Battling Roadrunners survive the Hampshire League mudbath

Our flagship 10/20 event at Bramley was cancelled because of the weather but the driving rain and high winds were no match for the Roadrunners’ Hampshire Cross-Country League team at Popham, writes men’s captain TONY PAGE.

In the fact our ladies team seem to be enjoying themselves, though to be fair that was before the race had started!

All of the results are now in and the great news is that the RR men’s fifth place on Saturday was enough to secure our place in the prestigious First Division for another season as we climbed out of the relegation zone up to eighth.

This included an excellent 40th place from new member, Dave Boulton, who was second to Ben Paviour (31st and third vet). Our men were the first-placed vets team at Popham, and fifth over the season.       

The remainder of the scoring team for the men were Sibrand Rinzema (43rd), Mark Worringham (51st and sixth vet) and Tony Page (59th and 10th vet). 

The ladies had a strong finish to the season too, with tenth place at Popham, led home by Hannah Green in 27th. This was enough for ninth place over the season.  

Most pleasing was the day’s sixth place which saw our vet ladies secure a bronze-medal finish to the season. The remainder of the scoring team were Helen Pool (47th and 12th vet), Chloe Lloyd (61st), Emma Paton (66th and 23rd vet) and Sam Whalley (39th vet). Well done ladies.

Both Helen and Sarah Dooley clinched places in the League’s vet ladies top ten with their efforts over the season.

There were lots of excellent performances across the teams, in very challenging conditions. Roadrunners have gone from strength to strength in the final two fixtures of the campaign and we want to keep the momentum up for the Nationals at Parliament Hill Fields this coming Saturday… and for next season!

I would really encourage everyone to try the Hampshire League and experience the excellent team spirit for themselves. 

As is traditional, we rounded off the season with great night out at the Market House in Reading on Saturday night. A good time was had by all, and there were a few late starts on Strava today!

The Hampshire League results and final placings for the season can be found here:

https://www.hampshireathletics.org.uk/results/2022/20220219_hlmen.html

Meanwhile those of us who slogged through that mudbath aren’t in the least bit jealous of our team-mates who enjoyed great runs in the Spanish sunshine, chalking up five PBs in the Seville Marathon. Well, just a bit…

Many congratulations to Paloma Crayford, Carmen Fuentes, David Clay, Sarah Dooley and Chris Webber, as well as all the others who did us proud there.

Double Dutch successes as Roadrunners snatch victory

Roadrunners saved their best until last in the Thames Valley Cross Country League, our men clinching a dramatic victory at Handy Cross. Proud men’s captain TONY PAGE reports….

Roadrunners’ men pipped both Datchet and Finch Coasters by just one single point to snatch first place at the final TVXC League race of the season. While this wasn’t enough for us to retain the men’s title, nevertheless it was a pleasing result with several new members stepping up.

That’s a good sign for the future and will leave champions Datchet looking over their shoulders next season.

The League had saved this season’s hardest event to last, with hills aplenty through Bradenham Woods and stunning views over the Chilterns in the morning sunshine.

But before we hit the hills, there was a fast downhill start. No surprise to see Sibrand Rinzema (left) leading the way, looking to cement his No.1 position in our TVXC club champs. He was closely followed by Ben Paviour — our leading M40 — who had to hot-foot it to the start having been delayed en route. 

Sibrand and Ben (right) battled it out at the front, eventually finishing in seventh and eighth places, with Tony Page in 15th.

Our victory was secured further down the field with ever-present Jacob Atwal (20th), Matthew Sarjent (28th) and Lance Nortcliff, returning to the scene of past glories, in 33rd, each just edging out our rivals to make it count. 

Special mention goes to Matthew for an excellent result on debut, clearly a chip off the old block. No wonder Bruce struggles to keep up! 

Our first lady home was Swinda Falkena (46th, left), followed by Liz Ganpatsingh (54th), Sam Whalley (71st) and Gemma Higgs (78th), which earned the team tenth place on the day.

There were many other excellent performances, with members fighting it out in the final round of our TVXC club championships. Watch this space for the final individual results, which will be published soon.

The season finished with our men in second place in the league table, the ladies joint fifth and the club fourth overall.

