*************************************************** RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 384 5 September 2012 Editor: Steve Rowland mailto: steverowland@ranelagh-harriers.com *************************************************** HEADLINE NEWS ************* * Jane Craigie-Payne, Juliet Edwards and Lyndsay Schuman win the Ratchford Relay * Fastest times by Chaz Heer, Elin Berstad Mortensen and Juliet Edwards * parkrun placings for Carl Selya-Hammer, Cathy Jones, Trevor Maguire, Jane Craigie-Payne, Wiebke Kortum, Heather Martingell, Ben Shore, Lynne Barber, Mel Hunter, Michelle Davies and Mark Herbert * Thomas Cup handicap and club photo on Saturday 8th September * Quiz night on the evening of the Thomas Cup ATTENTION PLEASE **************** Follow Ranelagh on Facebook. OPENING RUN and THOMAS CUP 3.9 miles handicap Saturday 8th September in Richmond Park The Opening Run of our 132nd season takes place on September 8th. All members are welcome for the annual club photo and the Thomas Cup handicap race. Register at the clubhouse. If you haven't yet paid your subscriptions for 2012/13, please bring a cheque with you. The club photo will be at about 2.45pm in the Park opposite the clubhouse and the race starts as soon after 3pm as we can get everybody up to the start! NEW MEMBERS If you're a new member or you haven't run any club races, and if you are planning to run in Saturday's Thomas Cup handicap - please help out Handicapper Mike Rowland! Let him know in advance that you are going to run and if possible give him some idea of your expected time for 5km or 10km so that he can assign you a handicap. Contact mike_rowland@fsmail.net . QUIZ NIGHT Saturday 8th September Our second quiz night of this amazing year of sport takes place at the clubhouse after the Opening Run, to celebrate the start of the new season on Saturday 8th September. The plan is to have drinks on the lawn from about 6pm and then 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. Pimms, beer, wine and soft drinks will be available. Please contact andrewhayward@catalinare.com or at the clubhouse - to reserve a place. SURREY ROAD RELAYS We are entering a number of teams in the Surrey Road Relays which take place on Saturday 15th September starting at 12 noon in Wimbledon Park. Each lap is about 3 miles and we have teams in the men's senior, over 50 and over 60 races, and in the women's senior, over 35 and over 45 races. There's still room for more runners so if you're interested please contact the men's ranelagh.men@gmail.com or women's ranelagh.women@gmail.com captains. CABBAGE PATCH 10 miles Sunday 21st October at Twickenham The very popular Cabbage Patch 10 miles road race already has some 1,250 entries, but so far only about 40 from Ranelagh. I believe the limit is 2,100 so If you're thinking of entering, do not delay. Bear in mind, however, that this year the race is the day after the opening men's and women's Surrey League races. Details:. BRING CHANGE! The Royal Parks are planning to introduce a 20p charge for the use of the public toilets in Richmond Park, in order to offset increased cleaning costs and reduced government grants. There's no definite date yet, but be warned! PERSEVERANCE CLINIC, RIHCMOND This is Richard Xerri's clinic where Ranelagh members qualify for a 15% discount on physio and massage and a 10% discount on other treatments. Richard is also kindly undertaking coaching our juniors. Here is the clinic's latest newsletter :-. JUNIOR COACHING We are pleased to have a Tuesday night Junior Squad being led by Richard Xerri at 6pm - 7pm. Richard, the current Surrey U13 and U15 XC manager brings many years of experience and racing to the club. His emphasis is on fun and building a young healthy society through grit and hard work!! 11 years upwards. All are welcome, if you know any youngsters who might be inspired by the Olympics, please