Victories for Collins & Elms in Roding Valley HM
Shaun Collins of Enfield and Haringey AC and Clare Elms of Dulwich Runners were the two convincing winners of today's edition of the Roding Valley Half Marathon. The race was run under clear skies, with temperatures nippy but fairly ideal, and had 888 starters and 867 finishers.
Paul Molyneux, a 2:23 marathon runner representing Springfield Striders, led the race out of the Ashton Playing Fields starting arena, but he is not currently in that sort of shape and, when the race passed the 2 mile point, Collins was leading and looking relaxed. The 21-year old Enfield man has been laid low recently with a stomach bug he picked up last month while representing England in a cross country race in Spain, but he needed a run-out prior to representing Hertfordshire next weekend in the Inter-Counties CC Championship. The bug kicked in at the 7-mile mark so he was forced to run within himself to the finish, where he retained a 40" advantage over Molyneux (1:10:10 to 1:10:50). The latter is on the comeback 
trail after picking up two stress fractures last year. Bertie Powell of host club Woodford Green started steadily but later piled on the pressure to overtake old rival Crispian Bloomfield (Billericay Striders) and grab third place by 9" (1:11:14 to 1:11:23). Malcolm Muir of local club Ilford AC was 5th in 1:14:17.
The women's race was dominated by 47-year old Clare Elms, who is the UK's dominant W45 middle-distance runner. A prolific racer, Elms had raced both days preceding this - a 17.50 5K on Friday and a 4.39 indoor 1500m on Saturday! Nonetheless, and despite the constant undulations which characterise this course, her finishing time of 1:20:09 was a 24" PB, so she is in fine shape. Around 3 minutes back in 1:23:16 was Vicky Gill of Aldershot Farnham and District who has a sub74-minute clocking in her CV from 2004. 3rd in 1:24:04 was Jane Fanning of Serpentine Running Club. The race also hosted the Essex Championships and it was Sharon Bollister of Eton Manor (1:30:12) who was the first Essex-eligible woman home, while Molyneux took the men's gold.
It was the first time that chip-timing had been used in this race and the race appeared to run more smoothly and stress-free for all concerned, competitors and officials alike.
Race Organiser David Hollingworth, on behalf of the club, expressed his thanks to the many people who assisted in making the race a success.