In the meantime Sunday’s provisional results can be found at http://www.tvxc.org.uk/results/team?race_id=102

Our focus now switches to the final Hampshire League fixture of the season at Popham airfield on February 19th.

It would be great to have a strong team out for that one to maintain our position in the top division.

Hannah and her sisters become county Christmas crackers

Reading Roadrunners’ senior women’s team captured first prize at this year’s county championships, writes Sam Whalley.

 Hannah Green (fifth), Katie Rennie (17th) and new Roadrunner Mireia Garcia (19th) picked up gold medals for their efforts, and will also collect the first ever senior women’s trophy, recently acquired to match that awarded to the senior men.

Hannah has also qualified to represent Berkshire in the Inter-Counties Championships in Loughborough in March.

In the men’s race earlier, Jack Gregory finished eighth to secure his qualification to run for Berkshire in the Inter-Counties.

Some results remain provisional but list Chris Lucas as tenth — just missing out on a county vest — with Fergal Donnelly and Ben Ashby battling it out for 24th (sixth vet) and 25th, respectively.

Both men and women competed over a 10k course around the Copas PYO fruit farm in Cookham.

Official results can now be found at https://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=439608

Our pics show golden girls Hannah, Mireia and Katie plus Fergal and Ben battling it out with the Wargrave runner Richard Bookless.

Summer Relays 2021

2021 Results Now Available!!

Summer Relays Are Back!

2021  Summer Relays now available for booking.

Please visit our Summer Relays page here for more info

Alternatively entry can be made via WebCollect here 

2021 Results
Team Results available here
Individual Results available here
Pics courtesy of Ed Thorpe available here

Races are back… and Apsey’s so quick to beat the Easter traffic

Post-lockdown racing resumed over the Easter weekend — and immediately there was plenty of success for Reading Roadrunners.

Although neither of the usual Easter favourites, the Maidenhead 10 and Beaconsfield 5, took place there was a new-look Mortimer 10k over a multi-terrain course which finished with victory for Mark Apsey.

Mark survived a near-miss with a swerving car near the finish before pipping Reading Joggers’ star Alex Whearity in the last few metres to win in 36mins 48secs.

A delighted Mark said:  “What with being overworked and a mix of aches and pains, I have not trained much in the last month. I didn’t expect anything under 38 or 39 minutes so I was pleased to run the time I did on a gruelling woodland trail route that included plenty of dog-lead dodging and, on the second lap, runner congestion.”

The RR glory weekend had kicked off with Super Sarah Dooley braving the vicious Dorney Lake headwinds to clinch a place in the London Marathon Championship with 3:14.00.

PBs there, too, for Paul Morrissey and Lorna McLeod and a V60 third-place for Alan Freer, while Ben Fasham improved his half-marathon PB at Kempton Park.

Some of the south’s best 5k runners were out in force in Sussex on Easter Monday for the Ardingly PB5k and Alex Harris duly obliged by taking four seconds off his best and improving his club V50 age group record to 17.33.

To give you some idea of the quality of the fields at this graded meeting, Jack Gregory ran 15.14 in the elite race where you had to run sub-16 to finish in the top 100.

Despite the cancellation of this year’s Shinfield 10k there will soon b    e plenty of other local races taking place soon, although for the next couple of months they will still all be staged under Covid restrictions (see Roadmap, below).

Step 2 of the Government’s roadmap expires on April 12th and the club plans to restart track sessions at Palmer Park from Wednesday, April 14th.

Below is a new-look calendar of events for the rest of the year. It doesn’t claim to be comprehensive but should cover most of the races which have proved popular with our members over the last few years.

Some of them have been postponed from their traditional spring dates to later in the year, making the autumn particularly busy. There should be a big race round here for everyone in October, but that won’t stop Roadrunners rocking up mob-handed at the Boston Marathon.

One of the anomalies thrown up by the modified schedule is the Farnborough Winter Half Marathon taking place on July 4th. Hopefully there won’t be a blizzard during the race this year!

Another new date is May 23rd for the 2020 Gutbuster. Normally a Christmas highlight, it was called off in December and again in February but is sure to be a sell-out whenever it’s staged.

