Ironman Cozumel

Please join me in congratulating ‘Irongran’ Eddie Brocklesby who once again smashed it and, at the age of 74, extended her own record of Britain’s oldest female Ironman finisher. You’re an inspiration to all of us Eddie! #ageisjustanumber

Swim: 1:32:49
T1: 0:08:34
Bike: 7:31:50
T2: 0:03:26
Run: 6:35:29
Total: 15:52:06

San Sebastián Marathon & Half Marathon

As in previous years, a large contingent of red and gold runners made the journey to the Basque country and almost everyone was rewarded with a PB or SB. Kudos to the handful who decided to run the marathon. Among them Sharon Templeman who ran an impressive 27-minute (yep, you read that right!) PB to finish comfortably in 3:12:16. Kevin Murray ran a more than respectable 3:00:52, not far off his PB.

In the half marathon, Serpie men would probably have won the fastest team award, had there been one, with Hugh Torry (1:12:22), Benjamin Tolputt (1:13:04), Xavier Gruot (1:13:42) and Richard Purdy (1:14:23) all finishing in the top 25. Many more Serpies managed to bag a PB, including Jon Lewis, Tom Bartlett, Simon Hardy and Aaron Kazab, to name but a few. Congratulations!

Florence Marathon

Kushal Banerjee ran a PB in 3:01:42, only just missing the 3-hour mark. Nicholas Towell finished in 3:08:04, having come 6th in the Firenze parkrun the day before. A good weekend’s work!

Jigsaw Run 10k

James Hartop was 2nd overall and 1st V40 in 33:36. Congratulations and thank you for the race report: “A great run round the Top Gear track at Dunsfold Park….windy and cold this year….but a very enjoyable few laps of the iconic track nonetheless. An increasingly well attended event with over 400 entrants this year.” 

Sri Chinmoy (‘Grizzly Bear’) 10k

An eternal favourite with Serpies and other club runners, this fast 10k in Battersea Park once again saw great individual performances. Courtney Bowen was 2nd lady in 41:14 while Nathan Wilkins and James Gillanders came 4th (34:21) and 5th (34:37) respectively in the men’s race. All three ran a new PB, well done!

Last Friday of the Month 5k

249 runners, among them 19 Serpies, competed in the November LFOTM 5k in Hyde Park, a monthly race organised by Malcolm French on behalf of the club and one of the longest-running 5k’s in the country. The age-graded top 6 Serpentine finishers were Andrew Roberts with 82.6% for 20:09, Kemuel Solomon with 81.5% for 18:58, Martin Carmack with 78.6% for 18:21, Karen Hancock with 77.3% for 24:35 and Robert Crangle and Jerry Lockspeiser with 77.2% for 20:01 and 21:23 respectively. Fastest Serpie in net terms was Victor Lio in 18:16. Well done everyone!

The Gatliff

On Sunday down in Edenbridge, Kent, 10 Serpies took part in “The Gatliff”, mainly entering the short 20km route. The aim was to get round this self-navigating trail run which we did, arriving back to the event centre ready to devour tea, soup and battenburg cake. (Thanks go to Catharine Sowerby for organising the outing and sending the report.)

Parkrun

Christopher Wallace finished 2nd at Brueton parkrun in an impressive time of 16:45, making him fastest Serpie. Benjamin Parkes wasn’t far behind (virtually speaking) in a time of 16:51 at Southwark parkrun. Milan Misak was 3rd in 17:03 at Fælledparken parkrun in Denmark and Richard Giles came 6th at Hull in 17:50. Lauren Roe was 8th overall and 2nd lady in 20:08 at Belton House parkrun, while Victoria Basquill was 10th overall and 1st lady in 20:31 at Greenwich. Alan Hall was 1st at Linford Wood in 19:24 and Joost Vogel came 3rd at Gladstone in 18:15.

For other great Serpie performances, please check the full consolidated Serpentine results. If your name is missing, please update your parkrun profile with Serpentine RC as your club. Well done all!  

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 with a few lines about the event and, if you have them, photos or videos (please ask for permission if someone else took the photo or video!). I will do my best to include reports received by end of Monday in the weekly round-up that I usually publish on the club website (news section), plus the Serpentine Facebook page and Twitter, on Tuesdays. 

Have a good week,
Eda Korkmaz
communications@serpentine.org.uk