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Newsdesk 2020
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RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 577 18th October 2020
Editor: Steve Rowland
mailto: sandsrowland@btinternet.com
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IMPORTANT MESSAGE
With the financial impact of COVID-19 becoming ever more severe,
Ranelagh's Committee is acutely aware that we may have members who are
facing financial difficulties. We are determined that any such members
should be able to continue to enjoy the physical and mental benefits of
participation in club activities and virtual or other races. Therefore, any
member who is struggling to pay their annual subscription but wishes to
continue their membership of the club is strongly encouraged to contact
Clare Fowler, one of our Welfare Officers, on mailto:fowlercjr@gmail.com.
Sensitivity and discretion is assured.
VIRTUAL LONDON MARATHON Sunday 4th October
James Riley writes in Facebook:
For those whose passion is Blue and Amber, the Royal Park to be in today
wasn’t St James’s, it was Bushy, where eight Ranelaghites (Tony Borreda,
Clare Fowler, Becky Northmore, David Ready, James Riley, Pete Smith, Sergio
Stillacci and James Whistler) were laying down their VLMs. Some awesome
running resulted in Tony (2:42:43), David (2:49:51), Pete (2:54:01), James W
(2:47:20) and Clare (3:18.30) smashing out PBs. We had multiple flybys from
Kris Davidson who was ‘killing 3 birds with 1 stone’ training for the Autumn
100, completing the virtual VLM and cheering on the Ranelagh contingent, and
Kathy Henry supporting Becky Northmore as part of ‘operation get the VLM
medal and T shirt without running it in one go’.
Huge thanks to those of you supporting in Bushy in different ways and at
different times including Gary Armstrong, Rebecca Bissell, Nick Impey, Rick
Jenner, Richard Kimber, Wiebke Kortum, Ross Macdonald, Ted Mockett, Ed
Perry, Jonathan Smith, Mark Snaith, Ellen Van Keulen and Narissa). Apologies
to anyone I’ve missed! Others supporting virtual VLM attempts include
Jackson Creegan, Clare Day supporting Cecily and Jeremy, Eirin McDaid
(supporting Mike Peace in Devon) Alex Ring and Claire Warner. Elsewhere,
Michelle Beaumont and Karima Graham ran the VLM on the towpath between
Richmond and Kingston with Karima smashing out a 20 minute PB! Simon Martin
and Bruce McLaren ran from Woolwich to Richmond and Jarryd Hillhouse nailed
a 5 minute PB running the JALB virtual marathon in Battersea Park.
65 James Riley 2:41.15
90 Tony Borreda 2:42.54
110 Andy Starr 2:44.11
111 Gareth Williams 2:44.12
162 James Whistler 2:47.19
241 David Ready 2:50.27
352 Pete Smith 2:54.19
447 Paul Doyle 2:56.29
454 Sergio Stillacci 2:56.39
1389 Clare Fowler 3:18.30
1488 Kris Davidson 3:20.11
4366 Simon Martin 3:51.06
4630 Becky Northmore 3:53.12
4917 Fenella Ross 3:55.18
6790 Rue Turner 4:10.09
7088 Paul Wapshott 4:12.26
8029 Jeremy Day 4:18.59
8596 Karima Graham 4:22.53
Michelle Beaumont 4:22.53
12925 Mike Peace 4:53.17
17951 Bronwen Northmore 5:31.49
24098 Ally Salisbury 6:33.59
31742 Roger Wallace 8:44.48
Colin Brett 8:44.48
33685 Kathy Henry 10:15.24
DORNEY LAKE MARATHON Sunday 4th October
This was the same day as the VLM so the half-dozen Ranelagh who competed
were also able to submit their performances to the London event. There were
PBs for Andy Starr and Gareth Williams finishing with stunning times of
2:44:11 and 2:44:12 (beyond Gareth’s wildest dreams) despite running very
different races. Also running were Paul Doyle who finished in 2:57, Alun
Thomas (with a new PB of 3:24:29) and Neil Rae and Bob Tinsley who suffered
the vagaries that the marathon throws up. Neil finished despite his left leg
seizing up and Bob finished in rapid 2:56 despite running the last 5 miles
with a stitch.
