Reports by Stan Eldon MBE for the Reading Post
Email staneldon@btinternet.com
Results of recent running events involving runners from Reading
On a crisp dry morning the Wokingham Half Marathon run from Cantley Park produced another record breaking run by Phil Wicks (Belgrave Harriers). With a winning time of 63:14 he beat his own record of 64:10 set last year and also had well over two minutes to spare over the second runner Phil Nicholls (Tipton Harriers) 65:50 and three minutes over 3rd man Paul Marteletti (Victoria Park Harriers) 66:19.
Liz Yelling clocked up her 4th win the event with 72:58 (outside her record of
71:09 in 2008) and evergreen Reading Roadrunner Lesley Whiley added another win
to her long record by winning the FV50 category with 88:18 .Belinda Tull from the club took 4thplace in the FV40 age group with 86:44. In the 2100 finishers there were a
large number of Reading Roadrunners and Reading Joggers. First to finish for
the ‘green vests was Peter Crisp (RRRand Newbury AC) in 50th place with 75:40, then Duncan Smith 76:39,followed by Richard Usher 80:05, David McCoy 81:49, Lance Nortcliff 83:25, Gavin Rennie 83:12,Steven Siddell 87:15, Ian Carey 88:07, Ed Dodwell 88:23 and 10th MV50,Alan Thomas 89:35, and Kevin Buree 89:54.The first
Reading Jogger was Eddie Johnson with a PB of 88:44, from Helen Garforth 92:02, Peter Rayner 93:35 (11th MV60), Jonathan Hall 94:49, Ian Combellack 95:14, Nick
Clark PB of 1:40.05, Adrian Lee PB of 1:38.05, Bob Brookes 1:47.19 Sarah Puplett 1:56.19. and Judy Hicks 1:58.34.
No team wins for Reading Roadrunners this time, the Women’s team winners were Sandhurst Joggers and the Men’winners were Les Croupiers from Wales.
The race which is supported by Wokingham Borough Council has support sponsorship from
David Cliff Estate Agents, Roger Duckworth Physiotherapy, Mazfit, Mitsubishi
Motors, Flowtech Fluid Handling and sports goods companies Mizuno and Apex
Sports.
Sarah Unwin-Mann of Reading Roadrunners was 1st FV40, 4th female and 50thoverall
in 1:2.54 at the Race Your Pace Half Marathon at Dorney Lake. Other Reading Roadrunners were Nicole Savage 1:43.43,Silje Skarpio 1:43.46 and Mo Fassihinia 1:50.34.
Reading Joggers also took part with Nick Steward their highest finisher in 1:49.54., Chris Brown 1:53.03 and Phuong Luong 2:03.01. Over 1000 runners took
part in the event organised as part of the Human Race series.
Carl Bradbury of Reading AC won the Reading Park Run 5K on Saturday in a PB for him
of 16:13. The first three finishers all had PB’s, with David Kirk 17:58 and Sam Gray 18:02.
The leading Reading Roadrunners were Andy Blenkinsop, running the event for the first
time, 9th 19:34, Tim Chesher 11th 19:52, and Peter Jewell 13th 20:
22ndFebruary 2012
**************
It was touch and go for Reading Roadrunners big event, the
Bramley 20/10, on Sunday. The final decision for the event to go ahead was not
made until Sunday morning after several inspections in the previous few days
because of the weather. But the runners were there and there were two record
breaking performances.
In the 10 mile Chris Powner (Winchester and District AC) won
in 48:59 with over 5 minutes to spare over the second runner Jonathan Stead
(Herne Hill Harriers) 54:17 who was in turn 4 minutes ahead of 3rd
man. Liz Hartney was the first Reading
Roadrunner, 1st lady and 1st FV45 in 16th
place 62:51 just ahead of Simon Elsbury 17th 62:56. Reading
AC’s Louise Bardsley was 19th 63:05.Belinda
Tull was 1st FV40 35th 65:27,and Lesley Whiley 1st
FV 50 42nd 66:46
In the record breaking 20 mile the winner Ben Fish
(Blackburn Harriers) did 1:43.19 and he had nearly 7minutes over 2nd
man Ian Hapgood (Bournemouth AC) 1:50.07.
