London City Runner Met League race 1: Senior Men
Our men's cross country squad made no mistake on Saturday at Claybury, hitting the ground running to open up an early gap at the top of Division 1. Such was the quality of the turnout that the B team finished a terrific 5th out of the 10 teams in Division 1, and beat the formidable Serpentine Bs. The C team finished a very competitive 3rd in Division 3. 44 of our men ran, one of our largest turnouts ever (the record is a mighty 53). The participation in the men's race was the second highest ever with 355. A comparison of finishing times and positions with recent years also showed that the race as a whole was of relatively high quality.
From the gun, we had representation right at the front of the race as Harun Abdi, who transferred to us from Newham and Essex Beagles earlier in the week, hit the race hard. Abdi was then engaged in a race-long battle with Mohamud Aadan of Thames Valley Harriers. Initially they were joined by Nathan White, a Windsor Slough Eton & Harrow first claimer who was representing the Met Police here. As White faded, Shaftesbury's young Niall Fleming entered the fray. At the death, Abdi opted not to strain an injured achilles by pushing too much off his toes, and the finishing order was Aadan, Fleming, Abdi.
Behind Abdi, Daniel Agustus, who is in pretty good form, (8) ran well, being strong throughout and closing only 5 seconds behind 5th place. Agustus ran 43" quicker than last season, when he was also 8th. 20 seconds further back, Hywel Care (12) led home 3 Woodford men in quick succession who could all be pleased with their runs. Care has only been back in training for 2 weeks after his end-of-track-season-break; Stephan Wenk (13) surprised himself with his strength gained from a summer of mountain running; Tom Beedell (15), formerly of Chiltern AC but now living in Epping and a key member of our Ashton-based training group with Richard Thurston, showed good early season fitness; and Alex Cornwell's 17th was an improvement on last winter's 26th at the same stage.
Ben Hope had been out until 4am as a VIP guest at the British Olympic Association dinner dance and arrived hollow-eyed, so he can expect to improve on his nonetheless good 27th. Behind him there was a good battle between three of our U23s, won by Angus Holford (32) by 10" from Oli Heeks (35), with Tom Phillips (37) another 7" back. All could be content with their runs but will be aiming higher as the season progresses. Our scoring twelve was rounded off by Bertie Powell, (46) who twisted his ankle badly a fortnight ago and was perfectly happy to make the top 50 this time, and Kevin Murphy (48) whose recent training has been massively restricted by a new baby and work pressures.
Closing 12 in 48 in a race of this quality was a top class performance which our biggest rivals Serpentine found it hard to live with, despite deploying their big 2nd claim guns Huw Lobb (Bedford, 6th) and Andy Greenleaf (Winchester, 11th). We came out on top by 57 points, 1203 to 1146. The way the points are now scored, and the current split into 3 divisions, means that a 57 point lead is worth more than in the past but still, of course, a reasonably narrow margin. As team manager Terry McCarthy put it, "Our university lads won't always be able to come back and help us out, but this little victory gives us a bit of breathing space. I shall have to thumb through my phone book and see who else we might have who can deliver us a top 50 finish."
A renascent Highgate, who were expected to mount a more serious challenge this season, were left a distant third on 878, and former challengers Shaftesbury can be written out of the picture even at this early stage.
Our B team opened with one or two lads who might have been surprised to find themselves outside of our scoring twelve. In that respect, it was good news because they will be able to see where their fitness really is - never a bad thing! Falling into that category was Omar Mansour (58) who was around 20" outside the 12th scorer position. Darren Southcott (62) actually did pretty well given recent injury problems. And Gavin Lewis (64), despite moving through the field reasonably well after an initially cautious start, will not settle for a position like that.
Not far behind, M45 Ray Dzikowski (68) and Jim Roche (71) were both pleased with their race positions, but surprised to be 16th and 17th clubman home respectively, though Roche was not helped by a slow start. Harold Wyber's run (76) seemed to be one of his best for quite a while and his fell running background showed in the way he flew down the sharp downhill stretch on each of the 3 laps. Rob Cox had wanted to make the top 100 for the first time and notched a tidy 79th, but in fact his real achievement lay in knocking 2 minutes exactly off his time on the same course last season. In 83, Tony Pamphilon, having extracted himself from the congestion of the initial start, ran a good race to be the second M50 home (behind Met Police's classy Iain Campbell), and U20 800m man Dan Yaxley did better than expected in his first senior 5 mile cross country - he was our 21st man home in 88th place.
Prodigal son Jon Powell (116) did better than his minimal training had led us to expect, and the good news continued as Steve Dawkins (127), who has been performing better in training recently, knocked 90" off the time he ran here last season in similar conditions. Then, in making his senior debut, closing the B team, and relegating club legends like Paul "Stocko" Stockings to a C team position, 18 year old Sam Benge (132) got carried away with the emotion of it all, with a tear in his eye labelled his team manager a "top tasty bloke", and lay down in the leaves for 20 minutes to admire "this glorious autumn day". Manager McCarthy was quick to spot his creative and dramatic potential, and appointed him Assistant Manager on the spot.