1 W Mackay (Beds & C) 2:26.14
50 Gareth Williams 2:44.11
59 Andy Starr 2:45.34
137 Paul Doyle 2:57.02
138 Bob Tinsley 2:57.05
275 Alun Thomas 3:24.29
344 Neil Rae 3:40.39
NORTH YORK MOORS HALF MARATHON Saturday 3rd October
Slightly less than a full half marathon, but 1679 feet of ascent more than
made up for that! There was thick fog too but that didn’t stop Jonathan
Smith winning by a good eight minutes in a time of 1:39.49.
NORTH COAST 110 miles and Exmoor 55km Friday 2nd October
James Ritchie reports:
With apologies for the length of this race report, but the race itself was
quite long!
Slightly before 8am on Friday 2nd October I set out on my longest ultra to
date, the North Coast 110 mile, running along the South West Coast Path of
North Devon and Somerset. The weather forecast had been ominous all week,
and in the event turned out to be as bad as predicted. My cap was an early
casualty, blowing over a cliff within the first mile of the race, and the
wind continued to make its presence felt throughout, particularly on the
more exposed parts close to the sea. The first 30km or so were fairly up
and down, initially through open fields and later on a woodland track,
before becoming rather narrow and slippery following plenty of rain. I
belatedly realised that I had failed to upload the route to my watch, which
caused a few wrong turns / additional route checking on my phone. After
Westward Ho! and the first checkpoint, there was a long flatter section for
the next 50km or so. The route here cut inland up the River Torridge, then
back out to the coast before heading inland again up the River Taw, and the
second checkpoint, some 64km in, where runners taking on the 110 km event
would be starting later.
Shortly after 75km, and having been going for about 11 hours, it became dark
pretty quickly. It was raining again and with the route not always obvious
I was reliant on checking on my phone, which became increasingly difficult
as everything was wet and it was difficult to shelter and dry it enough to
unlock it. My morale took a bit of a beating, not helped by my stomach
starting to rebel a bit (it got better about ten hours later). A vain
attempt whilst using a hotel's wifi failed to get my watch and phone to
communicate. There followed an atmospheric sandy kilometre along Croyde
Beach, leaving which the road had turned into a river. Out to Baggy Point
the wind and rain were in full force, and I began to get increasingly cold
and dispirited about my chances of getting through. Shortly after though, I
found a beachside changing hut. I slipped inside and took 20 minutes to add
some warm clothing, eat and re-sort some food, dry my phone, check the route
and inform a few people that I was still alive and going. It was 10pm, and
I had another nine or so hours of darkness to try and get through. The
temptation to stay in the hut was pretty strong but after a brief hesitation
I headed on. Thankfully the rain had eased off a bit, and it wasn't too
long before I finally reached the third checkpoint, where there seemed to be
at least one runner who was quitting and jumping in a cab back to
civilisation. Coffee and noodles for me though and off, shortly after
another pair of runners had come in.
After a short stretch of road, I was back out onto a path along the coast
and more up and down in diminishing torchlight until I stopped to change my
batteries. Then on and more up and down, periodically having to stop and
check where I was going. The two runners whom I'd seen at the prior
checkpoint were starting to catch me when I checked the route, I'd then move
on and get ahead, and they'd catch up again the next time I checked. At
Ilfracombe, I joined forces with them (Iain and another James), picking up
another runner along the way as we headed to checkpoint 4 at Combe Martin.
I was desperately tired and would have loved to sleep, but with all
checkpoints having moved outside due to Covid, the windy carpark was not
especially appealing. In any event, concluding that I'd probably not get
through if I let Iain and James go on ahead, I'd popped come caffeine pills
to sabotage any attempt at finding somewhere to sleep. We reached the
checkpoint at 4am. Runners on the 55km event (including Suzy Whatmough)
would be starting from here in some three or four hours.