Reading Roadrunner Rupert Shute had one of the highest
placings from the club in the event history in 8th place 1:57.56.
Other top finishers from the host club in the 750 finishers were Paul Roberson
33rd 2:06.04,Ian Gosling 40th 2:07.36, Mark Saunders 45th
2:08.37 and Kevin Buree 60th 2:11.06. Some of the others spread
through the field Alex Harris 2:14.18, Gavin Rennie 2:15.26, Ian Giggs 2:18.22, Sian James 2:32.24 1st FV55, Catherine Leather 2:56.08, Linda Wright 3:23.24,
Derek Crisp 3:24.46, FV60 Irene Liming 3:26.19 and Linda Booth 3:47.51.
The leading runners for Reading Joggers in the ten miles
were Samantha Bayle 1:19.11, Andrew Williams 1:24.49, Samantha Edgington 1:26.09 and Fiona Holloway with a PB by 8
minutes with 1:27.57 and Lee -Ann Kays 1:27.58.
In the 20 mile Michael McLaughlin 2:30.01, Paul Ali
2:32.56, Jonathan Hall 2:34.23, Eddie Johnson 2:38’44, MV60 Tom Stagles
2:42.49, Ian Combellack 2:42.45, Simon Peralta 2:49.35, Bob Brookes in the same time and and leading female
Clavelle Olivier-Smith 3:13.37. The event was
supported by the Sweatshop.
Julian Sherman of Reading Roadrunners won the Reading 5 mile
race on a two lap course at the University. It was not an easy run as he and
the leader got sent the wrong way at the end of the 1st lap and lost
about 600 metres, when he caught up he was in 3rd place and only
caught up will fellow RRR Roy Maddams with 1.5 miles to go. They ran together for about a mile and
Sherman then speeded up and went on to win in 26:47 with Maddams a close 2nd in 26:56. The pair had finished 2nd
and 4th the day before in the Park Run 5K.
Another very cold morning for the weekly Reading Park Run
5K. It was a win for the junior runner Tommy Trees in 17:53 over
Reading Roadrunner Julian Sherman in 17:58.Roy Maddams was 4th in a PB of 18:06 and other ‘green vests’ included Peter Cook 21st 20:29, David Caswell 29th
21:13, and David Fiddes 50th 22:55.
The regular marathon men also ran with Pete ‘the train’
Morris clocking 25:54 and Martin Bush 26:42. At
Bramley Morris did 2:54.06 and
Bush 3:06.40 the previous week Bush ran in the Apeldoorn
Midwinter Marathon in Holland where he did 4:34.
In the final race of the Hampshire Cross Country League
season Reading Roadrunners managed to field both men’s and women’s teams even with the club’s
big event the Bramley 20/10 the next day.
The men had the best result finishing 6th on
the day and maintaining that position in the final Division 1 table. Stuart
Pearson was 58th, Andy Blenkinsop 63rd, Lance Nortcliff 66th, Dean
Allaway 88th and Colin Cottell 96th gave them a total of
371. They had 5 good teams ahead of them, Aldershot, Southampton, Bournemouth,
Basingstoke and Winchester.The women’s team were 11th on the day but
finished in 6th place in the league. Only three runners took part
for the club. Clair Seymour, Belinda Harding and Cecilia Csemiczry. The same
three scored in the Veteran category where they also finished in 6th
place.
15th February 2012
****************
One of the toughest events of the weekend was the Thames
Trot Ultra 50 mile run from Oxford to Henley on Saturday.The race started at the
Price of Wales pub in Iffley, Oxford at 8:30am and then a short jog down to
Iffley Lock and crossing the river. Then the route runs south on the towpath
following the Thames to Henley.