There are more reasons to be cheerful in May, particularly with the return of the Barnes Fitness Summer Series. Events run by Ellie and Ian Gosling (left) always have a great vibe and this year the Dinton runfest comes with a virtual option (barnesfitness.co.uk).

May 16th sees the staging of the RunReading Half Marathon (racesolutions.co.uk) round the Caversham/Mapledurham loop as well as a full marathon and 50k ultra through the Goring Gap.

These two longer races are already sold out and the start lists include plenty of Roadrunners, as well as a certain Bradley Cooper. Not the Bradley Cooper, surely?

Hollywood A-listers have been the least of the worries during the lockdowns for race directors such as Racesolutions boss Chris Sumner.

“The problem for organisers is that we require enough notice to make arrangements for the races,” he said. “So it’s one thing being told potentially that all restrictions will be lifted by June 21st and that some events can take place from March 29th but, without having certainty about this, booking the various services and paying for them is a big risk.

“If we do this and they then say we cannot go ahead then we potentially lose tens of thousands of pounds.”

That was why Chris set a stand-by date of the weekend beginning July 23rd for the southern version of Endure 24 and was able to accommodate a late switch from June and a move from Wasing Park to Henley.

Another huge event from the Racesolutions stable is the Wokingham Half Marathon, which has transported from its traditional February slot to September 19th. This version promises a new route through the town centre.

Before that comes the putative return of parkrun on June 5th. Good luck to the volunteers trying to keep that socially distanced!

Conspicuous by its absence from my list is the Vets Track and Field League. Club organiser Chris Manton tells me he has yet to hear of any fixtures for that series. 

I’m sure Roadrunners will be entering some strong squads for the British Masters Road Relays at Sutton Coldfield in September, although there’s no news yet on the 12 and 6-stage Road Relays.

Track Friday supremo Fergal Donnelly tells me that he and Tony Canning are confident of staging some of their popular 5k events after the summer holidays period. Here’s the list of selected races:

APRIL

25: Goodwood Festival of Running

MAY

 1: Newbury Racecourse 5k, 10k, HM

 2: Henley Trail 10k and HM

 9: Oxford Town & Gown 10k

 9: Jigsaw 10k

13: Dinton Summer Series (race 1)

16: Reading Riverside HM, Goring Gap 26.2m & 50k

23: Gutbuster

JUNE

  5: Return of parkrun

10: Dinton Summer Series (race 2)

20: Hampshire Hoppit HM & marathon

JULY

 4: Farnborough Winter HM

4: Sonning 5k, 10k

 7: Yateley 10k (race 1)

 8: Dinton Summer Series (race 3)

10: Race to the Stones

21: Yateley 10k (race 2)

23: Endure 24

25: Down Tow Up Flow HM

31: Round Reading Ultra

AUGUST

  4: Yateley 10k (race 3)

12: Dinton Summer Series (race 4)

15: Burnham Beeches HM & 10k

29: Englefield 10k

SEPTEMBER

 5: Maidenhead HM

12: Brighton Marathon

12: Great North Run

18: British Masters Road Relays

19: Wokingham HM

25: Windsor Women’s 10k

26: Windsor HM

26: Berlin Marathon

OCTOBER

 3: London Marathon

 3: Basingstoke HM

10: Henley 10k & HM

10: Chicago Marathon

11: Boston Marathon

17: Great South Run

17: Oxford HM

17: Paris Marathon

24: Abingdon Marathon

24: Water of Life HM

NOVEMBER

 7: Reading HM

 7: Marlow 7 & HM

 7: Rivermead 10k

28: Mapledurham 10k & HM

  • I have kept December clear for a full programme of Hampshire League and TVXC fixtures. In 2022, why not pencil in the Woodcote 10k on January 9th? It’s a great warm-up for the big one — Bramley 10/20 — on February 20th.
  • Yesterday’s action picture: Peter Cook

Miles of smiles as Eddie rolls back years to prove old ones are best

Eddie Thorpe has surprised himself with the club’s best age category performance in the British Masters Virtual  one-mile road relays,  writes Sam Whalley.

In the competition for those aged 35 or over, M75 Eddie finished fourth in the 75-84 age category, with a 77 per cent age-graded time of 7 minutes and 19 seconds.

