*************************************************** RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 306 5 May 2009 Editor: Steve Rowland mailto: steverowland@ranelagh-harriers.com *************************************************** HEADLINE NEWS ************* * Ben Matthews and Marie Synnott-Wells win club Marathon championships in London * Mike Peace retains "ever-present" record but John Hanscomb is non-finisher * Trevor Maguire is first Ranelagh finisher in Sutton 10km * Wimbledon parkrun win for Darryl McDonald * Urgent - more helpers needed for next Sunday's Richmond Half Marathon * Runner's World Heroes award for Paul Sinton-Hewitt * Azalea Runs to the Isabella Plantation every Wednesday this month SEE HERE ******* URGENT - MORE HELP NEEDED FOR THE RICHMOND HALF MARATHON Sunday 10th May Heather Martingell writes: "Please help. We need plenty of on-course marshals. The race starts at 8.30am. Marshals will be required for about 90 minutes placed somewhere convenient for you, and you will be rewarded with tea, coffee and various edible goodies back in the clubhouse afterwards. There will also be some drinks on the Tuesday afterwards in the clubhouse for marshals only, as well as energy bars for during the race (to tease the runners with). If you are available to marshal please contact me at heathermartingell@hotmail.com". If you're coming to the Half Marathon, either as a runner or helper, please park carefully and be sure not to cause any problems for local residents. SUBSCRIPTIONS... ...for 2009/10 are now due. The rates are: Senior subscription £40 Under 20 or Student £10 Family subscription £70 Second Claim £20 Retired and over 60 £20 Non-running member £10 Please make cheques payable to Ranelagh Harriers, and send to Membership Secretary, Ranelagh Harriers, 135a Petersham Road, Richmond, Surrey TW10 7AA. Please consider paying by standing order - there is a form on the website which you can fill in and send to your bank: join_us AZALEA RUNS May is the best time to visit the Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park in order to enjoy the marvellous display of colour from the azaleas and rhododendrons. For the next few weeks the usual Wednesday night run from the clubhouse will head to the Isabella to savour the spectacle. The small group of regular Wednesday nighters would like to invite everyone to join them for a guided tour, setting off from the clubhouse at 6.30pm. Wednesday night training goes on all year round and the "regulars" would welcome more people joining them for steady runs in the Park. RANELAGH ON THE ONE SHOW "The One Show" on the Friday night before the London Marathon featured a short report from Sally Gunnell on the origins of the race. As you all should know, the "London" was conceived in the Dysart Arms. Half a dozen Ranelagh members went to the New York City Marathon in 1978 and came back enthusing over it, because at the time it was a unique experience. It was the first of the big city marathons, with thousands of runners and crowd-lined streets. Tales about the race in the bar after training inspired Chris Brasher and John Disley to join the Ranelagh group going to the 1979 race, and they returned similarly enthusiastic and wondering whether London could host a similar event. Less than eighteen months later the dream became reality. The programme showed the clubhouse and the Dysart, with Sally Gunnell interviewing John Disley inside the pub. If you didn't know all this....well, we would still like to sell more copies of our book "The First 125 years of Ranelagh Harriers", where you can read all about this and the rest of our history which dates back to 1881. It's a snip at £12. Details: PAUL SINTON-HEWITT Congratulations to Paul, the founder of the wonderfully successful parkruns, who has been honoured with a Runners World Heroes award. Roger Wilson writes: "parkrun founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt was named The Philanthropist of the Year at the Runners World Heroes of Running 2009 awards last night. The award was made in recognition of Paul's outstanding contributions to running in providing free, weekly 5k events accessible to all. In accepting the award on behalf of the parkrun family Paul said, 'The real heroes in parkrun are the volunteers, hundreds of whom give up their time freely to provide free running events in their communities every week, and bring thousands of people into the sport of running. I'd like to accept this award on behalf of all the outstanding volunteers and runners around the country who