For most of the way the runners had to contend with the bitterly cold easterly wind. There were six Reading Joggers in the 218 finishers. First home for them was 26 year old David Ayling 35th7:36.57 followed by Paul Ali, dressed as batman, 64th 8:06.57, a PB
for him in this event by 70 minutes, Wendy Shaw 80th and 8th lady 8:25, 52 year old Adrian Lee 107th 8:50 and Kerry Aylmer running with two friends finished in a
blizzard looking more like three abominable snowmen emerging from the trees
with their head torches blazing. Any runner taking more than about 8 hours
needed torches because they finished in the dark
The race winner was Craig Holgate in the very good time
of 5:36.38 and the first female was Sandra Bowers in new record time of
6:55.50. She was 25 minutes behind Wendy Shaw in the recent Country to Capital ultra run. The weather did cause problems including a delay in
getting the results on line because the organisers could not get their vehicles out
of Henley after the race because of the snow. It was not just tough for the
runners but for those who had to man the check points and marshal the course.
There were 5 check points at about 8 mile intervals each with a supply of
water, sports drinks, jelly babies and fruit cake.
Reading Roadrunners take top five places in the Reading Park Run 5K on a
very frosty and cold morning, the coldest day of the winter. Julian Sherman took another win in 17:27 from Richard Usher 17:54 a PB, Tim Chesher was 3rd also with a PB of
18:32.Mark Saunders was 4th with 18:35 and in the same time Lance
Nortcliff was 5th. The cold did not stop a host of PB’s with 94 out of the 216 runners setting their personal records including from the ‘green vests’ Peter Jewell 16th in 19:42,
Stuart Matthews 26th 20:38, Jegsy Fergusson the 2nd female in 21:41, Rowena
Edmondson 22:15, Stephen Lambden 22:32, Catherine Leather 23:29, and Adam
Brossler 24:36.
Other PB’s included the winning female a JW14 Neve Husdon
36th 21:03 from Bracknell AC,and
Caroline Stevens VW50/54 22:29.
A weekend of mixed fortunes for races. Some like the
Watford Half Marathon had to be cancelled and some were able to go ahead.
One event that should have taken place on Sunday was the
last of the Thames Valley League races organised by Finch Coasters but that was
cancelled in January well before the decline in the weather. Therefore the
results after the Bracknell Forest race on 22nd January finalised
the 2011/2012 season with Sandhurst Joggers the winners and Reading Roadrunners
in 2nd place.
An event that did take place was the Chichester Priory
10k with nearly 1500 runners. It was won by Benedict Whitby in 29:37, a twice
top three finisher in the Reading Half. The only local runner was Reading Roadrunner Garry Brampton with 49:48.
Next Sunday it is the Reading Roadrunners big annual
event the Bramley 20/10. A total of close to 1600 runners will take part in the
10 mile and 20 mile races which start at 10:30am.
8th February 2012
**********
Peter Crisp the Reading Roadrunner running now for
Newbury AC had another good run with a PB of 57:12 and 8th place in
the Barretts Canterbury 10 Mile race on Sunday. Prior to August he had injury
problems but has been free of these since then and continues to improve.
A new Reading Roadrunner Mark Worringham wins the latest
Reading Park Run 5K with 18:37 in his first run in the event.Simon Elsbury from the club was 3rd in 18:52with Lance Nortcliff 4th in 18:53.
Other top ‘green vests’ were Steve Pearson 11th
19:45, Tim Chesher 12th 19:47, Mark Saunders 15th 20:06, Alex Glithro 16th 20:17 and Kenny Heaton 17th 20:19.Another first timer won the ladies race, Julie Murphy (Lagan
Valley AC) was 18th in 20:20 and Reading Jogger Jane Davies was 2nd
in 33rd place and 21:50. Reading Roadrunner Silje Skorve Skarpeid was 3rd in
45th with 22:28.
On a day when there were few PB’s by club runners Reading
Roadrunner Nelesh Kotecha had her best run with 23:30 as did Robin
Bertrand with 26:15.
Other Reading Joggers included Gina Hopkins running her 75th Park
Run in 27:32, Maureen Sweeney 29:08, Margaret Husein 29:13 and Judy Hicks 28:34. Another good entry with 241 taking part.