A 4:40-miler back in the 80s, Eddie was still pretty pleased with his time, having shielded for many months, and not having done any speed work since the track first closed a year ago, maintaining his fitness initially with many miles on a Wattbike. 

He waited with bated breath though, to find out if he would make the top three, with the top runner also listed as an M65, for team purposes.

The event attracted over 1200 masters athletes from around the country, and 24 Roadrunners, who were led home by M40 Mark Worringham in a speedy 4:50 (83% age grade).

W60 Jane Davies achieved the top age grade, though, with 87% for her time of 6:42, followed by M55 Brian Kirsopp (81% for 5:38), and W45 Helen Pool, who was paced to a PB of 5:57 (her first sub-six, 80%) by Tony Page, who had already logged 5:20 for himself before knocking ten seconds off in another attempt.

The fastest female Roadrunner, though, was W35 Jane Copland, whose 5:48 earned her ninth place in her age category.

Well done to everyone who took part.

Here are the team scores:

M35-44 (46th): 36: Mark Worringham (4:50), 633: Ben Fasham (6:15), 869: Chris James (6:56).

M45-54 (37th): 177: Tony Page (5:20), 769: Chris Manton (6:38), 878: Art Atwal (6:57).

M55-64 (14th): 314: Brian Kirsopp (5:38), 698: David Caswell (6:24), 964: Peter Reilly (7:19).

W35-44 (21st): 398: Jane Copland Pavlovich (5:48), 845: Caroline Jackson (6:50), 1099: Nicola Gillard (8:04).

W45-54 (21st): 490: Helen Pool (5:57), 969: Elizabeth Ganpatsingh (7:20), 1063: Saba Reeves (7:48).

Here’s all the Roadrunners’ positions:

National treasures Jane and Mark lead the Roadrunners Fast Show

Jane Davies and Mark Worringham were the headline acts of a superb performance by the Reading Roadrunners team in the final of the England Athletics Virtual Road Relay competition.

Jane was the winner of her V60 age group in a fiercely competitive national round, returning a time of 37 minutes and seven seconds for the five miles. That was despite being forced to change her planned route at the last minute due to local flooding and having to run a more undulating course.

Nevertheless the England masters marathon star achieved the astonishing age grading of 87.84 per cent… while Mark did even better with 87.96 per cent!

Mark was the fastest Roadrunner in the event with a stunning time of 25:53. It won’t be recognised as a personal best but it eclipsed the 26:03 he ran five years ago when smashing the course record at the Headington 5.

The former club men’s captain is a modest guy who lets his times do the talking for him. So here’s his splits… 5:10, 5:11, 5:10, 5:14, 5:07.

The time-frame for the competition had been extended due to poor weather and Roadrunners saved their best until last, the speedy council planning officer racing just a few hours before the final deadline.

Current club men’s captain, Jamie Smith, hailed his predecessor by saying: “That’s a fine performance by Mark, beating his time in the previous qualifying round by 17 seconds.”

Jamie added: “It was a superb team effort and it was great to see new names taking part and giving it a go.

“A note of thanks to Rob Corney, who went out of his way — having been injured recently — to meet up with one of our youngest club members, Jacob Atwal, and pace him for his five-mile effort round Green Park. What a tremendous show of team spirit!”

Second fastest Roadrunner was Brendan Morris, whose time of 26:34 improved his best — run in the previous round — by over a minute. Tony Page (28:52) and Matthew Davies (29:14) were our other scorers, just ahead of new member Adam Lewis, who ran 30:18 on debut.

Leading our ladies home was Jane Copland (33:26 despite being just back from injury), followed by Sarah Dooley (33:36) and Helen Pool (34:04), with Jane Davies completing the scorers. That’s Jane Copland pictured with son Sam, a potential future Roadrunner.

Proud women’s captain Sam Whalley said: “It was great to see so many different people turn out for this round. Jane Copland managed a great time following some calf issues and Jane Davies proved to be the fastest F60 in the land.

“Sarah Dooley and Helen Pool performed at their usual excellent standard, while Sara Lopez continued her recent run of form with a superb time.

