Results round-up - July
With thanks to David Chalfen for writing this up, here's just some of the highlights from the last few weeks. Well done to everyone involved.
The big recent highlight was the Highgate Night of the 10,000s PBs, a wonderful event with unmatched depth anywhere in Europe.
With 5 of the fastest 6 all time Serpie 10k guys signed up, we couldn't have asked for more on the soaring heart rate side of the crowd barriers. Fastest of all was Callan Moody 29. 45, swift enough though a little down on his Telford win form and, whilst setting a new 10000m club record, this was just shy of Nick Torry’s 10k road club record. Strong and consistent as ever were Jonathan Poole and Andy Greenleaf with 30.32 and 30.37 respectively both evenly paced and cutting through the field in their usual way. Nick Torry ran 30.53, very fine pace for a man who took May off running. That’s zippy for the 5th fastest Serpie on the day! Also a solid 32.11 by Chris Oddy though saving arguably the best performance till last mention was the iron willed Will Green. Drawn in the E race he ran a metronomic 30.50 to win by 10 seconds in a big PB and just 5 months short of the v45 category. Most runners will very rarely win races (especially as Will has thus far eschewed parkrun) and if you had to choose a memorable setting for a victory you'd struggle to surpass this one.
Of course, gruelling 25 lappers will come and go, but ultimately it’s all about being spotted on the telly, so worth noting Serpies’ visual presence on the BBC highlights slotted in amidst the Lausanne Diamond League coverage, with Samantha Day the most prominent, who would have guessed, and Messrs Torry x 2 and Hughes sneaking into shot too.
Numerous other fine results since late June too. Parkrunning on 22 June were: 18.39 Vic Crawford Lac de Divonne 1st; 18.46 Sarah Pemberton Mole Valley 1st; 19.31 Ahlem Ben Gueblia Fulham palace 2nd whilst blast from the past Miguel Branco clocked 17.09 near Cambridge.
Agelessly impressive that weekend at the Harry Hawkes 10miles was V60 Kevin Murray, running 63.43, in warm weather too.
Last Friday on 28th June was won by Andy Greenleaf, in 15.21 which also featured strong Age Graded runs from Angus Beaumont V45 17.31 and Jim Ashworth-Beaumont V50 17.40. Later that evening, Nic Besson edged his 5000 PB at the London Heathside evening of 5ks, running 15.24 whilst Tim Powell stepped up with a PB of 16.38 in the B race.
Just in case anyone didn’t scour the Devon Championships with suitable precision, Serpies had a strong second place with Kit Grierson running 33.23 for 10,000m at the Exeter Track.
Standout parkrun on 29th June was Nick Torry, 14.48 at Dulwich, predictably very high on those all-important weekly UK parkrun rankings. Nick also did a recent 15.56 pushing a twin buggy, which for anyone in his wake running 15.57 or slower without such an encumbrance must have been rather galling.
A couple of swiftish parkrun wins on 6 July by Ben Tolputt, 16.31 at Burgess Park and Kit Grierson in Hasneheide Berlin in 16.55, in somewhat transparent Highgate Denial activity. Some fine early morning track pb's that same day at the Clapham 5000s led by Joost Vogel 16.05, Nathan Wilkins returning towards best form with 16.20 and a fine run by James Gillanders (V40) with 16.22. Most recently, leading parkrun Serpie was Martin Richardson setting a new 5k PB of 16.31.
David Chalfen
Tom Poynton
running@serpentine.org.uk
Submitted: 15 July 2019