Quick cup of tea, then, with Iain and James dawdling a bit, I headed on,
pretty soon getting lost descending to a beach before climbing back up and
finding the correct path. This brought me in just behind them and I then
stuck with them solidly through to checkpoint 5. We weren't moving very
fast, walking most of the time though I'd tend to run ahead on the downs
followed by the other pair. There was one magical moment coming off Great
Hangman when it had stopped raining, and it was possible to see torchlights
in the woods ahead and on the hill behind us. Dawn broke shortly after and
we soon passed through the Valley of Rocks and on to Lynton, before a steep
downhill into Lynmouth and checkpoint 5, the time now 9am. I was conscious
that I was moving much slower than I'd hoped and, having scheduled about 8
and a half hours from here, I began to be a bit concerned about whether I
might run out of time.
With James having taken off his shoes and socks, I said my goodbyes and
pushed on alone, with a long uphill section. I was gratified to find that I
was moving uphill at a reasonable pace, and even more so that I could still
run on a long downhill. This section was largely in woodland, and though it
rained continually for the whole day, I was out of the wind for much of it.
There were variously uplifting and depressing signs here - across the space
of a mile I had Culbone Church at 4 miles to go, 4.5, 3.5 and then 4 miles
again! Having been passed by the occasional 110 km runner during the night,
the first of the 55km runners now began to come through. Shortly, and
nearly an hour and a half quicker than planned, I reached the sixth
checkpoint at Porlock Weir. It was now 12.45.
Heading off on the final leg I bumped into an incoming Suzy, which spurred
me along on the cobbled beach, before the path turned inland a bit. I
managed to get a bit of a way before being caught by Suzy who shortly headed
on (going on to finish as 4th woman and 12th overall of 45 finishers).
There was one final stiff climb up Bossington Hill and the route now became
very exposed to the wind. Getting quite cold again I ran as fast as I could
along the ridge top to try and stay warm, a losing battle, being totally
sodden and not helped by the fact that the track bore a strong resemblance
to a pretty icy river. Meanwhile the dodgy signwriter was back, with
assorted signs to Minehead changing from 4.5 miles to go, to 5 miles to go.
Eventually I started to descend and the distances dropped until I was on a
flat path with a mile or so to go. And at last, there was the finish
marker, some 31 hours and 36 minutes after starting. I made it in 13th
place out of 19 finishers (with 15 other runners pulling out along the way).
There wasn't much standing around on ceremony before I was off running
again - the few hundred metres to the B&B and a gloriously hot bath!
CENTURION AUTUMN 100 miles Saturday 10th October
Bruce McLaren reports:
Kris Davidson and I found ourselves in Goring, alongside Richard Gurd, at
0650 on a Saturday morning with the prospect of a real race ahead of us, and
a 100 miler at that. Whilst this had been in our diaries for a long time
the lack of reference to these, given everything had been cancelled, meant
this race had only really come into our eyeline a couple of months ago.
Feeling somewhat undertrained and happily over-ambitious I had decided to
target a sub 20 hour race having been close on the two other occasions I’ve
run this distance but failing when the wheels came off in the last quarter
both times. This time I had prepared a spreadsheet which showed it was
easily achievable - it always is on paper!
It was still dark as we set off, so the first mile or two was by headtorch
but light quickly appeared as we trotted up the Thames. The Autumn 100 is
an unusual format with four 25 mile out and back legs from Goring. The
organisers had done a tremendous job getting this event running in a Covid
compliant manner including a rolling start, meaning the race was more a time
trial rather than a head to head, and very well run distanced aid stations.
We had been encouraged to start early if we expected a quick time so in
theory if you passed someone it would be for a place, but you could never be
sure.
