CAU Inter-County Cross Country Championships, Loughborough
Three young Cambridge Harriers were selected to represent Kent at the CAU Inter-Counties Championships, staged at Prestwold Hall, Loughborough. Olly Buck (pictured - courtesy of Mark Hookway) had another excellent run to finish in 20th position in the U15 Boys 4000m in a time of 14:52. Samuel Scrase-Field (U15) recorded a time of 16:18 in 163rd place. Amelia Lawrence ran in the U17 Women's 5000m finishing in 111th place in 24:07.
BMAF Indoor Combined Events & 3000m Championships + Open, Lee Valley
Chris Loudon and Matthew Preston both competed in the BMAF 3000m Indoor Championships at Lee Valley on Saturday. Chris collected bronze in the M35 age group with 9:04.90s. Matthew, in his first outing as a M50 finished 8th in his new age group with a time of 11:08.94s. Wole Odele (M55) ran in the open 800m clocking a seasons best of 2:22.06s.
Chester 10k
Lucy Marlow (W35) and Susan Dixon (W55) were both selected to represent England Masters at the Chester 10k on Sunday. Selection for the team was based on participation in one or more of the qualifying events and achieving the published time standard for the relevant age group. Lucy finished in 213rd overall and 31st women in 40:16. Susan was 324th and 58th women with a time of 42:43. Both ladies finished 7th in their respective age groups. Sally Carr (W50) also ran finishing with a time 46:01.
Lydd 20 Mile & Half-Marathon and Paddock Wood Half-Marathon
Congratulations to Tom Brooke for winning the Lydd 20 in 1:55:09 and earning himself £100, writes Clem Dixon. Well done too to Ross May, an excellent run for 7th place. Both were running a 20 mile race for the first time. PB or not PB? It is arguable whether your first ever attempt at a race distance should count as a PB, a bit like arguing whether 1 is a prime number. It might surprise you that neither Tom nor Ross had raced the distance before, but it shouldn't; both are examples of the many who only started taking running seriously during lockdown when most other forms of exercise were denied them, and have stuck with it since.
There was also a "PB or not PB" in the 20 for Tom Coghill while in the Half Marathon run in conjunction with the 20, Alex Tringham was 6th, another PB and a genuine one this time. Clem Dixon and Steve Brown both also completed the 20 miler, but we would both need to find races with some very unusual distances to get back to PBs of any description.
The course at Lydd is as flat as a pancake but when the wind blows there is very little respite from it, and the wind always does seem to blow at Lydd!
Good local road races come thick and fast at this time of year; last year the Paddock Wood half was on the same day as the Dartford half causing much consternation. This year that was avoided but at the expense of it clashing with Lydd leaving many with a difficult choice. 20 milers are few and far between and so for those who are firm believers in including one in your marathon training schedule Lydd is the obvious choice, but Paddock Wood is a faster course than most other local halves and always attracts a strong field. As it was there were eleven Cambridge Harriers plumping for Paddock Wood of whom Ben Shearer was first to finish and there were PBs (proper ones) for Dave Worden, John O'Mahony and Catherine Martin plus a first time out PB for Maggie Illingworth.
It is hard to read too much into results in these March races as some will be treating them as a primary focus whereas many will be using them as a means to an end and will be racing them in the middle of a high mileage block of training with little or no taper. Whenever anyone would try bigging themselves up at having finished in front of me at one of these races I would smile and congratulate them, but inside I would say to myself "See you on The Mall, Pal". Taken in total these results show that the club is in pretty good shape for some impressive times in spring marathons in London, Manchester, Brighton or wherever else.
Results:
Lydd 20: 1. Thomas Brooke 1:55:09, 7. Ross May 2:04:53, 58. Tom Coghill 2:28:49, 99. Clem Dixon 2:39:24 & 172. Steve Brown 2:53:29.
Lydd Half: 6. Alex Tringham 1:24:23.
Paddock Wood Half: 47. Ben Shearer 1:12:19, 73. David Worden 1:16:28, 107. John O'Mahoney 1:18:48, 116. Gregory Hills 1:19:18, 184. Rob Shearer 1:24:04, 221. Christian Poulton 1:25:49, 272. Emily Meins 1:28:13, 303. Katie Sanders 1:28:55, 337. Catherine Martin 1:30:55, 528. George Siskos 1:40:06 & 610. Maggie Illingworth 1:43:36.
End of Cross Country season presentation night
A good time was had by all at our end of season social at the clubhouse with trophies and medals being presented by Club President Dean Lacy. In the men's Grand Prix competition Chris Loudon won over Tom Brooke by a narrow margin with John O'Mahony 3rd while for the women Georgia Huddleston won by a wide margin from Sue Dixon and Rose Baker. We also presented "The Rock" to Christian Poulton for winning the fell running Grand Prix for an unprecedented 5th time, the competition for the most appearances by a newcomer ended in a tie: Georgia Huddleston and Geoff Smith will both get to have the 130 year old Cottrell Cup for six months. We also enjoyed a fish supper followed by Rose's wonderfully idiosyncratic quiz.
Be Fit Today Track Academy Indoor Series, Lee Valley
This meeting included an indoor 100m held on the upstairs straight at Lee Valley. Emily Cadman clocked times of 12.64s and 12.52s in her two runs. Wole Odele competed for the second time over the weekend winning the all masters 200m on a dip finish with 26.24s.
Sri Chinmoy Mad March 10k, Battersea Park
Missed last week was Georgia Huddleston's run at Battersea Park where she removed 45 seconds from her 10k personal best with a new clocking of 39:21 for 115th (7th women) place.