London City Runner Met League race 2: Senior Men
Our men's team delivered another outstanding performance in the second league race of the season at Stevenage on Saturday. Having won by 57 points at Claybury in Race 1, this time the margin was a convincing 91 points. Serpentine were again second, but we are stretching away. We had a wonderful turnout of 43 finishers, and our B and C teams continue to be extremely competitive. There were many good runs and, while Daniel Agustus led us home, there was a particularly eye-catching run from Oli Heeks.
The league is extremely strong at the moment, with many clubs turning out large numbers. Serpentine closed 54 men and London Heathside 51. The course was mostly flat and fast - and our young team is characterised by a wealth of good 800/1500 track men who were able to take full advantage. Tense club rivalries hung in the air on the start line as a crusty old-timer was heard to mutter, "This is no longer cut-and-thrust. This is war!"
A team
Across the initial field, heading towards the potential bottleneck at the entrance to the woods, we had Harun Abdi, Daniel Agustus, Oli Heeks and Matt Shone in the top 15. Abdi and Agustus stayed with the lead group for the best part of two laps, but Abdi has had ongoing achilles trouble which were compounded by him twisting his ankle, and he eventually dropped back to 17th place, bravely refusing to give in. Agustus narrowly failed to stay with a group of 6 who got away as the attacks started. The race was finally won by Newham's Rory Chesser, who has a 1500m best of 3.42 and was Ireland steeplechase champion in 2010. Second was Highgate's Ben Noad whose pedigree extends back to a 28.47 10000m in the year 2000. Agustus ran excellently to place 9th, just behind Mohamud Aadan of Thames Valley who won Race 1.
Heeks' plan to go out fastish and "see what happens" worked perfectly for the 1.49 800m man. With no real cross country pedigree to speak of, he showed the benefits of recent training (including with winner Chesser) by not buckling at all and finishing 15th. Having run a swift leg at the National Cross Country Relays last week and with a fine summer (1.51/3.50 for 800/1500) behind him, we knew that Andy Mariani was in good form and he ran strongly to come through the field alongside training partner Matt Sullivan of Shaftesbury (both are Loughborough-based), Mariani finishing the stronger of the two in a Met League PB of 18th. With a reputation as a mountain runner, it is easy to overlook the fact that Stephan Wenk ran a nippy 31.28 for 10K as recently as March this year. So he does have flat speed, and his 19th place was a very fine result as several very good Met League regulars found themselves staring down the barrel of a disappointing disc. Highgate's Dodwell "only" 20th, Hugh Torry (Serpentine) and James Trapmore (Shaftesbury) "only" 25th and 27th.
Tom Beedell chose the wrong gear early on and paid a price, fading to 24th, still not a bad result. Having been selected by his country Slovenia, Tomaz Plibersek (29th) is preparing for the European Cross Country Championships in early December and will be racing in the Balkans over the coming two weekends. This was a necessary bit of race training for him. Matt Shone had fallen out of love with cross country over the last 2 years so it was pleasing to see him back in spikes. After his quick start, the former Commonwealth Games 800m man dropped back in controlled fashion, to 52nd at one point, but then went back up through the gears and finished very quickly in 30th. As importantly, post-race it was evident that Shone had rediscovered his cross country mojo as he eagerly promised a top 20 at our next race at Ruislip.
2nd claimer 1.49 800m man Jordan Donnelly, in between jobs in Vietnam and Germany, travelled down from the Wirral and finished 33rd, very impressive considering that, for the last 5 months, he has been training in the heat, humidity and chaos of Ho Chi Minh City. 2 seconds behind in 34th, it was a season opener for Jon Cook (1.48/3.51 this summer), who has to be very careful of his ankles and was happy to get a solid run under his belt with no nasty ankle outcomes. Bertie Powell (39) was unhappy with his position and with his recent run of bad luck, which we hope is now at an end so that he can have a strong winter. And our scoring team was closed by Angus Holford (46) whose run was also very solid, and one would not expect anything more outstanding from the mudlark on this sort of terrain.
Closing 12 in 46 in a field of this quality was nothing short of scintillating. Manager Terry McCarthy felt it was the club's finest team league performance "of at least the last 20 years". Our closest rivals, Serpentine, closed 12 in 71 with 5 of those behind our 12th man. This was irresistible stuff and leaves the A team 148 points clear of Serpentine, 670 ahead of Highgate and a massive 1000 ahead of 4th placed Hillingdon.