make parkrun what it is. I'd also like to thank parkrun's sponsors who've recognised what we do and helped us to provide free running - my sincere thanks to Nike, Lucozade and Sweatshop for their support. I also wish to thank Joanne who's stood by me while I've spent most of my free time on parkrun in the last five years!'" You can read the full story at here:. CONGRATULATIONS... ...to Anna and John Scally on the arrival of Connor Matthew on Saturday 25th April. Young Connor, who weighed in at 7lb 1oz, arrived a week early, obviously not wanting to miss his first London Marathon. And in case John thought this would be a good excuse for him to miss the race...Anna, Connor and the midwife (herself a veteran of three "Londons") ganged up and sent him off to run a PB by four minutes. DORKING 10 miles Sunday 31st May This race forms part of both the Surrey Road League and our own Grand Prix and in addition serves as the county 10 miles championship. RANELAGH'S ROAD GRAND PRIX The GP continues with the Richmond Half Marathon and the Dorking 10 miles. Full details here: LONDON MARATHON 2010 The ballot for places in the 2010 has theoretically been open since last Monday, though successful access to the website has proved as elusive as a British male London Marathon winner. VETERANS TRACK LEAGUE Match 1, featuring 100m, 400m, 1500m, 4x400m, 2000m walk, discus, high jump, long jump and shot putt for men and women takes place on Monday 11th May at Uxbridge Venue:. Field events start at 6.30pm, track at 7pm. Please contact Bev Ali (beviscosmicali@googlemail.com) if you would like more information. TRAIL RUNNING IN THE ALPS West 4 Harrier Julia Tregaskis writes: "So you've already completed a 10k or half marathon or even a marathon, so what's next? Alpine Trail Running is not just for the elite categories. We are offering a training week for novice and experienced runners who would like to try mountain trails. Learn from the best. Coaches include World Class runner and Mountain Leader, Lizzy Hawker. Based in Chamonix in the French Alps, this unique opportunity will enable runners to learn the fundamentals of Alpine Trail Running with the added challenge of entering a race at the end of the week. Whilst based in a fully-catered chalet with hot tub, sauna and views of Mont Blanc you will be out in the mountains every day being coached in all aspects of mountain trail running from mountain navigation and safety to conditioning your body for the hills. We will also be there to get you through your first trail race - with pre-race massage included! Dates: 21st-28th June 2009. Price £850 for the week - 5% off for Ranelagh Harriers. WHAT'S COMING ************* More details of the following from Marc Snaith (07717 213035 mailto ( mdsnaith5@hotmail.com ) or Marie Synnott-Wells (07956 431319 / mailto nandmwells@aol.com ) Sunday 10th May Richmond Half Marathon. See above. Sat 23rd / Sun 24th May Green Belt Relay. See above. Sunday 31st May Dorking 10 miles. See above 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 Other venues, more details and registration at www.parkrun.com WHAT'S HAPPENED *************** FLORA LONDON MARATHON Sunday 26th April During the week preceding the race the weather forecast for the big day changed daily. First it was going to be cool and wet, then cool and showery, then cool and sunny. Needless to say it actually turned out to be warm and sunny - great for the spectators, not so good for the masses who had put in most of their training through the dark dank days of winter. There was a slight scare over Tamil protestors occupying Parliament Square and official course measurer Hugh Jones prepared a possible diversion - which happily turned out not to be required. As usual the elite women were first away, though this year they numbered no more than twenty-odd. The organisers apparently did not want the "elite" tail-enders cluttering up the road for the leading men, so all those likely to run slower than 2:35 were put into the main start, like it or no. At 9.45am the thousands were set on their way. The first Ranelagh cheering point is at about 6 miles, and here the leaders passed at world record pace. It was good to see a Ranelagh vest well placed: this was Chris Illman, benefiting from the Ranelagh support though actually representing his first-claim club Cirencester. Like the leaders, Chris had allowed himself to be pulled along a little too fast in the early stages, passing 6 miles in 32 minutes, a full minute ahead of schedule. He inevitably paid for his impetuousness later but was