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February 2014
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We need some more Ladies
We need some more ladies! An excellent opportunity to represent C&C at the South of England AA 6-Stage Road Relays: Sunday 16th March, Just over 5 km each, all paces welcome … and it’s in Milton Keynes! Good stuff. The autumn relays were really good events (Info) Please contact Richard Park if you’d like to go along.
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Action Heart 5
A Black-Country five-miler not on many C&C runners' radar, but a cracking run and report by Charlie W!
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Tarpley 10 and 20
We're pretty lucky that there are lots of beautiful rural races in East Anglia, and the Tarpley 10 and 20 are two of the finest. Run by our mates at St Edmund's Pacers, it's a perfect little event with something for everyone, though masochists are catered for best of all; a good old dose of pain with winding ups and downs around pretty country lanes for variety. Having seen the twenty-milers on their way, Our four speed merchants took on the ten-mile option with some panache, and Mark Crook's 1:04 for 17th was rather handy, but star performer was definitely Carla Brown, storming into second place in the female event with a 1:06. Jo Eggeman's 1:13 was impressive too, and Tim Long's 1:22 belied his professed lack of trying. Quite a while later, the wind-blown twenty-milers made it home in varying states of harm and hurt - Jon Anderson and Mike Salter either side of an excellent 2:20 mark clearly had no problems, and impatient Ian Richardson's acceleration past me to a 2:45 proved he's in excellent nick; I shuffled in for a painful 2:53, which was fine, and Carmel McEniery went through some dark places to wrestle out a 2:57. Andrew Unsworth coped beautifully, clocking 3:10 on the London trail, and Mary Jennings and Mandy Lasseter cruised in around 3:15, looking entirely untroubled. Great day, nasty wind, but if it's going to blow, best that it blows you home.
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English National Cross-Country Championships
Very possibly the peak of club and individual endurance competition in England, the Nationals are a bit special and allow us to show the rest of the country what we can do. Have a look at the individual and team results from Nottingham to pick out your highlights (and go to the ECCA website to browse the star names), but some serious congratulations are due to our competitors and organisers who have made us into a nationally-competitive force (note the team results - all top 30). Much pride all round, I think.
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Final Frostbite race results
I would like to say a huge thank you and well done to all the C & C runners who ran this morning, 12 juniors and 12 seniors. It was great to see so many runners, not only today but throughout the season because this helped us maintain good overall results. We came third overall for both the junior and senior team events, which given the other fixtures, has been a great achievement. So well done and thank you to everyone who ran at any of the 6 events. It is also important to mention the runners of the season - Diana Chalmers (winning each of the 6 events), Max Godfrey for running most of them, Alex Geoghegan for running all 6, and Sullivan Smith for not only running 5 of the events but winning each one! Well done to you all. The season resumes in October, when I hope we can use this year as a base and win both the forthcoming junior and senior team events. Good luck to you all in all of your future events.
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English Cross Country Championships - Saturday 22nd February
The team and individual results for this event can be found here. Some of our best team results to date.
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Baldock Beast Half
(Baldock Beast Ladies, did you win a team prize …?) A hashtag-awkward report for me but the beauty of last weekend’s Baldock Beastie Half must be reported. A gallant band of C&Cers gave those sparkly hills no mercy on Sunday, all achieving very strong times: Julia Decesare was 12th F with her tidy 1:46, followed by Martyn Brearley at 1:53. Alex Geoghegan was hot on Martyn’s heels coming in at 1:54 and Jennifer Smith got a cool 2:02:35. Nice work everyone. Stiiiiiiiill rehabilitating, I ran the strongest not quite 5K of my life until I blew my calf but as Andy said below it really was just great to be a runner again on such a beautiful day. I loved every second of it – hopefully the others did too.
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Barcelona ...... such a beautiful horizon
Now it's not everyday you get to run a half marathon on such a beautiful spring-like morning in February and it's not everyday you run a race where a world record is set. But 8 of us C&C'ers were on tour in Barcelona, where Florence Kiplagat broke the Ladies Half Marathon world record in 1:05:12. Yet only 11 places behind her was our very own Claire Somerton smashing her PB in 1:22:55. Graeme Kennedy had a metronomically speedy run in 143rd with a new best of 1:17:48. Well deserved PB's and a welcome return to form for Coach Rich and the ever improving Silvia Chiappa. Great to see Chris Poole back running the 21k after such a long lay off. Whilst David, Ben and I all did our best on a day of near perfect conditions, albeit early, and a flat fast course. A fun day had by all and maybe one or two small Mojitos to celebrate. A definite for anyone's race calendar
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English Cross Country Championships - Saturday 22nd February
All those who requested a club paid entry to this event should have received an email with the details. If not contact Helen Grant, XC Rep. asap. Thank you.
