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Newsdesk 2003
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RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 87 15 JANUARY 2003
Web site: www.ranelagh-harriers.com
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SATURDAY JANUARY 18TH Match v MILOCARIANS and others at RMA Sandhurst,
Camberley. 6 miles, start 2pm.
If you're going to this race at the RMA, remember to take some i.d. with
you. The entrance is on the A30 at Camberley.
SATURDAY JANUARY 11TH SURREY LEAGUE in Richmond Park
The heavy snow of a few days earlier had all but disappeared but the bright
and sunny day was bitterly cold. Treacherous patches of ice were a feature
of the course, particularly around Sidmouth Wood and down by the Pen Ponds.
To avoid the latter we employed the diversion away from the Ponds that we
last utilised when there was serious flooding a couple of years ago.
Once again, pride of place goes to the distaff side. Julian Smith reports:
"We had another solid total turnout of 18, not bad considering the frozen
and very difficult conditions. However this was the day when we finally got
all our stars out, not only to the start line but to the finish line as
well! Allison O'Neill, who has been training very hard for several weeks,
came over from Paris specially for the race, and Liz Kipling was also able
to run for the first time this season. Thus it was no surprise that right
from the start we had three runners well up in what was a particularly
strong field at the front. In the end Thames second claimers once again took
the first two places, led by GB international and Kent champion Louise
Watson of Medway. Not far behind, Allison produced her best cross-country
performance for years, Sarah was as consistently good as ever recently, and
Liz also showed just what she's capable of when she puts her mind to it.
But perhaps the most impressive performances of the day were from their much
younger team-mates behind them: Sara Grosvenor and 18-year-old Alice Beverly
both started very fast, and instead of dying horribly as expected just kept
on going! In the end they finished 15th and 16th as our final two scorers,
giving the opposition no chance at all. And so we won our first Surrey
League fixture for over a decade, consolidated our second place overall, and
provided the leading B, C and D teams on the day!"
Alice running in the senior race rather than the under 20s was part of
Sarah's cunning plan, but with others absent we were left with a team of one
in the U20 / U17 race. Fortunately such was the paucity of runners that
Anair's runner-up position was sufficient to fill 3rd team place on her own
and to retain the overall team lead. Getting two or three runners to the
start line in the last fixture should be enough to secure the league title.
In the Under 13 race Alex Hook scored her second straight victory and with
Emily and Clare both in the top ten Ranelagh won another team race and took
the overall lead by a narrow margin.
The last fixture at Lloyd Park on February 1st will be worth watching!
Sarah Seal had recovered from her efforts in time to report - with help from
Andy B - on the men's race:
"The sun really was setting as 150+ men gathered at the start - ice skates
would have been appropriate and probably quicker but most stuck with
traditional footwear. Peter Haarer, Hugh Jones and Julian Smith started out
confidently and finished in that order for Ranelagh - showing just how real
men race. Captain Bickerstaff tells of the excitement behind...... 'It was
notable the speed with which Paul shot off the line ...propelled from behind
by a not so amused runner who with one second to the gun found he was
suddenly on the second row! He then competed gamely with the elite and only
succumbed to a slow starting Marcus right near the end. His namesake John
also used the fast starting technique but in his case was overtaken by
everyone by halfway down Queens Ride! Kevin in an uncharacteristically
gallant gesture actually stopped to ask another team member if he was all
right having fallen flat on the ice. I put him straight not to do that
again, just take that chance to beat him! Personally it's a race to forget
as I started slow, tippy-toed across the ice while the rest disappeared, and
never ran fast enough after that. Nice to see Julian starting farther up the
field than usual and getting involved from the off'.
Our marvellous men finished 5th - and this performance helped them sneak
up one position to 5th in the league overall with only one match to go.The
first scoring 5 were inside the top 50 this time, an improvement on Kingston
Vale - who knows what else the men have tucked up their sleeves!