bring them along. WHAT'S COMING ************* More details of the following from Marc Snaith (07717 213035 / e-mail Marc and Chris ranelagh.men@gmail.com or the women's team managers ranelagh.women@gmail.com Saturday 8th September Opening Run and Thomas Cup 3.8 miles handicap. Start at 3pm preceded by the annual club photo., Sunday 9th September River Relay Windsor to Ham. 9am start. Contact Andy Bickerstaff andy.bickerstaff@goodrunguide.co.uk . Saturday 15th September Surrey Road Relay Championships at Wimbledon Park. 12 noon start. Sunday 16th September MABAC League 5 miles at Lightwater Country Park. 10am start. Details:. Saturday 22nd September South of England Women's Road Relay at Rushmoor Arena, Aldershot Sunday 23rd September South of England Men's Road Relay at Rushmoor Arena, Aldershot 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 Crane Park Near the Hospital Bridge Roundabout on the A316 in Twickenham Other venues, more details and registration at www.parkrun.com The 2km junior parkrun for under 15s takes place at 11am on the first Sunday of each month from Bushy Park's Teddington Gate. WHAT'S HAPPENED *************** RATCHFORD RELAY Tuesday 28th August in Richmond Park Frances Ratchford reports: "What can you get excited about after Mo Farah's two gold medals, Jessica Ennis's amazing performance and the most amazing 800m men's race? Feeling a bit flat after the Olympics, nothing to do? Well the obvious antidote is The Ratchford Relay! 42 competitive women, 14 teams, a beautiful setting all meant a fun evening of very good sport. The demands of the course meant that strong runners very quickly dominated the race and the winning team led by Jane Craigie-Payne went into the lead on lap 2. The team of Jane, Juliet Edwards who ran a great couple of sub-4 minutes laps, and promising newcomer Lyndsay Schuman won in a time of 24.10 almost a minute in front of the second team led by Elin Berstad Mortensen with Paula Maguire and Richmal Roseman. Perhaps it was helped by Jane Craigie-Payne's consistent performance, even laps of 4.00, 4.01 and 4.03! The teams were fairly evenly matched with some strong performances most notably from Chaz Heer who ran a 3.36 opening lap, is this a course record? Other sub-4 laps came from Sally Dell, Lara Werrett and Lisa Wheatcroft. The new runners fresh from the beginners' course all worked hard and showed they had benefited from good coaching by Deborah Blakemore. There were also outstanding performances from two of the youngest runners; Olivia and Juliet Ricketts with fast lap times of 4.36 and 4.53 respectively bringing their team, led by Lara Werrett, home in fourth position just behind third-placed Sally Dell's team.. The party afterwards in the clubhouse kept the atmosphere of the relays with lots of excellent food and a little wine." NORTH DOWNS WAY 100 miles Saturday 11th August Alice Hector reports (results were in e-news 382): "As a celebration of turning 30, I wanted to run 100 miles. So I did the event across the North Downs Way, organised by Centurion Running. I had previously entered their South Downs Way event in June but had to postpone due to shin splints. Three months off running (due to too much on the roads in the winter) meant only six weeks of solid running to prepare. Not really enough, but my thinking was you could never fully prepare for a 100 mile run anyway! As it turned out, the NDW, though including less elevation change, had finishing times around 2-3 hours slower than the SDW, for people that did both. I blame the steps! Endless steps both up and down made for slow going in the final 20 miles, just as you thought the end was in sight. The event was pretty uneventful with no real dramas, which is what you want. Lots of nice scenery, a well-marked route and friendly, frequent aid stations ensured that I could tick by quite happily. Passing through 50 miles 50 