happy enough to record 2:32 in his first marathon. The first finisher actually shown as representing Ranelagh presents something of a mystery: this was Andreas Groth, a Dane who recorded 2:34. He made himself known to Steve Whitehead before the start, but apart from this nobody seems to know anything about him. If any reader can cast light on the mystery, please get in touch. Behind these two (plus Duncan Bell running for the Army and Danny Norman for Stragglers) the race to be the leading Ranelagh finisher resolved itself into a fight between Ben Matthews and Steve Whitehead. The splits show Ben to have held the advantage from the start - half a minute at 10km, nearly two minutes at half way. Coincidentally their respective splits between the half distance and 30km were identical to the second; but thereafter Steve began to close steadily. At 40km the gap was less than a minute and at the finish it just was 43 seconds: 2:44.38 to 2:45.21. But it was Ben who crossed the line first and subject to confirmation he will take the Winter Cup club marathon championship. Martin Halvey was on Steve's heels in the early miles and was still not far behind at half way but faded a little in the second half. He was our third man home in 2:51 and behind him Nathan Mills, returning from a lengthy injury, was our only other finisher inside three hours. Patrick Wallis, David Rowe and Steve Grout were inside three and a half. Ian Grange finished in 3:56, one minute faster than he had run at Bungay seven days earlier. He's planning three in a row next year! Brand new dad John Scally recorded 4:19. Marie Synnott-Wells was a little disappointed with her run, passing half distance on three hours schedule but slipping away to 3:10 at the finish. Nevertheless she comfortably won the Brasher Bowl club women's marathon championship nearly half an hour clear of returnee Sarah Doe, who way back in 1996 won the club women's cross-country championship as a 14 year-old. Mandy Harris finished five minutes behind Sarah. And what of the ever-presents? 22 men who had run all 28 London Marathons lined up at Greenwich; 21 of them crossed the finishing line. The one who did not make it, sadly, was jolly John Hanscomb. 73 year-old John had more or less decided in advance that he would not complete the race this year. He made his final appearance in the "ever-presents" photograph before the start, ran to half way and then took to the train. Congratulations, John, on the 28! There were however no thoughts from Mike Peace of giving up the sequence just yet. Mike - a comparative youngster of 59 - ran his second slowest time to date but enjoyed the race as much as ever and is confident he has a few more years left in his legs yet. You can see a summary of Mike and John's astonishing London Marathon records here:. We did not have so many representatives in the Mini Marathon as usual. Best result came from Amelie Hunton who finished 19th and was a member of the winning Richmond team in the 13-14 age group. As usual we try to get a few different views of the race. Here goes. Steve Whitehead: "I went into the race fighting off a slight temperature that had developed over the weekend (nerves perhaps) and so had planned to hold back a little on my target pace of 6.10 minute miles. Yet again, the FLM got the better of my judgement and I set off a little too fast and was struggling by mile 6 where my pace had dropped to 6.22. It was then a battle of mind over matter from there to the end, using my Garmin to check my pace every quarter mile and essentially blocking everything else out. Very many apologies to those whose words/cheers of encouragement I failed to acknowledge. I did hear a great many of you and it did help, I just had to get my head down and grind away at the miles! I may give it a rest next year but despite the pain of Sunday I have not been put off. Many congratulations to Andreas whom I met just before the start with his great time which, if my memory serves correctly, is exactly what he was targeting. Many congratulations to Ben as well". Mike Peace: "29 not out comes straight to mind but 29 and just consolidating an innings is equally apt. Mind you, someone is quite likely to serve up the proverbial googly just as you get ready for the next one. Illness and injury blight us all at some stage. I just hope that April is not the time for my dose. As the machine of London gets underway preparing for the 30th (new sponsor) Virgin Marathon so we runners start with the best of intentions to get ready for next year's event. I think most