Week 1
What a fantastic morning we had. 43 finishers in one of the toughest races of the year, including debuts from Katie B, Lou and Sanjay. For the men, Mo was back to his imperious best, Captain Dave led by example with a superb run, and there were PBs for Mo, John D, Ashveer, Mark Richards and Marcus. Our ladies had a fantastic morning with Geraldine storming home first, followed by Kathryn, Katie B and Nicole. Nicole and Helen W also got PBs. Helen’s Gold Standard was enough to upgrade her to Silver for the year. Dave P also upgraded to Diamond and Blake to Copper. We’ll have updated team tables at the weekend, but it looks like we’ve done enough to go to Markfield with it all still to play for.
At the end of last week, Fiona took on her A race for 2024, the TDS (Les Traces du Duc de Savoie) which is 148k, with more than 9300m of vert, over the same terrain as the UTMB. Despite an injury-wrecked build up, she was going well until she became one of many competitors to develop sun-stroke and had to withdraw after 91k (5775m). We wish her a speedy recovery.
Week 2
It’s was certainly a busy weekend. Dave P recorded an impressive 3.09 in the Vilnius Marathon, which will hopefully be enough for a Good for Age entry to London. Also in Marathon action was Hilary. The Jungfrau Marathon goes up the Swiss mountain. It is gently uphill for the first half and then gets steadily steeper and the terrain more challenging, just as the fatigue sets in. I thought this may be Hilary’s 10th completion, but it turns out to be number 11, since 2010 (ranging from 6.10 to 6.49). This time she achieved 6.39.53 and 3rd V70.
We had a big representation at the Great North Run:
Anna 1.44.54, Sally 1.46.47, Jude 2.00.41, Sanjay and Lou 2.04.58, Asif 2.19.26, Gary 2.24.07 and Sajedah 2.52.20. Well done for surviving an event where you spend more time queuing for public transport afterwards than you actually did running it!
Week 3
Copenhagen was the talk of the athletics world this weekend. Not quite sure how the press got wind of the fact that Jackie was about to compete her collection of ‘super Half’ finishes, but she is a Roadhogg legend after all. As a sideshow, you may have seen that some Norwegian bloke who has won a few baubles, was also running the half. Congratulations Jackie (1.46.33) and ‘minder’ Dave (1.25.13), just a week after his Marathon. Talking of Marathons, David W (3.39.26), Kathryn (3.42.05, 2nd V50) and Marcus (4.21.55) did the Richmond event. Well done all.
Lots of members got together on Saturday to celebrate some notable parkrun milestones. 200s for Lee and Mat and 100 for Mat’s four-legged mentor Chester.
Week 4
We’ve just had Equinox weekend and the club had 18 people run at least one lap of the course. Our two 5-person teams, Pink Hoggettes (Adele 4, Amy L 3, Sandra 4, Xiaoye 4, Charly 1) and Wildhoggs (Tim P 4, Marcus 2, John D 4, Mat J 2, Julian 3) completed 16 and 15 laps, respectively. Purple Hoggettes managed 11 (Anna 4, Helen W 4, Helen A 3) and we had 4 solos; Blake 7, Terry 7, Cath 5 and Sarah V 5, plus Char in the standalone 10k.
Down in Oz, Fiona took on a 30k trail race (770m vert), some of which, the organisers described as ‘un-runnable’! She and a clubmate were 5th/6th females and she was1st in age cat (naturally!).
We had some successes at parkrun, too. Mo broke his course record at Victoria Park (14.58) and Gurmit (16.30) and Ashveer (18.20) set PBs at Abbey Park
Week 5
Yesterday saw the final Road League race of the year. We had an unprecedented number of dropouts, but those that could make it rose to the occasion and there were plenty of brilliant runs. We won’t have official team scores until the weekend, but things are looking good. Mo had already sealed the Summer League title, but he put on a dominant performance, winning by a minute and smashing his PB. Captain Dave put in a platinum standard performance, as did Gurmit, who also got a PB and finished top vet. Ashveer smashed his PB and there was an excellent debut from Jason. For the ladies, Geraldine led the way with an impressive PB and Kathryn, Leah and Nicole ensured a good team score.
There were also PBs for Nicole, Charlotte, Helen W, Dan C and John D. Nigel was just outside his PB, but got the all important Bronze to complete his standard for 2024.
Elsewhere, Chris W broke 2-hours in the Robin Hood HM (1.59.45), Sally made her Marathon debut at Loch Ness (4.01.14) and Anna battled 40mph winds in the Barnstaple Marathon (3.55.14 and 1st V50). We also had a member running the Berlin Marathon seeking a GFA for London, but I’ve been told that I can’t tell you that she beat the target time by over an hour (4.53.40).