“Thanks to Katie Gumbrell and Alex Bennell for uploading their efforts and well done to Gill Manton, who recorded an unofficial PB.”

Roadrunners were today confirmed as finishing 45th overall, an improvement of two places from the qualifying round. Wirral AC were the overall champions and will represent England in next month’s international final.

Our graphics show all the RR finishing times:

Now for round two! Roadrunners show they’re really relay brilliant

SOME fantastic performances in round one of the England Athletics Virtual Road Relays meant Reading Roadrunners have clinched a place in next month’s National Round, writes Sam Whalley.

The competition, which required entrants to run a five-mile road leg, was initially scheduled to take place from Boxing Day to  January 10th but was extended to January 13th to allow more time for those clubs whose local areas had been affected by adverse weather conditions to participate. 

Club members aged 15 and over were invited to enter, and asked to run either out-and-back courses or lapped courses of no less than 1km per lap. Track laps were not permitted, and competitors were reminded to comply fully with government guidelines regarding exercise.

Team numbers were uncapped, and scoring teams were made up of the fastest four men and four women from each club, with the top 50 teams to progress to round two. With a total time of 4hrs 5mins and 51secs our eight scorers bagged a provisional 47th place in a competition which attracted 128 teams.

As usual the standard was exceptionally high, with the fastest times overall being 23:57 for the men and 27:36 for the women.

21 Roadrunners – 12 men and 9 women – rose to the challenge during the competition period. 

Scoring for the men were Jack Gregory (26:01 – 54th overall), Mark Worringham (26:10 – third MV40), Brendan Morris (28:26) and Tony Page (28:49). Mark’s time was over a minute faster than the club MV40 record of 27:25, set by Lance Nortcliff at Overton in 2016, while Tony’s was a PB by more than four minutes.

Counting for the women’s score were Katherine Sargeant (fourth FV50) 31:51), Sarah Dooley (33:53), Mel Shaw (34:41) and Liz Johnson (36:00). Katherine’s time was almost two minutes faster than the club FV50 record of 33:45, which was set by Lesley Whiley at Peasemore, and has stood since 2011.

Other notable performances were recorded by Rob Cannings (31:19) — a brave competitive comeback after he was hospitalised during the first wave of Covid — and Jane Davies (36:13), who was third FV60. Jane, Katherine and Mark all achieved an age grading of 87 per cent for their performances.

Racing solo is no easy task, so well done to everyone who took part.

Here’s confirmation of the results, which means we can now prepare for the National Round, which will take place between and February 10th and 15th:

https://www.englandathletics.org/athletics-and-running/news/virtual-road-relay-competition-the-results-are-in

 

 

 

Katherine and Brian are Masters of the universe… just like Eddie!

Tony Page and Katherine Sargeant have topped the club’s results in the virtual 10k challenge set by the British Masters Athletics Federation (BMAF), writes Sam Whalley.

Aimed at getting masters athletes (those aged 35 or over) back into action after Christmas, the challenge required entrants to run one or more circular or out-and-back road loops totalling 10k, or a full 25 laps of a track.

The standard was predictably high, with the fastest man running 30:59, and the fastest woman 37:26.

Tony’s time of 36:20 earned him 16th place in the MV45 category, while Katherine (left, with Tony Streams) won the FV50 age group with 40:10, over 90 seconds ahead of her nearest rival.

Also triumphant in their five-year age categories were Brian Kirsopp (MV55) with 38:06, and Eddie Thorpe (MV75) with 52:52. Eddie is pictured, right, enjoying a well-deserved pint.

Jane Davies was third FV60 with 46:45, while David Parton was fifth MV50 with 36:49 and Helen Pool was fifth FV45 with 42:36.

There were reports of (unofficial) PBs across the club, including Becky Mellor running her first 10k, and Andrew Small beating his previous MV70 time by seven minutes, so well done and thank you to all of those who took part.

Full results are here: https://data.opentrack.run/en-gb/x/2020/GBR/bmaf-virtual-10k/event/1/1/1/

For those aged 15 and over, EA is currently hosting a virtual five-mile road relay, with four men and four women to score for each team. The deadline is January 10th, and full details are here: https://data.opentrack.run/en-gb/x/2020/GBR/earr/