of it is in the mind for nine months before we actually get down to any serious preparation. Repetitive, no. This year's event shows just how vibrant and exciting the event remains and that is for us regulars as well. Every year brings something new, even if that is just another pain you weren't expecting. Usually it's a range of exciting, inspiring and humbling experiences that you can't wait to enjoy for another year. It's a street party you love to be invited to: to be there and enjoy every year". Here's an extract from David Rowe's blog rowerunning.co.uk/: "My first few miles I settled into about 7:23 miling, which was slightly faster than my ideal time (7:26 pace), but I was feeling good so took advantage of it. I have to say the first 13 miles or so were absolutely amazing. Here I was, running my first ever marathon, the London Marathon, along with 35,000+ others in beautiful sunshine. The weather brought out an unbelievable amount of supporters. Every now and then there were bands playing, DJ's spinning tunes, or just really loud cheers. It was awesome. During training I've no real blister problems with my feet. Today I had the same shoes and socks I'd worn in training so wasn't expecting any problems. How wrong I was! At about eight miles I felt pain in both feet - blisters had arrived. I'd not had anything like this before and it was starting to get painful. At this point I knew I'd have to HTFU and deal with it. The first 13.1 miles (half marathon split) was about 1 hour 37 minutes. Bang on time for a sub 3 hour 15 marathon. This was my 'A' target - something I'd be massively delighted with. All was looking good. We then head on towards Docklands. At this point I saw one runner who'd collapsed and was lying in a heap by the side of the road. There were people looking after him but the warm weather was certainly taking its toll on people. I knew I was slowing, but putting more effort in to maintain my pace. The enjoyment at times was starting to wear thin, very thin! HTFU. We then head into the middle of Canary Wharf. There's lots of 90 degree turns in this part of the course which wasn't too much of a problem as there were not too many people around me, but I'm sure further down the field it probably gets quite congested. At 20 miles you're now onto the final 'straight', with only 10km left to go. This is where theoretically many people hit 'the wall' but there was none of that for me. I'd eaten well(ish) the last few days and had plenty of fuel on the run. It was just a case of pushing on towards the finish. I always had it in my plan in that if I was feeling good after 20-22 miles I'd try and up the pace a bit, but there was none of that today! My feet were very painful, and I glanced down on a few occasions expecting to see blood on my shoes but thankfully there was none. I later found out after the race that there was blood - making a nice stain on my socks! The final miles are strange. Personally I've supported from here once before (at mile 25, in 2007) and the noise was immense. This year it was my turn to be a runner. Looking at my watch a 3:15 time was long gone, but a finish inside of 3:20 was very possible. I just had to hang on to the finish. One thought that went through my head was 'in less than 30 minutes I will have completed the London Marathon'. I've never run for longer than about 2 hours 50 minutes before if training (my longest training run was 21 miles) so this was all new territory for me. There was nothing that would stop me from finishing, and I wasn't going to stop and walk - no way whatsoever. I'm running this marathon - all 26.2 miles of it. At 23 miles you go past the 3 mile 'mini-marathon' start line (for under 18's) and you're into the final part of the race. I was finding it tough here and I was purely running just to get to the finish. The crowds were thick with people and noise all the way along Embankment towards Parliament Square/Big Ben. I didn't get to appreciate at all in full the final miles. I was fully concentrating on staying strong and getting to the finish under 3:20. It wasn't easy, but I just had to get on with it. You turn right at Westminster then head towards Buckingham Palace. I didn't see the London Eye (across the river), I barely noticed Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament and I didn't even get a glance of Buckingham Palace! Throughout the final stages the crowds were stacked with people and in the distance I saw a '600m to go' sign. You then turn a corner and it's '400m', then '200m', and then next thing it's