T here were 11PB’s in the 5th Reading Joggers Winter Handicap run over 8 miles in
Sulham Woods.
The overall winner on handicap was Simon Peraita with a
PB of 62:59 and a 15.98% plus on handicap of 74:58.Ranjit Manghnani was 2nd also with a PB of 80:09
actual running time against handicap 87:07, a 8% plus performance. Juliet
Griffiths was 3rd with a PB of 70:22 against handicap of 75:21, a
plus 6.61% result. Julian Sherman again had the fastest actual time with 48:20
and 1.53% up on his handicap time of 49:05. Another Reading Roadrunner Richard
Usher did 50:30.
Those who jad actual running time PB’s included PaulConroy 73:11, Nick Steward 66:15, Joanne Hendrie 89:02, Su Eames 72:14 andJenny Kitchen 83:37.
Run in the Sun for the marathon men in the Las Palmas
Gran Canaria Marathon on 22nd January.one of the newer races it only
started in 2010.It was another good run for Pete Morris with 4:14 (2:01 at halfway) with Martin Bushfinishing in 5:06. A week later the pair ran in the Battle of Northampton
Marathon on a five lap course around an industrial estate and along the River
Nene. It was the first full marathon run in Northampton this century. Martin Bush did the same time as the previous week.He was even on the Northampton Chronicle website before the event which said if hefinished he would have clocked up 600 marathons. For once Pete Morris failed to finish.
I have just heard the sad news that Dave Couzens passed
away in the Royal Berkshire Hospital recently. He had been a stalwart of the
Wokingham and District Primary Schools Athletic Association for over 40 years.
During most of that time he had been the official starter for the annual
sports and continued well after his retirement fromteaching. Some years ago he was made a Vice President of the ssociation along with his wife Lorraine.
His daughter Katherine is secretary and organiser of the event.
1st February 2012
************
Rupert Shute was first home for Reading Roadrunners in
the latest Thames Valley Cross Country League race organised by Bracknell Forest
Runners at the Lightwater Country Park on Sunday.He was in 6th place
with 35:18. Paul Roberson was 9th in 36:32, Richard Usher 18th – 37:50, and Simon Elsbury 20th
– 37:57. The two veterans that have to make up the team of six were Martin Perrin
34th -39:32 and Chris Kelly 37th - 39:38 for a total score of 124 behind
Datchet Dashers with 58 and Sandhurst Joggers with 69. The ladies of the club
easily won their race. Jackie Perrin was 3rd in 39:48, Ellie Barnes 4th - 40:41 and Lesley Whiley 5th 41:25
for a total of just 12 to finish ahead of Sandhurst with 14 and Datchet Dashers
25.
In the combined scoring the club were 3rd with
136 behind Sandhurst 93 and Datchet Dashers 119.
Leading non- scoring runners from the club were Andy
Blenkinsop 29th, David Ferguson 32nd, Ed Dodwell 50th,
Ian Giggs 53rd, and Ian Horritt 56th.
A very easy win for Tom Lerwill (unattached) in the
Reading Park Run 5K, his winning time was 16:19 ahead of 2nd
man Paul Daly (Bracknell AC) I 18:18. Reading Roadrunner Julian Sherman
was 3rd with 18:33 ahead of fellow club member Simon Elsbury 4th
in 18:53 and Reading AC’s Nathan Meredith 5th with 19:09, a PB for
him. Other Reading Roadrunners included Dean Allaway 10th – 20:10,
Peter Jewell 14th – 20:29, Colin Cottell 22nd – 21:12,
Kevin Jones 23rd – 21:14, and Peter Cook 24th – 21:20.
Reading AC’s veteran Caroline Stevens was 2nd
female in 23:30 and first Reading Jogger was Nick Steward 69th –
24:28. The event now regularly attracts 250 plus runners including many new and
unattached runners.
