SWVAC 5k - Other Photos

All photos taken at around the mile-post by Mary.

SWVAC 5k – Yeovilton, 27th August 2007

[Andy K tracking Roger R in the second kilometre. They finished locked together in the same positions]

What a good turnout from Exmouth Harriers at Yeovilton for this year's 5k Championship race this morning, even though Les Turner and new member Peter Tabenor were unable to run due to injury. The overall quality was good too even though the total entries were down.

The RNAS Yeovilton course is basically a 5 kilometre box from the main gates to Podimore and thence back to Yeovilton via a second lane. There isn't a contour line the whole way... even my pancakes are lumpier than this course!

In the Vet/50 class, Andy Kennedy, a late entry for the race following an encouraging track session last Tuesday, fulfilled his aims by finishing in 19:00 dead for the bronze medal, tracking Roger Rowe for virtually the whole race.

Roger, Vet/60 winner from 2006 was rather disappointed with his silver in the Vet/60 class in 18:58 - his fastest time this year. Disappointed that is, until he realised that the winner was Harry Matthews from Elswick, second in the National Rankings in 2007 up to this morning. Harry's winning time of 17:43 was the fastest in the UK this year, and a Course and Championship record. Even firing on all cylinders Roger is unlikely to manage that!

The interesting races were the Vet/65 and Vet/70 categories with our own Ray Elston in the former and in-form John Perratt in the latter. John's main competitor was Gordon Wiltshire, multi-record holding... the winner of many category titles over the years. On paper there were 7 seconds between them.

Gordon’s strategy seemed to hang on to John for as long as possible, but inevitably after around 2 kilometres, John gradually pulled away. Ray, keeping his powder dry tracked them both, noticing in the final kilometre that he was catching Gordon. Suffice it to say that Ray, encouraged by the shouts of other Harriers, outsprinted Gordon to finish in 20:52 for the Gold medal in the Vet/65s.

John of course simply ran away from them, finishing in the 4th fastest time by a Vet/70 man in the UK this year of 20:16 (his 20:15 in the UK Championship is the 3rd fastest)!

Jim Wyatt running an even-paced and solid race, finished in 22:34 for the Vet/65 silver medal.

Finally, Lee Russell finished in 5th place in the Vet/50s in 21:25.

So Gold for John, Gold for Ray, Silver for Rog and Jim , and a Bronze for Andy. A morning well spent! No other club came away with 5 medals.

(RR)

Tywyn Race the Train

Hugh Marsden beat the train in the Tywyn “Race the Train”, a tough multi terrain event of about fifteen miles which takes place alongside the route taken by the Talyllyn Railway on its journey to Abergynolwyn and back. In order to do this it uses a mixture of public roads, lanes, un-metalled roads, tracks, agricultural land, and rough grazing pastures. The route crosses the face of the hillsides, ascends and descends quite steep terrain and runs on narrow footpaths with little chance of overtaking. The terrain varies all the time and was very wet and muddy in places, also involving some steep hills. Often, if runners coincided with the train, their families and friends on the train could shout encouragement to them. About 700 runners completed the race and Hugh ran superbly, coming 2nd V45 and 23rd overall in 1:39:55.

(LT)

Sidmouth Festival 10k

Six Exmouth Harriers took part in the Sidmouth Festival 10K Multi Terrain Race which was won by Mark Cowan of Exeter Harriers in 40:19. Dave Stone led the Exmouth runners home, after an outstanding race, coming 2nd out of the field of 224 finishers, in 41:44. Richard Selby, also in top form, was 15th in 46:28, but 5th on an age graded basis. Andy Kennedy came 47th in 50:47, followed by Ray Elston who was 74th in 53:14, after another excellent race. Emma Dupain was 105th in 55:47, with Jim Wyatt 124th in 57:32.

(LT)

Yeovilton 5k - Race 5 - 9th August

It's deja vu all over again.

Nice to do a race with one's training partner (well on and off training partner)... even though I felt like I was on a hiding to nothing. Warming up Andrew (Johnson) asked what my 'acceptable' time would be, and I said, "Anything faster than last time".

Nice to see Heather F-H at the start. First time she had run the 5k. She asked me not to tell her coach! She is running scared at the moment with the weight of expectation on her. As a (now) previous 100k world champion, everyone expects her to be 'amazing' every time she runs. I gave her some advice (as always)... "... forget it Heather, just run and enjoy the surroundings".

Off at 7:15-ish with the frontrunners going off at what looked like 5 minute pace (it was more or less). I changed my racing flats for training shoes a few minutes before the off... my achilles and right knee complaining again in the flats. And I kept the knee bandage in place.