the final straight. The sun was shining, my time was looking good and I crossed the finish line in 3 hours 19 minutes and 46 seconds. Job done. My legs were hurting, but I'd done what I wanted. I had completed the London Marathon and finished in position 2,444 - out of 35,306 finishers (as of 7pm Sunday). As you cross the finish line there's lots to do... smile for the camera, collect your goodie-bag, collect your medal, pose for your finisher's photograph, then collect your baggage from the truck you put your things in a few hours earlier in Blackheath. The process was like clockwork - and it was great to keep walking once you finish - else you'll seize up and have trouble moving again!" Parveen Annear: "So the day I had been training for over four months arrived. As I was in the assembly area waiting for the race to start I saw a fellow athlete wearing a t-shirt that said 'pain is temporary but quitting lasts forever' and I took that motto with me for the entire 26.2 miles. I had two aims, first to keep running the whole way and second to complete in under four and half hours. The atmosphere of the day was something no-one can actually prepare you for. As I listened to the various music blaring, drums playing and numerous strangers shouting my name I actually forgot I was running...maybe this is the 'zone' that you hear about. There were a couple points on route that spectators were unable to watch, but instead of all being quiet the runners started their own 'oggi oggi' shouts spurring those behind them on. At 24.5 miles the legs started to let me know they were tired. At this point the crowd was about seven people deep and even louder. Yes I was tired and was still working hard to overtake people but luckily for me I never felt sick and never hit the wall. I ran all the way and came in 15 minutes earlier than I planned. Due to the amount of people maybe the London Marathon is not the best place to get a PB (according to the Garmin I actually ran 27.1 miles) but I loved every minute of it and did not once wonder why I was putting myself through this. In fact I have already entered myself for 2010 and have a new goal to get under the 4 hour mark...always another thing to aim for!" Mike Rowland as usual waited until most other competitors had vacated Greenwich Park and then set off race walking in pursuit: "I could use any number of excuses - illness, several niggling little injuries, the cold snap in February, the strong sun on the day - but I have to face the facts. I was under-trained and my age (63) is kicking in hard. I really do take my hat off to our super-vets like Clive Beauvais, Martin Clark, Alan Howard and others. How do you do it? You're amazing. For a while it was great fun at the back as usual. Some incredible costumes, some brave severely handicapped people on crutches, some idiots like the young lady on stilts. I was strolling along at 13-minute mile pace, heading for 5:40ish which would have been fine. But then a wretched blister developed and it hurt! I limped through the last four miles with the six hours barrier in mind. But it wasn't to be. It's crazy how we're influenced by these time barriers. 5:55 and I would have been pleased as punch, bearing in mind the blister. 6:05 and I was dejected, grumpy and thoroughly fed up. But of course I'll be back next year. It's a wonderful event, may it last forever. So well do I remember Chris Brasher's words: 'To believe this story, you must believe that the human race can be one joyous family, working together, laughing together, achieving the impossible'. The papers tell us of so much that is bad in the world. The London Marathon reminds me that there's one hell of a lot of good as well". It was not a good day for Carola Richter: "That must be every runner's nightmare and it surely was mine. What a huge disappointment! After months of training and feeling really good to reach my target time 3:20:00 I found myself in the back of an ambulance after 18 miles. I don't even know what went wrong as I was on target with my splits until 18 miles when I suddenly felt really funny and blacked out. The next thing I remember is people leaning over me asking me 'Can you hear me?', 'What's your name?'