Weekly Serpie round-up
This week's Tour de Serpentine takes in the Club Handicap, the Summer League and a foray into the world of those fast women and men on their cycling machines. Well done to everyone who raced or volunteered!
Club Handicap
Though the humidity was high, the cloud cover and a nice light breeze made for pleasant running conditions this past Saturday for the June Handicap. A total of 81 Serpies took part, including 12 scratch runners. While this runner may have been distracted by the sight of adorable, fluffy, yellow goslings swimming in the lake, our three podium finishers clearly didn’t let the sights of summer slow them down. Susie Symes came in first with an impressive one-minute PB, Jon Lewis finished a strong second, and Encarna Rodriguez stormed into third. There were 11 PBs in total and Kevin Murray, on his first ever Handicap outing, broke the V55 record in 25:35 (87.6%).
This month’s Handicap was special because we saw Brian Pickles finish his 100th Handicap and celebrated the 80th birthdays of two Handicap stalwarts, Keith Evans and Keith Morris. Brian was presented with a commemorative t-shirt in recognition of his Handicap achievement and cupcakes and bubbly were consumed in honour of the two Keiths.
We’re now half way through the year, so it seems like an appropriate time to take a look at the standings for the Hogshead trophy. As of now, Catherine Wilding is leading the field with 101 points, but Lynne Maughan is in a close second with 96 points and Andrew Roberts is in third with 89 points. It’s still early in the contest, so anything can happen! Full June results. (Report: Diana Valk)
Summer League #1
The first Summer League fixture on Sunday saw a great turn out of Serpies, who headed over to Perivale Park to have a hot and sunny morning of racing and picnicking. After the races were over, and the last morsels of cake devoured, we had the prize giving for last year's winners. Serpies collected a respectable amount of trophies and medals. Here are the names of our winners:
F35 1st place Jennifer Bradley
F35 3rd Place Sarah Maisey
SM 1st place Mohammed Ismael
SM 3rd place Simon Craddock
F40 2nd place Sandra Ahrensfeld
F45 2nd place Cheryl Sacks
M45 1st place Tony Gould
F60 2nd place Susan Edwards
Well done to everyone! Let's hope we can do as well or even better this year! Perivale 5M results; club standings. (Report: Samantha Day; photo: Jamie Giles)
Tour of Cambridgeshire
The Tour of Cambridgeshire attracted 8,000 people from all over the world to take part in a two-day cycling festival consisting of a Chrono and a Gran Fondo. The Chrono is a mass participation individual time trial with riders starting at 30 second intervals over a 16.4 mile closed road circuit. The Gran Fondo is a 79 mile closed road sportive with the racers starting from the race gates followed by the sportive riders much like the format of the London marathon.
The top 25% in each age group from the Chrono and Gran Fondo (race gate and sportive combined) qualify for the UCI world amateur championships in September which are taking place this year in Varese, Italy.
On the morning of the race I woke up to blazing sunshine and no wind which I took as an early win. As I set off, my initial thought was to try to hold onto the peloton for as long as possible and avoid any crashes. My age group split at around 15 miles due to a crash, but the group remained large enough to work together and we were all able to benefit from a fair bit of drafting plus the bonus of hoovering up stragglers from earlier start times. At around 5 miles from the finish I had a minor disagreement with a pot hole sending me straight into the bushes; unscathed, I clambered back onto the road and hammered to the finish line to complete the course in 3 hours and 8 minutes, only 9 minutes behind the winner of my age group guaranteeing me a place at the UCI Gran Fondo world championships in Italy.
All in all a good day in the office with a well deserved pint at the end. (Report & photo: Hamilton Huxham)
Green Belt Relay
The organisers awarded the Sonia O'Sullivan prize to Natasha Sheel who not only won her original two stages and broke a record, but then stepped in to replace an injured runner and won yet another one.
Serpies completed their clean sweep of this year's relay by also winning the Queens and Kings of the Mountains competitions. The teams were:
Queens: Jennifer Bradley, Natasha Sheel, Sarah Pemberton, Rachael Eddershaw, Clare Meraz
Kings: Milan Misak, Hugh Torry, James Gillanders, Hugh Torry again, Joost Vogel
Well done to everyone!
The Great Bank Holiday Triple
It’s been a fantastic Bank Holiday weekend for this Serpie! I came 6th in the London to Brighton Challenge 100km on Saturday in a time of 11:14:21, ran the Westminster Mile on Sunday in 5:30 and finished the London Vitality 10km on Monday only marginally behind Mo Farah in 39:05. (Report: Charles Spelina)
Parkrun results for 2 June 2018 (65 runners)
Top 5 by time and age-graded performance
| Name | Event | Time | Gender # | Name | Event | Time | Gender # | Name | Age-graded | ||
| Chris Oddy | Gladstone | 16:17 | 1 | Helen Gray | Mile End | 19:21 | 1 | Jacqueline Millett | 79.78% | ||
| Jonathan Bradford | Cannon Hill, Birmingham | 16:43 | 3 | Ahlem Ben Gueblia | Fulham Palace | 19:50 | 2 | Chris Oddy | 79.63% | ||
| Hugh Torry | Hampstead Heath | 17:20 | 1 | Victoria Crawford | Hampstead Heath | 19:59 | 2 | Tim Hazell | 79.28% | ||
| Alistair Watson | Clapham Common | 18:01 | 6 | Deborah Lowi | Victoria Dock | 20:27 | 2 | Hugh Torry | 78.17% | ||
| Milan Misak | Fulham Palace | 18:10 | 7 | Natalia Eddy | Finsbury | 20:50 | 2 | Karen Hancock | 77.79% |
Podium Finishers
1st: Chris Oddy (Gladstone) - 16:17, Hugh Torry (Hampstead Heath) - 17:20, Helen Gray (Mile End) - 19:21
2nd: Gideon Reid (Wormwood Scrubs) - 19:26, Ahlem Ben Gueblia (Fulham Palace) - 19:50, Victoria Crawford (Hampstead Heath) - 19:59, Deborah Lowi (Victoria Dock) - 20:27, Natalia Eddy (Finsbury) - 20:50
3rd: Jonathan Bradford (Cannon Hill, Birmingham) - 16:43, Philip Whitehouse (Beckton) - 19:24, Tim Hazell (Osterley) - 19:33
Busiest parkruns (3+ Serpies)
Finsbury (5), Fulham Palace (4), Hampstead Heath (4), Richmond (4), Bushy (3), Southwark (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)
Lanzarote 2019
If you would like to enjoy quality training and relaxing / fun times in the winter sun and make new Serpie friends in the process, consider joining the 2019 Lanzarote camp. Ahlem, Charlie and Rob are cordially inviting you to their launch event on Wednesday, 13th June, from 7.30pm, where you can find out more about the trip. Full details.
Get involved
Would you like to see your or a fellow club member's achievement featured in the next round-up? If so, it'd be great to hear from you. Simply drop me an email by end of Monday with a few words about the event (max. 150 words) and, if you have them, photos (please ask for permission if someone else took the pictures; we will not tag anyone).
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 edition!
Eda Korkmaz
communications@serpentine.org.uk
Submitted: 6 June 2018