I decided too to avoid going off too fast, I would track AJ for a while and see what transpired. (Must admit in the first K I wanted to go off with an older lad who looked like he was my age (he wasn't). Felt AJ getting a bit annoyed with my presence, but stayed behind through 1, 2 and 3k... running at around 3:45 k pace. I was planning in my mind when to 'push on', but AJ simply went away between 3k and the end. I lost around 20 seconds in the 4th K and 25 seconds in the last. AND I was trying.

Finished in a new PW of 19:28 (6:16pace) with AJ on 18:45 (6:02pace), so it's easy to see what I lost in 2k. My percentage worked out at 82.96% (they got it wrong), with AJ on 73.47%.

Poor Heather was even further off the pace than I with 18:25, when she was expecting something in the 16s.

Back to the drawing board... what is wrong with me, two PWs in a week.

Roger R.

Last weekend's races...

Paul Champion continued his Mont-Blanc training by taking part in the Downland 30 Ultra Challenge. This is a 30 mile trail race organised by Haywards Heath Harriers on the undulating South Downs Way.

Heavy overnight wind & rain gave way to almost perfect running conditions by the start of the race. 120 starters faced a steep climb at the beginning to the Jack & Jill Windmills at Clayton to join the SDW trail. The route then followed the SDW for 15 miles on an out and back course with stunning views on both sides. One of the hardest parts came just after the turnaround point with a three mile uphill section to test the tired legs. Paul finished strongly managing to claw back places he had dropped earlier in the race to finish 27th overall in a time of 4 hours 41 minutes.

John Perratt produced two more gold medal performances in the British Masters Track and Field Championships at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham. Running for South West Vets, he won the V70 5,000m in 20:38 and the V70 10,000m in 42:30. Well done, again, John!!

Finally, the Totnes 10k continues to be very popular with Exmouth Harriers, who had 15 runners competing. The multi terrain race is held at a very attractive location, part of it alongside the River Dart. This year it was run in blistering heat, but the ground conditions varied from very hard to very soft as a result of the recent rainfall.

The first Harrier home, after an excellent performance, was Hugh Marsden, 13th overall and 1st V45 in 41:05. Next came the performance of the day from Cathy Newman, who ran brilliantly yet again, and came 17th overall, 1st lady overall and 1st LV45 in 41:34, a new course record for her category and the only course record in this year’s race. Well done, Cathy!!

Andy Kennedy ran very well for 42nd overall and 2nd V50 in 44:22. Richard Selby was also in good form, coming 45th in 44:34. Duncan Linklater came 85th in 48:51, followed by John Perratt who was 1st V65 and 86th overall in 48:59.

Bob Woodall fell, but got up, carried on and did well to finish the race in 91st place in 49:22. Chris Dupain came 99th in 49:58 and Ray Elston was 115th overall and 2nd V65 in 50:46, after another good performance.

Emma Dupain came 136th in 52:08, with Ben White 160th in 53:17. Nigel Dupain was 169th in 53:52 and Dawn Teed came 196th in 55:44. Denise Kennedy was 328th in 1:05:43 and Ian Macdonald came 388th in 1:10:59. There were 423 finishers and the race was won by James Baker of Chichester Runners & A C in 35:46.

Pewsey Vale 5 - 1st August

Mmmmm. With a light heart drove the 2 hours to Pewsey with Mary, looking forward to a race at which I had performed well in the past. Lovely easy journey up the A303 to Stonehenge and then up the Avon valley to Pewsey.

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Excellent entry for a midweek race, and spent some time warming up with Gordon Wiltshire, now 71, whose V60 times I have been trying to emulate for the last 3 years. Every inch an athlete, Gordon is looking forward to his confrontation with John Perratt in the SW Vets 5k Championship at the end of the month. That should be a race to see (Yeovilton at Noon on Bank Holiday Monday).

Set off in good heart, but found the going very tough up out of the town... the first mile seemingly going on and on. It arrived in the end, but I was horrified to see 6:35 on my watch. Grief, what's wrong with me? And so it continued. I was running at absolute maximum, pushing at every opportunity, and finding lead in my legs.

OK, it was hot and humid, butI felt like a veritable snail. By the time I arrived back at the start/finish I was all in, and glad to stop. The time? 32:56, an all time personal worst for 5 miles.

Jogged around for a while until the first sheet of results were posted. The winner only ran 29:02 on a course that usually returns a 26-minute winner, and I had won the V60s by over 5 minutes from the aformentioned Gordon W. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. No one was within minutes of any of the (carefully calculated and displayed) course records although some very decent athletes were there.

Write it down to experience I guess... I hope the Yeovilton 5k next Wednesday returns a rather more encouraging result!

(RR)