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Ryston Grand Prix Race 5
The race report & results can be found here, plus details of the final event in the series.
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Nofolk Gazelles Valentine 10K
News in of more classy racing from the prolific Ben Baldelli - 35:02 for fourth place at the Valentine 10K near Norwich. Nice one, Ben.
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Stamford St Valentine's 30K
Rolling through the picturesque countryside of about eleven counties, this one is a real favourite for many of us. Amazing how the mind blocks out bad memories of endless hills, often tiddly but always troublesome, just coming and coming and coming like buckets of water from a Guantanamo interrogator. Brilliant, energetic management and all the planning in the world can't always prevent stuff like the portaloo lorry blowing a rather major gasket at the bottom of the hill and never making it up, or the plumbed-in facilities bursting their banks and flooding the corridor, Somerset Levels style. But somehow they did manage to lay on the perfect day; gorgeous sunshine to help us round the ups and downs. It's often a training run for marathoners, but if Tom Stevens was easing off, it didn't show in the results - a brilliant 1:44 for third place. Magnificent. Dan Hurst's 2:07 was rather super too. In the ladies' event, Sarah Wightman and Katie Samuelson showed what classy performers they are by finishing neck-and-neck in 2:14, both making the top 10. Other performances can be seen in all their g(l)ory by following the link, including a niggle-defying 2:19 PB from Darren Gillman. Well done everyone. What a nice race that was - though I seem to be unable to walk this morning for some reason.
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Cambridge half marshals
Adam, the organiser of the CHM, has asked if anyone else can help with marshalling. They have been pushing for volunteers but are struggling to hit their numbers and would really appreciate our help. He's confirmed that marshals will receive an exclusive 2014 Half Marathon jacket, Buff headwear and refreshments.
If you were planning to run but have had to drop out for some reason, it's a good way of being part of the race and the atmosphere. If you can help please sign up directly with Steve - stevep@onestepbeyond.org.uk.
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Essex League Results
There was an excellent turn out by the seniors & juniors for the last race of the season. The race report, team & individual results can be found here. A big thank you to all those that represented the club and Ric Park & Jo Newcombe for managing and scoring the teams throughout the season. Hope to see even more of you out there next year.
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British Blind Sport
Many of you will have seen Rojimon Cherian and Joe Tucker diligently training at the track - but, what you might not have been aware of is that they are training for the London Marathon. Rojimon is raising money for British Blind Sport and has a JustGiving page. Blind Sport supports a wide range of partially sighted athletes and is well worth a donation. Training, or road running, whilst partially sighted requires real courage - and trust in your guide (no pressure Joe!). Next time you are out training with a friend, get them to act as a guide and shut your eyes - now try doing that at threshold pace......If you, like me, love taking normal vision for granted then drop in a donation and both your vision and conscience will remain clear!
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Frostbite Update
Team results - second place on the day, which is a pretty good effort, I reckon - well done everyone. I know there were numerous C&Cs who went to some proper inconvenience to make it. Keeps us in a fairly safe third place (if we can finish eighth or better at the BRJ leg at Hinchingbrooke anyway - second-placed Hunts are almost at home that day, but you never know). Juniors too - a creditable fifth on the day, and now edged into third overall by Riverside.
Finally, if I'm not mistaken, Sullivan's win is his fourth in four Frostbite appearances this season, but Diana has gone one better and can complete a clean sweep next month. Blimey!
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Frostbite - Bourne Results
In summary, utter, utter filth. But a much better team showing this week to raise the spirits of the muck-encrusted C&C squad, and star performances from Sullivan Smith and Carla Brown, who won us both male and female races - something I can't recall happening in about a thousand seasons of the Frosty. A belting third for Jack Bowden too, and another junior gold for the excellent Diana Chalmers. Individual results now up, and maybe the full details to come from whoever posts the goss first. Not me, I need to get back to the Vim and nail brush.
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Watford Half
It was a beautiful morning to run around the countryside north of Watford on a course Glynn would have loved as it had over 300ft of climbs. Add lots of rainfall which brought shades of Wimpole Park Run & Somerset levels to the roads, so not a PB course but lots of fun and a good training run with a 1.51 finish.
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