Weekly Serpie round-up

It was an egg-cellent (oh dear) week for Serpies, with Nicolas 'on fire' Besson scoring yet another PB and podium place and confirmation of team gold at the British Half Marathon Champs for the men. Read on for the week's highlights.

Picture from Weekly Serpie round-up

Maidenhead Easter 10

The Maidenhead Easter 10 swelled at the seams this year with its first sellout in all of 65 years. Amongst the 1200+ starters, a small gathering of Serpies braced for the off on a chilly but contrary to earlier weather warnings, dry day with a smidgen of sunshine creeping out on the verges of clouds. But heck in the freezer, the 9:30 off, delayed a further 15 minutes due to the congestion the throng had caused! Yes there would be prime ministers awaiting too, to marshal the masses along this flat (bar a few humps) fast 10 miler and, to be honest, incredibly well marshalled event.

Jonathan Poole led the Serpentine torch with a fabulous 53:15 effort in 5th place overall, closely followed by Nicolas Besson (11th) and little along the line Simon Barrett (32nd). Kevin Murray (101st) was next and within a whisker of his PB, which the finishing funnel discovered, greeted by a few well chosen expletives on that near miss. And lastly one's own (229th) in a PB of sorts if we ignore Neath last year (graded as multi-terrain on Power of 10) and anything he might have done as a 'kid'. So all in all, a good Friday ran in the constituency of Maidenhead. (Report: Lloyd Bevan)

Two Oceans (Ultra) Marathon

I decided to take a trip to Cape Town to see if the Two Oceans, which is billed in South Africa as the world's most beautiful marathon, really lived up to expectations. The 56km race takes runners through the Cape Peninsula. I was given some wise advice from a South African friend who had run the race 11 times: "Don’t go off too fast and run the first half of the race conservatively." 

With these words running round my head, I headed to the starting pen. I felt rubbish, and changed focus from getting a decent time to just finishing within the cut-off. The weather was hot with highs of 26°C, which felt a lot warmer in the sun. About 10km in, my legs felt like lead which added to my worry. Soon one of the mountains came into view up ahead and as you kept running and reached Muizenberg, seeing the sea was stunning. I hit the halfway mark and the first climb to Chapman's Peak started!

The 6-8km climb was tough and just seemed to go on, but was helped by the breathtaking views over the Atlantic. A short decent and a short flat stretch later, I went through the marathon mark in just over 4 hours. This also marked the start of the next climb up Constantia Nek, some 6-8km up through the forest. A lot more walking occurred as the road was steeper, but near the top we were given an ice cream! 

With the final 6km to go, the end was near. In what felt like a cruel way to finish, there were still a couple of tiny bumps to tackle in the last 2km before finishing in the grounds of the university. I crossed the line in 5 hours 40 minutes to much relief! (Report & photo credit: Rhiannon Needham)

British Half Marathon Championships

2018 British Half Marathon Championships Team GoldA Royal Mail delivery last week confirmed what we had suspected all along since race day: The Serpentine men's team of Tony Payne, Chris Wright and Will Green, all of whom ran PBs, took team gold at the British Half Marathon Championships run in conjunction with The Big Half on 4th March. Many congratulations guys! (Photo credit: Tony Payne) 

Kingston Half Marathon

Whatever Nicolas Besson has been doing, it is working a treat. After last week's exploits at the LFOTM 5k and the Sri Chinmoy 10k and a cool 11th spot at the Maidenhead 10 (see above), he notched a PB at the Royal Borough of Kingston Spring Half Marathon of 1:11:19 to finish in 2nd place. Awesome work Nicolas!

Victoria Park Easter Half Marathon

Congrats to James McCann and Jacqueline O'Connor for their strong performances at the RunThrough Easter Half Marathon in Victoria Park. James was 5th overall and 1st MV40 in a new PB of 1:15:54, while Jacqueline came 7th female and 1st FV40 in 1:31:19 (a PB?).

Parkrun results for 31 March 2018 (70 runners)

This week's special mention goes to Alex Yee, GB triathlete and Kent AC member, who smashed his own course record at Dulwich parkrun with a stunning time of 14:05, the 2nd fastest ever 5k parkrun time anywhere. A Serpie shout-out to Karen Hancock, who was first FV60 in 25:10 at Burgess parkrun (78.21%). 

Top 5 by time and age-graded performance

NameEventTimeGender # NameEventTimeGender # NameAge-graded
Jonathan PooleGunnersbury15:581 Victoria BasquillGreenwich20:102 Andrew Roberts82.80%
Jonathan BradfordCannon Hill, Birmingham17:056 Zoe BirchenoughPenrose20:202 Jonathan Poole82.57%
Andrew ReevesBanstead Woods17:381 Anne EdenBurgess20:243 Andrew Reeves81.66%
Angus BeaumontPenrose17:442 Sarah PembertonWormwood Scrubs21:101 Victoria Basquill79.50%
James GillandersClapham Common17:542 Sophie VesseyBurgess23:0313 Angus Beaumont79.32%

Podium Finishers

1st: Jonathan Poole (Gunnersbury) - 15:58, Andrew Reeves (Banstead Woods) - 17:38, Gideon Reid (Wormwood Scrubs) - 19:40, Sarah Pemberton (Wormwood Scrubs) - 21:10
2nd: Angus Beaumont (Penrose) - 17:44, James Gillanders (Clapham Common) - 17:54, Victoria Basquill (Greenwich) - 20:10, Zoe Birchenough (Penrose) - 20:20, Caroline Morgan (Peckham Rye) - 23:11
3rd: Jonathan Moscrop (Clapham Common) - 18:10, Alistair Watson (Richmond) - 19:16, Ross Jeavons (Wycombe Rye) - 19:50, Anne Eden (Burgess) - 20:24

Busiest parkruns (3+ Serpies)

Clapham Common (7), Burgess (6), Wormwood Scrubs (4), Gunnersbury (3), Richmond (3)

Full consolidated Serpentine results. Can't see yours? Updating your parkrun profile with Serpentine RC as your club should do the trick. (Results: Alex Jeffreys)

Get involved

Do you enjoy reading the weekly round-up? If so, please help me by sending me your mini race reports and results (a few lines is all it takes) so we can continue producing it regularly. Simply drop me an email by Tuesday 9am with a few words about the event and, if you have them, photos (please ask for permission if someone else took the pictures). 

If your result is missing from the club website, you can add it yourself or, if the race isn't listed in the dropdown menu, contact the Results Elves at results@serpentine.org.uk. Even better, simply add your name to the Race & Event Planner in advance and name SERPENTINE as your club when you enter races to ensure your results are added to your profile.

With thanks to everyone who contributed to this week's round-up!

Eda Korkmaz
communications@serpentine.org.uk

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Submitted: 3 April 2018

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