minutes ahead of the course record for the women's 50 mile event was quite good, though my knee had started to twinge a lot. I noticed that if I didn't stop then it didn't hurt. Note to self, don't stop! But it was a worry knowing I had 50 miles still to run on a grumbly knee. Ibuprofen and stubbornness were my saviour. At mile 60, a friend joined me for pace-making duties. This proved to be a massive help; navigating through the dark by myself after a whole day of running would have driven me slightly loopy on my own! I had been warned about hallucinations at night but didn't get it too bad: only got one monster face flash before me and make me jump! My friend proved to be a sounding board for my frustrations at making such slow progress and he did have to contend with one too many tantrums, but he was very patient (having had experience of the 100 himself he knew he was in store for): I definitely owe him! In terms of going into the unknown, it was 38 miles more than I had done before and many, many more hours. One of the key differences was the fact that the thought of any artificial food was repulsive! I must have had about ten bananas, watermelon, apples and oranges (and Coca Cola to be fair did go down well) but anything else was a real struggle to contemplate. In that respect it was quite a nice feeling... running is very natural and all my body wanted was natural. I forced down some flapjack, gels and pretzel sticks, but whilst my stomach never got bad, it was a real struggle to eat enough, and that proved one of the biggest challenges. Ironman/ultrarunning: both have been described as simply an eating competition, and there is a lot of sense to this. Finishing at 2am having started at 6am was surreal but when I was running we were still ticking over OK. I finished five hours before the next woman in 4th overall, apparently beating one or two male ultra running legends. However, it wasn't quite over yet. We had booked a B&B but decided to forgo this as it was so late, and stay on site on camp beds in a gazebo. Come 4am though, it was freezing and I was shaking like a leaf, and decided enough was enough, so started to get up and make steps to get a taxi back to my friend's car which was 40 miles away. Not having eaten enough and having got so cold, I stood up and immediately almost passed out! After a couple of hours in the ambulance drinking sweet tea and being smothered in blankets with mild hypothermia, I was given the all clear to make my way home. Would I do it again? Yes. The ultra running community is small and very supportive: you are stripped bare of any airs and graces and human spirit is there for all to see. It's very simple and a real challenge. There is no hiding. I don't know if I will go any further as that was tough! But I would like to get a fast time done on a flat course at some point. There are also so many places to do ultras and so many sights to see. I am sure that as long as injuries allow, this is just the beginning." MABAC LEAGUE 5 miles Tuesday 14th August on Wimbledon Common 1 D Moore (DMV) 27.22 59 James Barber 35.45 67 Lloyd Camp 36.25 105 David Goodsell 39.20 144 Lynne Barber 43.33 163 David Badger 47.05 165 Stacey Barber 47.43 180 Annemarie Goodridge 51.27 184 Christine David 53.04 186 Liz Everett 53.16 1 lap (2.5 miles) 1 S Stubbs (Runnymede) 14.11 25 Yvonne Howie 40.39 27 Eileen Woodley 41.57 30 Margaret Nilsen-Fehn 44.36 EUROPEAN VETERANS ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS - STADIA Thursday 16th - Saturday 25th August at Zittau, Germany Alan Davidson reports: "EVACS 2012 organisers devised a special hymn and a motto ('Younger Than Ever) then unhelpfully spread the events over three countries - Germany (Zittau, the main venue), Poland (Zgorzelec, distance track races) and Czech Republic (Hradek). Athletes were required to confirm entry only at the Zittau track (for all events