. The police guy (bless him he tried his best) was adamant to ring for a ambulance. I tried to convince him that I wanted to carry on but with not much success. The ambulance finally arrived but by now I thought I felt better and wanted to go back again. So I decided against the IV-drip, thanked them for their help and carried on. I'm sure they were waiting for a call to pick me up again at some point. It was a struggle from then on and only my stubbornness stopped me from giving up. A huge THANK YOU to Sharon Rowe, Heather and Kirsty for a shoulder to cry on. Without you guys I wouldn't have been able to carry on. I was actually looking forward to mile 22 to cry on your shoulders. Thank you. Guess, it's all part of racing, time to recover and pick myself up again and think what went wrong". Men 1 S Wanjiru (Kenya) 2:05.10 281 Ben Matthews 2:44.38 302 Steve Whitehead 2:45.21 485 Martin Halvey 2:51.37 782 Nathan Mills 2:57.51 1639 Patrick Wallis 3:11.04 2444 David Rowe 3:19.46 3146 Steve Grout 3:26.17 3893 Mike Peace 3:32.07 7738 Ian Grange 3:56.10 8192 Kevin Parker 3:58.06 10310 Lee Davies 4:09.41 12125 John Scally 4:19.34 18282 Geoff Bell 4:55.33 22973 Daniel Hobbs 5:54.21 23344 Mike Rowland 6:05.18 Also 76 Chris Illman (Cir) 2:32.51 97 Andreas Groth 2:34.44 200 Danny Norman (Str) 2:41.06 247 Duncan Bell (Army) 2:43.20 Women 1 I Mikitenko (Ger) 2:22.11 126 Marie Synnott-Wells 3:10.56 796 Sarah Doe 3:39.01 1012 Mandy Harris 3:44.21 2837 Parveen Annear 4:15.27 3361 Carola Richter 4:22.32 6280 Sharon Dooley 4:56.15 10129 Daphne Moynier 6:14.28 Mini Marathon Boys 15-17 1 R Goodman (Harrow) 14.42 94 Edward Smith 17.49 131 Luke Wilson 18.24 Girls 15-17 1 G O'Leary (Sutton) 17.21 67 Anna Mallett 21.39 Girls 13-14 1 S Draper (Hillingdon) 17.50 19 Amelie Hunton 20.08 94 Danya Marx 22.42 149 Laura Wells 24.06 SUTTON 10km Sunday 3rd May There weren't too many takers for the Sutton 10km, perhaps not surprisingly one week after the Marathon, one week before the Half Marathon and on a scenically-challenged course. Trevor Maguire and Niall O'Connor were never far apart and scraped into the top thirty, Trevor finishing 7th in the over 40s category. Jonathan Robinson was next in: he was the Surrey League over 50 champion last year, but in this - the first League race of the 2009 campaign - he was beaten into third place. Iain Wilson was our only other man inside 40 minutes, not bad going considering his efforts on the West Highland Way last weekend (see below)! Wally Garrod bet John Hanscomb a fiver that he could beat John's best 10km as an over 70 - 53.35. He lost. This was the third race in the Ranelagh Road Grand Prix. Scores to date: Next events are the Richmond Half Marathon and the Dorking 10. BAMPTON TO TIVERTON 7 miles Monday 13th April In between growing vegetables and looking after ponies, Margaret Auerback still manages to run a little and was the first over 60 to finish. 1 J McFarlane (TH&H) 36.39 168 Margaret Auerback 65.13 ANDREW JACKSON MEMORIAL MARATHON Saturday 18th April at Jackson, Tennessee Andy Hayward reports: "Up at 5am for a 7am start along with 69 other runners for the 37th edition of 'Tennessee's Oldest Marathon'. It was sunny, humid and about 21C/70F at the beginning, but clouded over shortly afterwards. The course was undulating and involved six miles out through nice residential neighbourhoods to a 14 mile, rural circular route through farmland and open countryside, and then back the same way for the last six. Having done eight marathons in the first eight months of last year, I had done almost nothing since August (certainly in the way of long runs, having managed only a couple of 15's and one 21 in the entire eight months). I felt seriously undertrained, and almost like I was in uncharted territory, as usually I am always marathon fit. In the 21 mile training run (which was only 10 days earlier) I struggled at the end, and I felt I would probably fade in the later stages of the race. I set off at an easy 8 min/mile pace, and felt like it was about the best pace I would be able to hold until the later stages took their toll. I went through the half right on 1:45, so felt good that I had maintained the pace despite the hills. At 16 miles it started raining, and probably cooled a bit, and I started overtaking people from about this point which gave me some confidence. Once I got to 20 and started the final six miles back to the start/finish, I was motivated to try and keep ahead of the people I had overtaken, as I felt at least one was in my age group. However, I also had to let a couple of runners go that I had run several miles with, as I could not hang on to them. Despite these 'mixed messages' I was still feeling surprisingly strong. Over the final mile, one of the two that I had let go started coming back to me, and I was reeling him in fast at the end, but the course wasn't quite long enough for me to catch him. I finished in 3:32:43, and while I always like to finish inside 3:30, I was very pleased with this effort, as I felt that due to lack of long runs, realistically I was probably going to fade and finish outside 3:40, especially in view of the undulating course. It was good enough for 13th overall (out of only 65 finishers) and first place in the M50 age group, so I got a nice trophy for the effort". 