She’s back… but where has she been? Inside story of the shock return of a Roadrunners superstar

Long-serving members of Reading Roadrunners were stunned — and delighted —to learn of the return to racing of Sarah Gee after an extended sabbatical
of 14 years.

Basically the absence of the club’s best-ever lady competitor can be explained by the old problem of life getting in the way of running.

Now Sarah, who has held RR records at all distances from 10k to marathon since 2010, has made a winning return.

First she knocked 41 seconds off Jane Davies’s club V60 record for parkrun. Then she led our V50 squad to silver medals at the SEAA relays at Aldershot.

So what has she been up to all this time? Let Sarah tell her own story… 

“A big hello and thank-you to everyone who has made me feel so welcome on my return to RR after so many years.

“I hung up my running shoes in October, 2010, having had my most successful year at the age of 46. I had started running at 40.

“Following winning the Edinburgh Marathon in May that year I achieved my goal of being selected for the full England team at the Toronto Marathon, and received my full England kit. My Edinburgh Marathon time had missed the Commonwealth Games qualifying time by 16 seconds.

“However, both my personal and professional life took new directions at the end of that year and my daughters — then aged eight and nine — needed more input and help in their school work.

“So it was the right decision to step back from running, but a difficult one. I loved my time at RR and I adored running; however, it was becoming very time-consuming.

“Now, 14 years on, having turned 60 and retired, and with daughters focused on their own paths, I have thrown myself back into the fun, addictive and exciting world of running. It was always on the bucket list to return at some point.

“In the 14 years of being away I carried on jogging five miles in the mornings, on my own at easy pace, but completely stopped running for five years from 2019, through Covid, and to 2023.

“During this time I was working long hours in medical writing in the Biotech world, including a Covid medicine.

“The stimulation to start running again was twofold … to do with my own health (high blood pressure) and being involved in a Uni project for my youngest daughter, who is studying veterinary medicine.

“Alyssa added a sixth year to her Uni life by doing a intercalated year at Loughborough in sports science and needed to do a psychological profile on an athlete preparing for an event.

“We live in the same road in Warfield as the GB marathon runner Charlotte Purdue but she was away and not available for interview at the time. My daughter panicked and tweaked her plan and said the profile had to become an (old) athlete preparing for a return to athletics. That was me!

“I did my first-ever parkrun a couple of weeks ago — I never recorded a 5k time in my 40s. Then I joined one of the teams at the relays at Rushmoor.

“A big shout-out to ladies’ captain Chloe Lloyd, who sensed my initial reticence when I suggested I should be a reserve. She insisted I “get out there!” And she was right.

“I enjoyed my leg of the relay and everyone from RR was welcoming, chatty and supportive.

“I wouldn’t have expected anything else, as I have always had fond memories of the club and its great members.”

Next target for Sarah — who back in the day was ranked age-group No.1 in England at 10k, half marathon and marathon — will be representing the club in the Hampshire League when cross-country resumes next month.

Other targets include British Masters championships at both 5k and 10 miles in December.

Don’t rule out England Masters vests next year… her training times at both 10k and half marathon are comfortably inside the national qualification marks.

Welcome back, Sarah!

  • Pictures show: Sarah finishing the 2009 Reading Half Marathon; with daughter Alyssa; representing England in an XC international; at the Aldershot relays; and in England kit again at the Toronto Marathon.

Gee whizz! Sarah’s back at last and still has the old magic

Following the first big team event of the autumn, SAM WHALLEY reports on an astonishing comeback by one of Roadrunners’ all-time greats…

Reading Roadrunners V50 women’s were silver medallists at the SEAA Road Relays in Aldershot, one minute behind Brighton and Hove AC, and second out of the nine V50 teams.

In a different format to previous years, the Masters women (V40 and V50, three to a team) ran a shorter course of 4.6k, setting off with the Under 17 women. 

The team was led off by Sarah Gee (17.55, left), who has made a recent return to running and still holds every female club record at 10k and over. 

Andrea Greenfield (pictured with Sarah) took the middle leg (19.35), maintaining second place, before handing over to Carrie Hoskins to finish with the third fastest leg of the V50 teams (17.39). 

The men’s V50 teams (four to a team) ran the usual 6k course, with the A team of Lance Nortcliff (21.58), Dave Parton (21.44), Alex Harris (22.37) and V60 Pete Jewell (23.04) finishing only 13 seconds outside of the medal positions in fourth place, out of 13 teams. 