In the tough 31st running of the Box Hill Fell
Race in Surrey Julie Rayfield (Reading AC) finished in 74:22. Dave Sayer was
the first of the Reading Joggers in 81:44 and Maureen Sweeney and 81 year old
Peter White finished together in 110:27
Bob Brookes of Reading Joggers was the only runner from
Reading in the Fred Hughes 10 mile race at St. Albans where he finished in
84:55.
At the Maxifuel 10K at Dorney Lakes there were two Reading Roadrunners Amanda Sheridan was 46th in 51:10 and Kevin Sangster 73rd in 54:50. All
the times were very slow with the winner taking 39:41 and in the 5K the winner only
did 19:24.In certain conditions it can be very windy at the Lakes and it must
have been the problem last weekend. It could be tough for the Olympic Rowers
later this year.
Congratulations to one of the oldest athletic clubs in
the country, Reading AC and to Ray and Gerry Stevens from the club who have
served athletics for nearly a century between them as very good athletes and as
volunteers within the club.Also good to see former school teacher Brian Day as a winner
in the Reading Sports awards last week. I remember him as a school boy over 50
years ago when he won a large number of events in a school sports when I was
presenting the prizes.
25th January 2012
***********
Liz Hartney of Reading
Roadrunners had another very good run when she competed in the
Stubbington Green Runners 10K run in the
village of Stubbington on the South Coast between Portsmouth and Southampton.
She was 56th overall in 37:48 and 2nd FV45. The race
entry was over 1450 runners.
Reading Joggers in for the long runs. Rob Smart was in
Orlando, Florida for the Disney World Walt Disney Goofy Challenge which was a
half marathon on Saturday where he did 2:03.48 followed by the marathon the
next day where he did 4:34.53 which combined for the Challenge gave him a total 6:38.35, .A total of around 35,000 runners took
part.
Wendy Shaw took on the challenge of running the Country to
Capital 45 mile run from Wendover in Bucks to Little Venice, in London. She
clocked 6:52 in this self navigation run
and was 3rd lady to finish.
Adrian Lee another ‘Jogger’ ran the Winter Tanners 30 mile
event on bridleways and tracks in the Surrey countryside at Leatherhead finishing in 5:30.
A very cold frosty morning,
the first of the series for the Reading Joggers 4th Winter Handicap
.There were fifteen PB’s and 19 improved on handicaps. The winner on handicap
was Brian Hay with actual running time of 64:22 a 14.46% plus performance. Sue Fostekew was 2nd in a PB of 69:31, a 9.9%
plus performance. Other actual PB.s included James Greaves 3rd,
Caroline White 4th, Diego Martin 5th, and Ranjit Manghnani 6th.
Arthur Abbott who organises the runs ran the course the previous day in 91:02. He had put a lot of time in to clearing the tree debris from the previous week’s weather to make
the course safe.
Reading Roadrunner and one time Reading Jogger Julian
Sherman had another good run b reaking his own PB with a new event record of
48:15.Fellow ‘green vest’ Andy Blenkinsop did 52:38.
Two big local events in February. On 12th
February it is the Reading Roadrunners Bramley 20/10 event and a week later the
Wokingham Half Marathon on 19th February. The closing date for
Bramley is 31st January and the Wokingham race is already sold out.
Both course record holders at Wokingham are entered, Phil Wicks 64:10 and Liz
Yelling 71:09 along with over 80 Reading Roadrunners, 15 Reading Joggers and 2
Reading AC runners.
Ian Gosling of Reading Roadrunners running as team Tri20
won his 3rd Reading Park Run 5K with a new PB of 17:24 beating his
previous PB of 17:31 set in his first win in October 2009. His other win was in
January 2010. It was a comfortable win with 35 seconds to the 2nd
man Andrew Stay 17:59.On a cold frosty
morning there were many PB’s by Reading Roadrunners and others including
Simon Elsbury 4th with 18:38, Alex Glithro 12th – 19:03, Peter Jewell 21st
-19:57, Alan Freer 20:09, David Caswell 20:28,
Adam Phillips 21:00 and Elizabeth Gampatsingh 24:49. Reading Jogger in
the 65/69 category Caroline White also had a PB with 27:48.