wherever held) and catch an 06.15 shuttle bus from Zittau station to events in Poland (with many based 10-20k outside of Zittau). The weather was mainly heatwave Europe, sometimes muggy and with the occasional donner und blitzen (got that from Strauss). I got there by a lengthy journey, flight to Berlin then three and a half hours by train via Cottbus. An Irishman in his best Basil Fawlty German (I wasn't fooled by the accent!) asking the way to the stadium said he came by the official party route flying to the nearer location of Dresden by transfer at Frankfurt airport - but the incoming flight missed the connecting one and he said he had six hours at Frankfurt Airport. My first race was the heat of the M65 1500 at 17.50 so I sat in the shade all afternoon in the stadium park and then struggled to tape up my sore Achilles - sticking the tape to everything but my Achilles. A kind passing German insisted on doing it for me but whether it helps I don't know - the physio working on the sheath sticking to the tendon hadn't succeeded so I had been reduced to ticking over with one run a week. I headed to the call room only to be told because of a low final entry (probably too hot for some) it would be a straight final tomorrow at 14.15. It was 35 degrees for the race and, although as expected I came last, 6.05 in those conditions was good for me. A Brit supporter said it was good I had company in the race so I replied that it helped keep the sun off. Against the spirit of the games a 94 years old Belgian running steadily and comfortably in the M80+ 1500 was dragged off the track by safety officials and despite vehement protests by him and the large watching crowd he wasn't allowed to finish. I enjoyed the very generous travel concessions allowed to athletes on presentation of their accreditation card - namely FREE travel on trains, buses and the steam railway in German Upper Lusatia region. Returning to the suffering I caught the 06.15 shuttle to Poland for the culture shock of replacing prosperous Zittau and its fine stadium facilities with a very basic track facility and town but the weather at least was easier for running - about 28 degrees. It was embarrassing for each athlete in the M65 5000 to be introduced individually to one man and his dog in the stands! I ran a disappointing 23.05 but with five behind me, three DNFs and outsprinting a Dutch runner to the line that made me feel better. A worrying thing at about half way as I was chasing down a German runner the safety officer with clipboard moved in my direction and like hell was I going to stop(!) but I gave him the thumbs up and continued chasing the German. Finally, home to a wet Heathrow and thoughts of Richmond Park." LONGFORD MARATHON Sunday 26th August at Longford, Ireland Martin Halvey reports: "I ran the Longford marathon on the 26th of August posting a time of 2h 57m 18s. Conditions were perfect, running along busy roads, country roads and country lanes with very little support, refreshments provided outside isolated homes helped us along. Muscular caterpillars nonchalantly traversed the country lanes, heedless of any danger. The marathon is in its eleventh year and you would imagine the creatures should know better and avoid the lanes on the last Sunday in August! I've just realised they only live a few months. I shall inform the organisers to erect signs telling runners to beware of the caterpillars!" 1 G O'Hanlon (Ireland) 2:38.20 (chip time 2:38.15) 9 Martin Halvey 2:57.18 (2:57.15) OVERTON 5 miles Saturday 1st September 1 M Cryer (Woodford G) 25.30 48 Mick Lane 31.14 RICHMOND PARK parkrun 5km Saturday 25th August 1 C Assmundson (SMR) 17.18 19 Stewart Anderson 20.46 42 Eugenio Carmo 22.33 51 Phil Aiken 23.00 59 Amrut Sharma 23.18 92 Ally Salisbury 25.11 107 Andrew Brown 25.48 133 Lynne Barber 27.14 174 Stacey Barber 29.55 195 Christine David 31.09 223 Rachel Allen 35.40 238 Bev Ali 39.37 BUSHY PARK parkrun 5km Saturday 25th August 1 J West (Stragglers) 16.20 24 David Rowe 18.47 26 Nick Wright 18.52 192 Ian Grange 23.07 334 Vicci Randle 25.30 460 Mary Hickson 27.35 513 Wally Garrod 28.35 533 Kirsty Bangham 29.14 607 Katie Baldwin 31.10 673 John Hanscomb 34.33 712 Chris Wright 39.37 CRANE PARK parkrun 5km Saturday 25th August Heather Martingell was second woman. 