1 J Mescal (USA) 2:45.32 13 Andy Hayward 3:32.43 MABAC LEAGUE 5 miles Sunday 19th April at Winterfold With baby Rose now nearly nine months old, Sarah Smith made her return to racing on this tough course in the Surrey Hills, her first competitive effort for over two years. 1 D Cairnie (Runnymede) 31.30 23 Steve Rowland 38.55 24 Sarah Smith 39.10 55 Alan Davidson 43.01 58 Sonia Rowland 43.24 LAST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH 5km Friday 24th April in Hyde Park 1 N Torry (Serpentine) 15.29 85 Michael Bull 20.37 105 Alan Davidson 21.20 BUSHY parkrun 5km Saturday 25th April 1 R Ward (Belgrave) 16.01 4 Jonathon Stacey 16.48 54 Darren Wood 19.49 68 Jonny Rowan 20.15 107 Sarah Lintern 21.29 147 Peter Fordham 22.26 153 Paul Martingell 22.32 166 Chris Camacho 22.48 230 Chris Wilson 24.26 238 Roger Wilson 24.37 258 Phil Aiken 25.05 285 Gill Wilson 25.44 326 Kirsty Bangham 27.08 374 John Hanscomb 28.51 377 Wally Garrod 28.55 408 Sharon Rowe 31.38 RICHMOND parkrun 5km Saturday 25th April 1 D Agustus (Scarboro) 16.15 10 Stephen Instone 19.52 27 Andrew Brown 21.16 42 Clive Naish 22.20 47 Alison Dicks 22.42 48 Christopher Parsons 22.43 49 Karen Weir 22.45 53 Alan Davidson 22.53 72 Michael White 25.02 83 Heather Martingell 27.13 105 Janet Turnes 30.34 113 Bev Ali 34.31 BANSTEAD WOODS parkrun 5km Saturday 25th April 1 M Chapman (SLH) 17.24 31 Chris Read 20.40 HIGHLAND FLING 53 miles Saturday 25th April Milngavie to Tyndrum You thought the London Marathon was tough? This little fling takes place over 53 miles of the scenic -and mountainous - West Highland Way. Iain Wilson just missed his ten hours target but was 6th over 50 to finish. You can read a blow by blow account here:. 1 J Bragg (North Face) 7:19.09 56 Iain Wilson 10:05.50 SHAKESPEARE MARATHON and HALF MARATHON Sunday 26th April at Stratford upon Avon Marathon 1 P Mountford (Tipton) 2:39.04 (chip time 2:39.04) 506 Jose Scheuer 4:09.50 (4:09.24) Half Marathon 1 M Aldridge (Wootton) 1:12.26 (1:12.26) 962 Tom Reay 2:01.43 (2:00.25) RICHMOND parkrun 5km Saturday 2nd May 1 D Agustus (Scarboro) 15.59 8 Jerym Brunton 19.03 13 Stephen Instone 19.43 29 Andrew Brown 21.07 36 Sandra Prosser 21.40 42 Andrzej Bockowski 21.54 54 Richard Goddard-Jones 22.35 72 Michael White 23.51 78 Anna Mallett 24.23 99 Johannes Prosser 26.46 111 Lorna Smith 27.51 128 Pat Hewlett 30.35 BUSHY parkrun 5km Saturday 2nd May 1 M Shore 16.11 38 Darren Wood 19.25 39 Duncan Mallison 19.26 44 David Rowe 19.38 129 Paul Martingell 22.00 133 Chris Camacho 22.07 154 Ian Grange 22.37 255 Phil Aiken 24.23 267 Roger Wilson 24.36 281 Kirsty Bangham 24.50 299 Peter Fordham 25.10 304 Heather Martingell 25.13 338 Holly Wilson 26.04 346 Gill Wilson 26.19 480 Sharon Rowe 30.39 532 Peter Martingell 36.53 WIMBLEDON COMMON parkrun 5km Saturday 2nd May Another win for Darryl. 1 Darryl McDonald 16.52 BANSTEAD WOODS parkrun 5km Saturday 2nd May 1 R Ward (Belgrave) 16.45 11 Simon Hedger 19.26 ALBERT PARK parkrun 5km Saturday 2nd May 1 M Habteab (unatt) 16.50 92 Chris Wright 27.47 AMAGER FÆLLED parkrun 5km Saturday 2nd May The addition of this event in Copenhagen and another in Great Yarmouth brings the parkrun family to fourteen. 1 M Bjarrum (Fortius) 20.51 6 Joanne Turner 24.26 HAMMERSMITH RIVERSIDE HANDICAP 3.3 miles Tuesday 31st March Alan Howard was top ranked in the age grading with 84.9%. 1 C Mills (West 4) 21.57 4 Alan Davidson 22.29 8 Alan Howard 23.11 BRIDGES 2.3 miles HANDICAP Wednesday 8th April at Westminster 1 R Lands (Bedford) 20.39 (actual time 14.39) 15 Alan Davidson 21.33 (16.33) 19 John Hanscomb 22.08 (22.38) FINALLY... Pete Mulholland writes: "And you thought that the London Marathon was a serious race. Among the masses of personal triumphs on a beautiful Spring day, ten Guinness World Records were broken including the fastest marathon dressed as Santa Claus (2:55:50 by Paul Simons), the fastest marathon dressed as a vegetable (3:34:55 by Robert Prothero) and the fastest fruit (4:19:37 by Thomas Day). There were also records for the fastest leprechaun (4:22:08 by Jack Lyons), the fastest animal (3:42:27 by Alastair Martin) and the fastest cartoon character (3:36:07 by Darren Stone)".