With 9 B teamers packing between 58 and 88, and the 12 closing in 132, the B team finished a tremendous 5th in Division 1, leaving us well above the relegation spots (occupied by Mornington Chasers and Met Police) and on target for Division 1 safety this season.
This season we have been awarded an official C team for the first time, competing in Division 3, where 8 men count. Thus our first C teamer was M50 Alan Rugg (142), who has been troubled by a back injury recently and will be looking to improve on that. Throughout the race, CJ Shepherd (145) was entertained by the sight of Ed Messer (152) doing what appeared to be a fartlek session, sprinting and then slowing, repeatedly. Yet when the chips were down and it really mattered, at the foot of the final hill finish, it was Shepherd who turned on the after-burners and took 7" and 7 places out of the sprint-less Messer as athletes crossed the line in droves. Messer just stayed ahead of Jon Long (153) who is regaining his fitness week on week, race on race and was a minute quicker here than last year. The next 40 men home proved a wasteland for us, only populated by Rob Quantrell, a new signing with a triathlon background. He raced as a guest in the Alexandra Palace fixture last winter and was 259 but he well trumped that this time with 171.
For M50 Iain Cumming (192) it was a personal worst position. Clocking 32.28, he was only 33" behind last season's time, but 42 places lower. Last year's time would have placed him 171, again illustrating the improved race quality. Fair play to M50 Paul Stockings (209) who was almost 2 minutes quicker here than last year, but every one of the many people who like to beat Stocko managed to beat him nonetheless. And the C team was closed by another new man, M50 Alun Evans, who enjoyed his first taste of Met League action and will undoubtedly improve, and also be wanting to "beat Stocko", even though he doesn't know him.
This C team performance left the team in 3rd place in what could prove a good, season-long battle. St Albans A team lead on 1039, with Serpentine C 957 and ourselves 940. The stage is set for bags more thrilling C team action - tell family and friends to book tickets early for Stevenage!
Our remaining scorers counted in the sense of pushing back rival Division 3 men from other clubs. These stout (in some cases) yoemen will be looking to break into the C team as the season progresses and we cannot expect such enormous turnouts at other venues. The first of these was M60 Steve Sharp (252), threatening to run Claybury for the last time but not being believed by anyone, especially as he was 15" quicker than last year! Always a class act, Sharp was the first M60 home in the race. M45 Steve Lambert (260) was almost 3 minutes up on last year and took some very decent scalps which he no doubt celebrated with some dramatic tale-telling in the Monkhams, as is his wont.
M50 Alistair Holford (264) made a last minute decision to run but managed to beat his perennial rival M45 Martin Mack (272) - neither has done a lot of running recently so the fight was fair. Those two were bisected by Michael Murphy (268) who, like Lambert, is maturing with age (though not so old) and chopped 150" off last year's time, something he has been promising with blistering training sessions in Highams Park having transferred from the Clive group to the Terry group. Ever-present Andy Smith (271) was another involved in this Division 3 internecine (look it up!) war, pipping Mack by a vest width.
Still the boys poured in! U20 Ben Phillips (290), who had come back from university in Cardiff to get around off a background of injury and little training, should make massive progress if he can train seriously. M40 Richard Hogg (296) was 25" slower than last year but he did race the Chingford League on the Tuesday beforehand. For Adam Thorpe (300) this was a welcome return to Met League racing after quite a break and he got it under his belt, which he has pulled a notch or two tighter this autumn. Roger Green was 4th M60 in the race, just outside the podium places as it were, a tad quicker than last year but unfortunately 23 places lower. For M50 Grant Corton (324), it was a fiery Met League baptism and he was able to drool at the sight of about 8 of the speedy leaders zipping by to the finish as he neared the end of lap 2. And it was a positive result for M55 Stuart Phillips who usually beats one or two men but, off increased training, had set sights on beating 20 and actually beat 15. With the gaps at that end of the race, this indicated a far bigger improvement than it would higher up.
With a picturesque course, excellent support, well-oiled organisation, a friendly bar open in the clubhouse afterwards and a well-nigh perfect athletic performance from our men, it was another good day for the club. For manager McCarthy, "It's not the winning that counts, it's the having a good time. And the guys must be having a good time because they keep coming back. And winning."
In Kona, Hawaii, 42-year old Matt Molloy performed superbly in the heat of the Ford Ironman World Championship, finishing as 9th M40 in 9 hours 13 minutes. Matt reported that the toughest part of the challenge was controlling his core temperature and heart rate in conditions this (very fair-skinned!) triathlete had never competed in. After taking a little break, Matt will be back with us 'on the country' next month.