We knocked off the first leg in just under 4 hours placing 26/7th out of a
field of c200 and set out on leg 2 along the Ridgeway. It’s flat for a few
miles and then grinds uphill to a turnaround point at Swyncombe. Views from
the Ridgeway were pretty impressive and it had stayed dry despite a forecast
of quite strong winds from the SW and rain. We had our fingers crossed. It
was only on the way back that I realised the uphill we had run was actually
quite noticeable as we glided down it. We were making good progress taking
just over 4 hours for leg 2 which saw us back in Goring having gained 10
places by the halfway point.
Kris and I had recce’d leg 3 as we had felt it could be tough and also knew
it would be dark on the return. We therefore knew it was exposed if there
was bad weather and so set off with some trepidation given the forecast. I
think we were halfway to the turn round point when I noticed a pretty ugly
rainstorm directly north of us. I was delighted as that meant it was
passing above us and we were in the clear. There is a reason I’m not a
weather man though and minutes later Kris observed droplets which rapidly
became rather moist. Stopping to put on rain gear we cracked on through the
rain reaching the turn point just as the rain stopped only for it to return
as we set off again. After the climb up to the Chain Hill turnaround it was
effectively downhill, and with the wind and rain behind us, we were able to
head back to Goring running most of the time. Leg 3 had taken under 5 hours
and we were up to 12/13th overall. I don’t think I’ve ever been that high
up a leaderboard - I feared a nosebleed!
We were starting to feel the pace a bit now so took our time turning round
and getting a dry top before heading out in the dark for leg 4, downstream
to Reading along the Thames Path. We still had over 7.5 hours to break 20
so were becoming pretty confident we could do this even if the wheels came
off so we set off with a walk-run strategy, with the emphasis on walking,
however Kris didn’t seem to get that memo and it quickly turned into a
run-walk strategy with the balance firmly on running. Amazingly the legs
were holding up well and our pace was c11min/mile even with walk breaks for
most of the way out to Reading. One of the peculiarities of this race
format is that you get to see everyone ahead of you filing back. We
therefore saw the leader 4 times and could work out how much of a lead he
was building over us, and everyone else, which was considerable. When we
saw him for the final time he was c.15 miles/ 3 hours ahead of us, and
annoyingly he always looked very comfortable. It also means you can count
the people ahead of you so when we got to the turn round point at Reading we
knew we were close to the runner in 10th place. Sniffing a top 10 finish, a
rare smell indeed, I was keen to push on so we had a fairly rapid turnaround
and set off. It was one of these days where the legs felt like they could
keep going forever and we kept knocking out miles running at c10min/mile
whilst running and averaging just over 11 including the walks.
It gets pretty muddy between Mapledurham and Pangbourne but after that it’s
only 4 miles to the finish and having passed a runner on this stretch we
knew we were in the top 10. The legs still felt strong so we only had a
brief pitstop for water at the final aid station, marched up the hill out of
Pangbourne and then were able to run-walk to the finish and a negative split
for the final leg. This negative split promoted us a place, ahead of the
first lady, and we finished 7/8th overall in a time of 18:20, a time beyond
my wildest dreams.
We hadn’t seen Richard Gurd after crossing on leg 2 and discovered later
that he had pulled out at around mile 70 but still having set a distance PB.
Good learnings for his South Downs Way 100 next year.
DORNEY LAKE WINDSOR HALF MARATHON and 10km Saturday 10th October
Dan Chiechi finished 32nd in the 10k in 46.04, while in the Half Marathon
Ian Keith was 48th in 1:47.16.
RUN THROUGH OLYMPIC PARK 10km Saturday 10th October
Roger Wallace recorded 57.38 in 230th place.
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FINALLY
OR YOU DON'T GET THIS IN RICHMOND PARK
Kenyan sub-63 minutes Half Marathoner Edwin Mokua was running near the Ewaso
River last month and suffered four broken ribs and a double fracture of his
left hand when he was attacked…by a hippopotamus.
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