidson 21.02 (16.47) FRIETH HILLY 10km Sunday 17th October at Henley-on-Thames 1 E O'Gorman (Chilt) 35.35 26 Kenny Clarke 43.03 133 Pete Warren 54.22 149 Melissa Glackin 55.22 RICHMOND parkrun 5km Saturday 9th October Mark Herbert was third finisher. 1 D Afshar (West 4) 17.49 3 Mark Herbert 19.10 17 Jerym Brunton 20.55 22 Chris Read 21.28 42 Michael Cawley 22.31 48 Alan Davidson 22.53 96 Sue Camp 26.13 107 Tony Clark 27.07 112 Louise Reeder 27.35 113 Mike White 27.37 114 Jar O'Brien 27.38 153 Stacey Barber 31.12 161 Bronwen Northmore 33.21 OLD DEER PARK parkrun 5km Saturday 9th October 1 P Langton (unatt) 18.12 6 Andy Woodhouse 21.04 11 Andrew Brown 22.40 12 Stewart Anderson 22.50 BUSHY parkrun 5km Saturday 9th October 1 R Barr (Thames Turbo) 17.17 49 Simon Rothwell 20.41 114 Adam Wright 21.18 221 Gill Wilson 24.05 350 Wally Garrod 26.44 455 Jose Scheuer 28.51 KINGSTON parkrun 5km Saturday 9th October 1 C Wagner (Strag) 19.51 4 Chris Camacho 21.14 14 Wiebke Kortum 23.41 22 Hannah Doyle 26.56 CANNON HILL parkrun 5km Saturday 9th October 1 E Banks (Birm Row) 16.20 10 Sean Paynter 17.51 BEDFONT LAKES parkrun 5km Saturday 9th October 1 Unknown 19.10 20 David Bell 26.09 BRUETON parkrun 5km Saturday 9th October 1 J Jennings (Knowle) 16.44 11 Luke Wilson 19.10 28 Roger Wilson 22.25 GLASGOW parkrun 5km Saturday 9th October 1 R Mackenzie (unatt) 18.19 103 Karl Garvey 25.56 WIMBLEDON COMMON parkrun 5km Saturday 9th October 1 B Green (Warrington) 16.47 17 Gordon Whitson 19.54 BANSTEAD WOODS parkrun 5km Saturday 9th October 1 L Hurrell (Epsom & E) 18.53 86 Tom Reay 28.16 SHEFFIELD HALLAM parkrun 5km Saturday 9th October 1 N Barber (S Yorks O) 18.07 5 Paul Keen 18.55 RICHMOND parkrun 5km Saturday 16th October This was the Richmond parkrun's third anniversary including the presentation of the annual points trophies. The main men's and women's trophies were both donated by Ranelagh and it was good to see Shelley Instone in attendance to present the Stephen Instone Memorial Trophy to this year's winner, 16 year-old Ben Carter. 1 E O'Connell (Serp) 17.25 4 Andrew Forth 18.49 9 Colin Brett 19.26 15 Jerym Brunton 19.42 19 Peter Faull 20.05 54 Michael Cawley 22.05 98 Johannes Prosser 24.30 102 Aiah Songu-Mbriwa 24.38 105 Michael Sikora 24.48 115 Steve Rowland 25.42 120 Tony Clark 25.55 134 Mike White 27.20 135 Rob Kitchen 27.20 158 Christine Goodsell 29.12 159 Sally Bamford 29.23 160 Louise Reeder 29.23 163 Stacey Barber 29.31 177 Bronwen Northmore 32.31 180 Pat Hewlett 33.29 181 Lynne Barber 33.30 197 Andrew Brown 37.32 BUSHY parkrun 5km Saturday 16th October 1 R Ward (Belgrave) 15.38 30 David Rowe 19.09 114 Adam Wright 22.09 179 Jose Scheuer 23.17 220 Gill Wilson 24.16 290 Roger Wilson 25.43 360 Anna-Maria Holt 26.57 385 Wally Garrod 27.39 524 John Hanscomb 31.41 OLD DEER PARK parkrun 5km Saturday 16th October 1 A Ledger (unatt) 19.39 16 Kirsty Bangham 25.57 23 Jo Sinton-Hewitt 30.18 24 Heather Martingell 30.19 CANNON HILL parkrun 5km Saturday 16th October 1 W Frey (Birchfield) 15.21 6 Sean Paynter 17.51 FRIMLEY LODGE parkrun 5km Saturday 16th October 1 D Symes (unatt) 17.38 7 Darren Wood 19.40 KINGSTON parkrun 5km Saturday 16th October 1 J Flood (Strag) 16.47 7 Chris Camacho 21.09 21 Julie Naismith 25.07 32 Wiebke Kortum 33.45 GLASGOW parkrun 5km Saturday 16th October 1 G Hastie (Cambuslang) 17.10 70 Karl Garvey 22.35 FINALLY... Edison Pena, one of the Chilean miners trapped underground for 69 days, ran in the pitch black tunnels to keep sane: "Why do I run?" he asked a Sunday Times reporter, "Perhaps it is because I have this fury. I could just lie down, but my fury has been channelled into a hatred towards this mountain. I wanted the mountain to get bored, seeing me run. I am not defeated. I am fighting. I feel that by running I am fighting to live."