It was also the largest turnout of Ranelagh juniors of the season on
Saturday. Richard Sim - returning to running after injury - ran impressively
through the field finishing 3rd in his age group and 5th overall. Ben had
another good run and Dan also finished comfortably in the top half of his
race. Its great to see the return of this age group to the club".
SNOW GOOD...
The heavy snow that fell in the London area last week left the Park under a
deep blanket for a couple of days. Chris Owens reports on his Wednesday
night run:
"For me an absolutely epic standout experience. Went off with Clive and a
few others and resolved to go left at Ham and do a short one. Very slippery
on the road and some people were snowboarding on the hill near the car park.
Once on the road through the middle, just magic - half moon, enough light to
see clearly. Had seen some deer running across the road en route to Ham but
could see lots more now - very scenic. Got to the end of the road near Pen
Ponds to meet two vague figures - Marcus and Eliete - going tobogganing ! At
least that's what they said....
Turned down their invitation to join them - not nice to slide in the dark
into trees, rocks etc. Ran to the ballet school, and decided to turn left
down Queen's Ride trusting in the moonlight. Absolutely magic - just enough
light to see the route, and on the uphill slope, the park people were
putting out hay for the deer.
I've never run in deep snow like that in Richmond Park, and to run 'offroad'
under the moonlight was very special".
NEW YEAR'S DAY 10km in Hyde Park
Hugh was complaining about sudddenly running so slowly. 34 mins for a 10km
by a 47-year-old doesn't sound too bad to me but I suppose if you once
cruised 20 mile training runs at that pace your perspective might be a
little different. Anyway, Hugh's woes notwithstanding, this could count as a
spectacularly successful day for Ranelagh as 80% of our runners made the
prize list and Hugh, Alan and Pete finished as third team!
1 D Kedebe (Herc Wimb) 31.08
5 Hugh Jones (1st O/45) 34.12
56 Alan Davidson (2nd O/55) 40.28
98 Pete Warren (2nd O/60) 43.10
230 Evelyn Joslin 51.00
271 John Hanscomb (1st O/65) 53.10
DARRYL MCDONALD...
...is back in Wimbledon after his lengthy sojourn in Edinburgh. Welcome
back!
BATH HALF MARATHON
Ian Webster has now moved to Malmesbury, 20 minutes from Bath, and would be
happy to accommodate one or two people for the Bath Half. Contact Ian at
ian.webster@btopenworld.com.
TUESDAY & THURSDAY NIGHT TRAINING
Details of forthcoming sessions can now be found on our web site
via About Us/Training Sessions. Brief details of the next few:
Tuesday 21st Jan: pyramid session.
Tuesday 28th Jan: 4 x continuous loop on Ham Cross hill.
Tuesday 4th Feb: 3 x 5 mins effort + 3 x 3 mins.
Thursdays are steady runs of 5-6 miles with some shorter efforts or strides
incorporated.
All are welcome, starting from the clubhouse at 7pm.
Wednesday night training continues as usual of course, with steady runs
starting at about 6.30pm.
NEXT...
More details of the following from Andy Bickerstaff (07966 552302 /
mailto:norris.hobs@ndirect.co.uk ) or
Sarah Seal (020 8995 2380 / mailto:sarahs@walker.co.uk ).
Saturday January 18th v Milocarians and others at RMA Sandhurst. See
above.
Saturday January 25th Southern Championships at Exmouth.
Saturday February 1st Final Surrey League fixtures - men at Coulsdon,
women at Lloyd Park.
Sunday February 2nd Richmond Mini Marathon Trial in Richmond Park
starting at 9.30am.
Saturday February 8th Pelling-Ratcliff Cup mob match v Blackheath
Harriers at Hayes (Kent).
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what
you put into it." Oprah Winfrey.
Steve Rowland
e-mail: srowland@calorgas.co.uk
Tel: 01926 318734
Fax: 0870 4006901