Serpies Medal Monday

Stratford – Stevenage – New Zealand – The World! Christmas might be coming and some of us might be sitting goose-like on the sofa doing thinking, I’ll get back to training in the new year, in ‘run January’. But not even the coming season of gastronomic temptation and the cold and wet weather stops our Serpies from bringing home the medals from incredible destinations. And this weekend there no fewer than three of us in the southern hemisphere, enjoying fabulous weather at  beautiful Taupō in New Zealand for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. 

Innes Wright, featured in our header pic this week, reports: ‘Proudly wearing the Serpie red and gold at the beautiful IM 70.3 World Championships in Taupō. Very pleased with 15th in age group having waited five years since qualifying to finally race it.’ Many of us will be inspired by this Innes, thank you for sharing. 

Jo Burkett came in at 5:42, 76/225 in her age group and particularly pleased with her run, finishing 15/225 in the third leg. She was cheered on by her best friend who surprised her by turning up to watch.

At the end of this post is a video of René Peters reaching the finish in Taupō.

Thank you once again to our ever-stalwart x-country runners, repping Serpentine in the Sunday League, which yesterday was at Stevenage. They epitomise our club spirit, turning out week after week no matter what the conditions and transport challenges. 

Also yesterday, the RunThrough Foundation London Ten, presented by ASICS, at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, was London’s first free closed running event and entries were assigned by ballot. Elrica Degirman won a place and used it to continue her run of PBs. She reports, ‘Good morning from sunny Stratford ☀️😃 New 10k PB of 53:52, down from 54:46 from Battersea Summer League 🥳🥰 Absolutely delighted, especially as I started off too fast 🤡 I held strong, caught up to the 55 pacer on a small hill, and then BAM 🚀 Great run to end my full week of training, and got no niggles 💃🏽 ✅’

But we also really are delighted to celebrate as always the success of a recent graduate from our beginners’ course, which starts again in January. Keep an eye on the website for more details on that. In the meantime however, huge ggs to James Beaumont who says, ‘My first organised 10k since joining the club and completing the beginners course, and managed to break the 1 hour mark at Stratford and achieve a PB of 59:19 🏃. Such an incredible atmosphere on the run and even some winter sun! My final event of 2024 and a good benchmark to try and beat in 2025.’ Also there were Kevan and Lizzie Wilkinson, Lizzie just four seconds away from a 10k PB after a 30 second pit stop to rectify a shoe lace. Congratulations also to Sophie Cappleman (50:13) and Abu Asad (42:03).

And there is still more to celebrate! The Telford 10K is statistically proven as the fastest 10k course in the UK, and travelling up to take advantage of this fantastic race were three Serpies who all ran strong: Will Green (33:45), Molly Hemmings (41:37) and Sophie Flanagan (41:17). As Frank reports, ‘Molly and Sophie all smiles after the Telford 10k, the sun bringing back memories of Valencia marathon two weeks ago. 41min 10ks even more impressive with this in mind.’

Finally, #notmedalmonday congratulations to those Serpies who ran the ‘penguin trail’ in London on Saturday, and to our cyclists who turned out in strength for the traditional Christmas ‘bun run’ to Windsor on Sunday where we enjoyed the sight of Santas, elves and even Christmassy dogs on numerous festively-adorned bikes and with our own Veronique and Ham up there with the best of them in the sparkle-and-tinsel stakes. 

(Note: if you are a Serpie who raced at the weekend and are not featured here, many apologies, we can update this post if you would be so kind as to let us know via our club WhatsApp results chat. Thank you! Please don’t forget to like and repost our Medal Monday post on Instagram.)