Other Reading Roadrunner top positions were Martin Perrin
6th – 18:45, Steve Pearson 13th – 19:10, Tim Chesher 14th
– 19:13,and Kevin Jones 20th – 19:50.Running his 54th Park Run’ marathon man’ Peter
Morris did 23:30.
18th January 2012
***********
In the Berkshire County Cross Country
Championships run on the County Showground at Newbury the very
comfortable winner was 17 year old Zac Seddon of Bracknell AC, running in the senior race, he won in
41:26. He had a minute to spare over 2nd man Alex Tovey of
Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow.
Newbury A.C and Reading Roadrunner Peter Crisp was 11th
in 44:52. Other Reading Roadrunners were Ian Gosling 15th, Andy
Blenkinsop 21st, Dean Allaway 26th, David Ferguson 28th,
Ian Giggs 36th, David Finnie 37th, Chris James 42nd
and Steve Ingledew 43rd.
In the women’s race it was the older runners mixing it with
the young.21 years old Sophie Crumly
(Newbury AC) won in 24:14 but not far behind was Reading Roadunner Liz Hartney
the 46 yearold vet in 24:24, The 2nd
vet,51 years, was, Marina Stedman (W.S.E andH) who was 5th in
25:48.Susan Francis (Reading AC) was 3rd vet in 7th place
and Lesley Whiley (Reading Roadrunners) ws 4th vet and 10th
overall.
It was a busy weekend of races for many local runners
with many running on both Saturday and Sunday. In the Hampshire Cross Country
League latest event run at Tadley Reading Roadrunners had their best result of
the season winning the event and getting very close to spot in the league
table.
The ladies took three places in the top four with Ellie Barnes 1st, Jackie Perrin 3rd
and Lesley Whiley 4th for a score of just 8 well ahead of all other
teams.
The men completed the double team win with Julian Sherman in 3rd place, Roy
Maddams 6th, Paul Roberson 8th, Richard Usher 9th,Lance Nortcliff 20th and Chris Kelly 23rd for a total of 69. With the joint score of just 77 they were easy winners ahead of Sandhurst Joggers 101 and Bracknell Forest 203.
A very large entry of 27 from Reading Joggers in the
Woodcote and Goring 10K. First finisher for them was Pater Bartlett in 42:14
and others included Brian Kirsopp 43:32, Stuart Quinton 43:56,David Wheatfield 43:56, Jane Davies 44:00, Michael McLaughlin 44:08, Ian Combellack 44:23,Nick Clark 45:45,
Peter Rayner 45:45, Tom Stagles 48:09, Nick Steward 49:28, Simon Riviere 49:32
(first time under 50 mnutes), Sam Houston 49:50, Dave Sayer 53:18, Bob Brookes
53:22, Su Eames 54:55, Lesley White 56:12.
Other recent runs by club members included Eddie Johnson
63rd out of 414 in the Ripon Runners Jolly Holly Jog 10K in
Yorkshire with 44:17. In the more local Gut Buster 10 mile Multi Terrain run in
Mortimer Richard Usher wss 6th in 65;31 and Helen Garforth 28th
with 77:23.
A new winner in the latest Reading Park Run 5K. Harry Gee from the Tri20 Swimming Centre in Reading running the event
for the first time won in 17:45 from regular winner Julian Sherman of Reading
Roadrunners 18:23 in his 38th running of the event.
Ellie Barnes the Reading Roadrunner running as Tri20 was first female in 7th place
with a PB of 18:59.Leading ‘green vests’ were Simon Elsbury 5th –
18:56, Steve Pearson 9th – 20:11, Peter Jewell 10th in PB of 20:15, and Tim Chesher 11th
in 20:18.
The marathon men were back on the marathon trail again
running in the 100 Marathon Club handicap marathon in Bromley, Kent. Both had
good runs with Pete Morris clocking in with 4:03 and Martin Bush 4:23.
11th January 2012