Other results from the afternoon of racing, which started with rain and ended in sunshine:

Senior Men’s (6x6k) – Callum Evans (right), Chris Burt, Chris Lucas, Dave Boulton, Steve Ridley, Tom Griffin – 59th out of 103 teams

Senior Women (4x6k) – Sophie Mures, Kat Charles, Holly Sedgwick, Chloe Lloyd – 27th out of 55 teams

Men’s V60 (4x6k) – Clive Alderson, Alan Freer, Mark Allen and Nigel Hoult – 8th out of 10 teams

Women’s V40 A (3×4.6k) – Lisa Steele, Sarah Dooley, Kate Williams – 9th out of 19 teams

The women’s V50 B team was disbanded due to injury, and both the women’s V40 B (Claire Seymour and Sam Whalley) and the men’s V50 B teams (Tony Page, Eoin McLeod and David Fiddes) were incomplete for a similar reason.

Here’s your link to all the times and data: https://results.sporthive.com/events/7242834360355782656

Promotion plus another super Bramley makes it double joy

Last weekend was a double success for Reading Roadrunners, with the Hampshire XC League promotion and the faultless staging of another exceptional Bramley 20/10 event. Men’s captain TONY PAGE tells how we did it…

Reading Roadrunners’ men have been confirmed as winners of Division 2 of the Hampshire Cross-Country League and will be promoted back to the top division for next season.

This was all but guaranteed after our third consecutive win at Prospect Park last month and it was finally secured with a third-place finish at Bournemouth on Saturday.

Outstanding on the day was Lance Nortcliff, in 31st place, fourth veteran and individual gold medal winner in     the V50 age category across the four races in the league. 

Next month, Lance will be representing Berkshire at the Inter-Counties XC Championships in Nottinghamshire. His performance was closely matched by Pete Jewell, with individual series gold in the V60 category.   

Six men made up the squad for the race. The team were led home by Ryan O’Brien (22nd), Lance Nortcliff (31st, fourth vet, first V50), Pete Jewell (73rd, 21st vet, first V60), Tony Page (104th, 40th vet, 14th V50) and Ian Giggs (120th, 51st vet). Gary Clarke (174th, 97th vet) also had good run. 

Lance, Pete and Tony made up our vets team, which finished in fifth place on the day and also fifth best team across the four races. 

This 23-24 season saw a great RR team effort, which saw 23 different runners across the four fixtures and nine different runners making up the scoring team in our best three races, each of whom will be getting a winner’s medal. 

Ryan was in the scoring team in every race and finished in 16th place overall, in the highly competitive, senior men’s category. Second-claim member Jacob Atwal, running for Southampton University, came in second place (first U20).

In the women’s race, Sam Whalley (89th, 48th vet, 16th V50) and Claire Seymour (95th, 52nd vet, above) both ran well, but sadly we fell short of the required number of runners to make up a senior or vets team. 

For full results see https://www.afd.org.uk/hampshire-cross-country-league-results-2024/

There was a rather better turn-out from the women’s team at the Bramley 20/10 yesterday, with our ladies finishing on top of the podium in both the 20-mile and 10-mile races. 

The two-lap race was another triumph for Katherine Streams, (above) who won the V50 age group with a four-minute PB and an age grading north of 88 per cent.

She was followed home by training partner Nikki Gray, who also ran a huge PB and was first senior lady to finish. Mary Janssen (right) completed the winning team.  

Roadrunners also had the first V50 home in the 10-mile race — Saba Reeves, who carried off  the team prize with ladies captain Chloe Lloyd and Pip White, who ran a PB.

The two team prizes were the icing on the cake for the club after the organisational triumph of race director Adele Graham, her committee, volunteers and marshals in staging our flagship event despite last week’s Noah’s Ark weather — see picture left for the bit we missed out!

The forced farmyard detour in mile five might have added a handful of seconds to runners’ times but there were still plenty of PB’s. Here’s where to find the data… https://results.sporthive.com/events/7161372179512076288

Roadrunners going up… now for a fun day out in Bournemouth!

The Green Vests defied the mud and cold to clinch cross-country success yesterday. SAM WHALLEY reports on how our men kept up their perfect record… 

The Reading Roadrunners men are destined for promotion back to Division 1 of the Hampshire League after they topped Division 2 for the third time this season.

With one fixture to go, and the best three results to count, the team that travels to Bournemouth on Saturday, February 10th, will have something to celebrate.