1 J Short (unatt) 19.40 15 Heather Martingell 23.51 23 Lewis Emery 26.48 35 Cindy Croucher 33.18 37 Peter Martingell 36.25 39 Tamsin Burland 41.59 OLD DEER PARK parkrun 5km Saturday 25th August Ben Shore was third overall and Cathy Jones was the leading woman. 1 J Moran (SMR) 18.44 3 Ben Shore 20.22 10 Wyn Williams 22.46 11 Phil Roberts 23.03 13 Cathy Jones 23.26 20 Bruce McLaren 24.40 22 Mel Hunter 24.50 34 Pat Hewlett 36.02 BANSTEAD WOODS parkrun 5km Saturday 25th August 1 D Freeman (Tad) 18.14 61 Tom Reay 24.52 TILGATE parkrun 5km Saturday 25th August Mark Herbert finished third. 1 J Escalante-Phillips (C&C) 17.38 3 Mark Herbert 19.17 80 Mike White 26.02 HACKNEY MARSHES parkrun 5km Saturday 25th August Carl Selya-Hammer registered his second win at Hackney. 1 Carl Selya-Hammer 16.55 GUNNERSBURY parkrun 5km Saturday 25th August 1 R Carol (Clapham C) 16.50 17 Phil Jackson 20.33 KINGSTON parkrun 5km Saturday 25th August 1 K Best (Stragglers) 18.26 31 Hannah Doyle 24.09 AMAGER STRANDPARK parkrun 5km Saturday 25th August 1 M Shepherd (Kennet) 18.57 13 Bronwen Fisher 22.45 READING parkrun 5km Saturday 25th August 1 R Preece (Taunton) 16.47 211 Louise Atkinson 30.35 RICHMOND PARK parkrun 5km Saturday 1st September 1 P Cheetham (Strag) 18.05 5 Ted Mockett 18.40 26 Peter Faull 21.01 49 Eugenio Carmo 22.11 55 Sandra Prosser 22.19 98 Simon Taylor 24.00 135 Colin Rogal 25.37 268 Penny Merrett 34.25 279 Bev Ali 37.44 BUSHY PARK parkrun 5km Saturday 1st September 1 J West (Stragglers) 16.16 24 David Rowe 18.12 128 Simon Rothwell 21.01 244 Ian Grange 22.54 259 Egis Vincel 23.03 594 Kirsty Bangham 27.47 597 Wally Garrod 27.56 600 Becky Hall 27.58 601 Rob Curtis 27.59 732 Sharon Rowe 30.28 735 Vicci Randle 30.34 771 Katie Baldwin 31.48 825 John Hanscomb 33.35 CRANE PARK parkrun 5km Saturday 1st September Jane Craigie-Payne and Lynne Barber were the first and third women to finish. 1 S Rai (unatt) 20.08 19 Jane Craigie-Payne 23.46 20 Chris Wright 23.50 27 Lynne Barber 26.05 32 Heather Martingell 27.01 43 Stacey Barber 30.14 44 Christine David 30.14 50 Mary Hickson 31.19 60 Tamsin Burland 33.20 61 Deirdre Inman 33.43 62 Rachel Allen 34.11 OLD DEER PARK parkrun 5km Saturday 1st September Trevor Maguire won convincingly for the sixth time at Old Deer Park and Mel Hunter was third woman. 1 Trevor Maguire 18.16 17 Mel Hunter 24.38 23 Lorna Smith 25.28 28 Luke Maguire 28.56 36 Paula Maguire 31.41 KINGSTON parkrun 5km Saturday 1st September Wiebke Kortum was the leading woman. 1 R Reeder (Stragglers) 18.00 11 Chris Camacho 20.44 22 Wiebke Kortum 22.32 29 Alan Davidson 23.13 42 Tomas Sterner 24.22 BEDFONT LAKES parkrun 5km Saturday 1st September Michelle Davies's recuperation continued with 3rd place in the women's section. 1 G Russell (unatt) 19.01 14 Michelle Davies 22.02 75 Danny Hobbs 33.50 WIMBLEDON COMMON parkrun 5km Saturday 1st September 1 J Stead (Herne Hill) 16.23 76 Paul Sinton-Hewitt 21.14 263 Jo Sinton-Hewitt 28.33 GUNNERSBURY parkrun 5km Saturday 1st September 1 R Carol (Clapham C) 16.26 19 Phil Jackson 20.09 ROUNDSHAW DOWNS parkrun 5km Saturday 1st September 1 D Ogden (SLH) 18.40 18 Phil Aiken 21.50 BUSHY JUNIORS parkrun 2km Sunday 2nd September The monthly junior parkrun now attracts fields of almost 200, including on this occasion a trio of young Sinclairs. 1 H Thursfield (unatt) 7.45 24 Euan Sinclair 9.15 60 Finlay Sinclair 10.20 130 Eilidh Sinclair 13.01 FINALLY... 23½ hours - What is the single best thing we can do for our health: Video:.