However, when asked whether the fat lady had already sung on a 4th consecutive title, McCarthy mocked the idea, "We'll be losing many of these guys to indoor track racing after Christmas, so there will be opportunities for some of our other guys to make the A team, and for Serpentine to make up lost ground. But at the moment it's good news for our track team next summer!"
B team
Two men knocking on the A team door could be U20s Darren Southcott (52) and Dan Yaxley (59). Southcott is still only 80% fit and runs well in mud. For Yaxley, this was a real breakthrough, having finished 88th at Claybury. He was buoyed by passing a couple of respected athletes and ran increasingly well as the race unfolded. However, indoors will also be tempting this 1.56 800m lad who has taken his training to another level this winter and is reaping the benefits.
The athletes were closing thick and fast now. Harold Wyber (75), currently embarking on a get-fit campaign, was 22" but 16 places behind Yaxley with another sound run. A glance at former race winner Kevin Murphy's 82nd place would suggest that his running career has gone into a frightening freefall, but manager McCarthy backed him saying, "the boy Murphy just needs 2 or 3 hard sessions and some new pink dye for his shorts. A bit of mud and some hills would not come amiss, either."
Jim Roche (100) and Tony Pamphilon (102) both dropped many places compared with Claybury, though both will thrive more on tougher courses. Pamphilon was second M50 in the race, 50" down on Scotland international veteran Iain Campbell of Met Police. In 123, Jon Long did well to beat Ed Messer (125) and M40 Gareth Cavell (128), though all three were only separated by 5 seconds! 10 seconds further back, in came M45 Ray Dzikowski (135, suffering from a cold) and Rob Cox (136, stomach trouble). And the scoring 12 was closed by M50 Alan Rugg (151) who is not quite firing on all cylinders at the moment.
It was a tough day for the B team as we finished 8th of 10 Division 1 teams on the day. We are now in 7th place in the division but well clear of the relegation zone and still ahead of the only other B team in Division 1, Serpentine.
C team
Steve Dawkins opened the B team in a decent 171, followed by U20 Karim Ali in 176. Nobody else broke the 200 barrier. M55 Dave Cox has been suffering from a virus for 3 weeks, so his 203rd was completely out of character. M50 Iain Cumming (208) is still around a minute down on where he would like to be, but he reversed the tables on Rob Quantrell (213) who had beaten him at Claybury. Alexis Atkinson (240) made his club debut and swore he would be two minutes quicker in a month's time. The C team was closed by two M50s, 2nd claimer Phil Oatham (256) and Alun Evans (257), who had a great battle and were awarded the same time.
The Division 3 positions were identical to Race 1 in that we were third behind St Albans 'A' and Serpentine 'C'. St Albans look certain for promotion and Serpentine will be difficult, but not impossible, to catch.
The rest
Our remaining men contributed to the Division 3 race, pushing back rival teams' runners. Leading them home was M50 Paul Stockings in 274, pipping fellow M50 Alistair Holford (275) by a single second. Another titanic struggle involved Andy Smith (300) and Michael Murphy (301), also separated by a vest width. Murphy was particularly strong on the last lap. 17" back, M45 Martin Mack (306) will be seeking to regain the lofty heights of yore as he is now training regularly on the track with Thurrock Harriers. M45 Steve Lambert (314) and Ben Wright (315) were also locked together with "the older man" getting the verdict. It was Wright's club debut and hopefully he will be inspired!
A minute further back, M40 Richard Hogg (326) again got the better of Roger Green (341) who was 7th M60 in a strong M60s field. M55 Stuart Phillips continues to show progress, beating 20 men this time as opposed to 15 at Claybury. And M55 Trevor Powell (360) made a welcome return to racing and did remarkably well to beat 11 men. The Phillips-Powell encounter next time out will be one for the connoisseurs.
The Met League wagon train now rolls on to Ruislip, where the course is very different indeed, involving tough hills and, probably, a bit more mud. Will we get 40+ runners out again? Who knows. Anything can happen because, as with our much-loved (?) TOWIE neighbours, "these are all real people!"
Elsewhere, Alex Cornwell and Tom Phillips both represented their university teams in very strong local CC leagues. For Birmingham University, Cornwell was 33rd in the Birmingham League and, running for UWIC Phillips was a good 15th in the Gwent League.