Lance Nortcliff and Pete Jewell are currently leading the individual V50 and V60 age categories.

Fifteen men made up the squad for the race in Prospect Park yesterday. Second-claim member Ben Paviour (25th, sixth vet, first V50, left) led the winning team home, followed by Ryan O’Brien (34th), Callum Evans (60th), Lance Nortcliff (72nd, 17th vet, second V50) and Keith Russell (80th, 22nd vet). The vet men were third.

Pete Jewell (1st V60, below right), Tony Page, Jon Lloyd, Mark Andrew, Tom Wright, Jon Green, David Fiddes, Antoine Chabran, Steve Cunningham and Gary Clarke also had really good runs over the tough 10k course.

Last week’s TVXC winner, Jacob Atwal (below left), was fourth (second U20), albeit running for his first-claim club, Southampton University.

Eleven women lined up for the start of the most local of the league fixtures, with Kayleigh Forbes calling it a day at the mid-way point, not quite recovered from a heavy cold.

Helen Pool (49th, 18th vet) led the women home, with Kaja Milczewska (59th) and Hampshire League debutante Charlie Siveter (60th, 26th vet, sixth V50) completing the team. 

Charlie’s first XC outing had been at the club’s home TVXC race in Ashenbury Park the previous week, which she said she had found hilarious! The women’s team was eighth overall.

The vet women’s third scorer came in the shape of Angela Burley (90th, 39th vet, eighth V50). The vet women were seventh.

Pauline Bravet (72nd), league newcomer Liz Gantpatsingh, Alex Bennell, Sam Whalley, Claire Seymour and Becky Mellor also toughed out the 6k race, which for the first time included an extra hill (twice!), to finally make it the advertised distance.

Well done to everyone who ran and thank you to those who supported.

The results are here: https://www.afd.org.uk/hampshire-cross-country-league-results-2024/

Don’t forget the two remaining TVXC fixtures at Handy Cross next Sunday and the TVT race on February 4th.

What a Gray day! Nikki leads Roadrunners super show at BBO

Club chair SAM WHALLEY chronicles the action after another top team effort by the Green Vests today…

Eighteen Reading Roadrunners braved the weather at the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Cross-County Championships today… and it was well worth the trip!

While it had been fairly bright and pleasant in Reading, further along the M4 at Newbury Showground the wind was such that the early arrivals made an executive decision to abandon the tent and make do without. Fortunately the rain mostly held off during the races, but there was definitely a significant wind chill throughout.

A late change to land availability meant it was a three-lap rather than two-lap course for both men and women, mostly on grass and woodland, all run over 8k.

Nikki Gray’s was the standout performance of the day, with second place overall, and first vet. 

Nikki also won a medal for third overall women’s team, along with Kat Charles and Kaja Milczewska, and third vet women’s team, with Mel Shaw and Lorna McLeod. Kayleigh Forbes, Pauline Bravet and Toni McQueen also had excellent runs.

Mark Worringham (above, right) came out on top for the men, as first Roadrunner home and winning the prize for first vet. 

The vet men’s team of Mark, Dave Parton and Fergal Donnelly was third. With six to score for the overall team awards, the men’s team was fifth. Well done to Tony Page, Dimi Gospodinov, Ian Giggs, Mark Andrew, Gary Tuttle, Eoin McLeod and Jon Green for their excellent runs too.

Full results are here: https://bbocca.uk/results/

Anyone wishing they’d been part of the team action should enter the Berkshire County XC Champs at Cookham on December 17th. Entries are open until December 11th: https://data.opentrack.run/en-gb/x/2023/GBR/berkshirexc/

There were also some super performances among the Roadrunners who competed over 42k and 21k in Verona, Italy, today.

Stand-out was David Boulton, (left), whose 2:37.37 took over five minutes off his marathon PB.

There were also PBs in the half marathon for Julie Sugden — by three and a half minutes — as well as David Clay and women’s captain Chloe Lloyd.

Back closer to home, David Dibben made a welcome return from injury with an England Masters M75 qualifying spot at the Brighton 10k. Could he be the first Roadrunner to gain an England vest in three different age groups and at three different distances?! Any offers?

Roadrunners’ magnificent seven enjoy a right royal day at Windsor

 Committee chair SAM WHALLEY reports on a big day out for the club last weekend…

Reading Roadrunners were out in force at the Runnymede Relays, with no fewer than seven of the 30 teams entered coming from our club.

The event in Windsor Great Park has long been a popular one for us, and this year was no exception, despite the threat of rain, and the strong winds preventing the assembly of our shelter.

Green vests were pulled on, picnics were unpacked, and the teams — named Barbarians, Corinthians, Olympians, Coyotes, Trojans, Spartans and Athenians — were raring to go!

In recent years the race has shifted from three long legs (five miles) and three short (5k) to just six equal legs of around 3.7 miles each.

There was talk of long grass, but not too long, undulations, a bit of road, a steep gravelly section and a strong headwind. It all adds to the fun, along with trying to identify someone’s running style from across the park.

James Armstrong was back in fourth place on leg one, recording the fastest Roadrunners time of the day, with 20.42. 

Leg two saw Daniel Zagyva’s 22.11 gain a position, and this third place was maintained by Sarah McDade (24.40), Pete Jewell (23.21), Dave Boulton (21.39) and sealed by Brendan Russell, our youngest member, with a great run of 21.23. 

Having narrowly missed out on a podium spot last year, this was a super result. Well done, Team Barbarians (top picture)!

Team Corinthians (above) was sixth, Olympians tenth, with Jon Green making up eight places on leg two; the Coyotes were 23rd, the Trojans 25th, Spartans 29th and Athenians 30th.

The Trojans (pictured left), with a combined age of 439, were beyond delighted to have beaten the mass start, held at 3pm for anyone still to start their leg. Not that any of this event is about times really — more about the camaraderie and the experience — but it is still worthy of note that the club’s five fastest men’s times all came from the bronze medal-winning team, while the women were more widely spread.

Team Olympians’ Katherine West (right) was quickest, with 23.18, followed by Katherine Streams (24.10), Nikki Gray (24.16), Sarah McDade (24.40), and Chloe Lloyd (26.13).

Runnymede Runners have thanked us for bringing so many teams to the event – same again next year?

Here’s a link to the results.. https://www.runnymederunners.com/rr_summer_relays/. Unfortunately the official data isn’t accurate as far as our Athenians team is concerned… you’ll see a correct version when the next club newsletter is published later this week.

Three great long-serving members honoured with lifetime awards

Roadrunners chair SAM WHALLEY reports on some landmark presentations at the club’s annual awards ceremony…

Congratulations to Sandy Sheppard, Tony Canning and Bob Thomas, who have all been awarded life memberships of Reading Roadrunners.

Sandy has been a member for 21 years, Tony for 22 years, and Bob for 17 years, and the three were recognised by the existing life members and the committee for their
ongoing contribution to the running of the club.

All three of them had served in several roles since they joined, including as committee members, race directors, and charity co-ordinators.

Now, former treasurer Sandy regularly volunteers at club events, Tony — the brains behind the Track Friday meetings — continues to coach, and former secretary Bob carries out a number of administrative tasks.

The club sends congratulations to them all.

Our pictures show Bob with former chairman Carl Woffington and his award, Tony doing what he does best at the Palmer Park track and Sandy receiving her award from current chair Sam Whalley.

 

Farnborough, Bramley, Wokingham and Goring… Katherine won the lot

Roadrunners men’s captain TONY PAGE reports from the Goring 10k, the second club championship race of the year…

There was more success for the green vests at Goring, with trophies for Katherine Streams — the first lady — and the men’s and mixed team trophies.

This week I exchanged my running vest for a camera to watch the closing stages positioning myself at the top of the big hill and when I saw the leader in a green vest, I hoped for the best. Alas, it was a Harwell runner.

I needn’t have worried about the women’s race; our own Katherine Streams (right) took the first lady’s winner’s shield, in a time of 40.06, bettering her SuperVet (F50) course record and completing a clean sweep of wins in all the events she has contested this year.

Nikki Gray (40.42, left) was the second lady home and won the trophy for firstt senior woman with Florence Ledger (42.31, right), fresh from a PB at the Wokingham half, in fifth place. We would also have won the women’s team prize but missed out only because on-the-day entries were not counted.

Our top three men picked up a mixed team prize, with Dan Moore (35.51), in fourth place, Chris Lucas, (36.16) in sixth Callum Evans (37.24, in eighth) taking the trophy together with Katherine, Nikki and Flo.

We also took the men’s team prize with Chris Ryder (15th), Terry Dowling (16th) and Chris Webber (17th) all in under 40 minutes. 

Dave Parton, pictured with Chris Webber (below) collecting the team prize, finished 11th and was first SuperVet with a time of 38.15. But Dave was disappointed not to break the SuperVet course record set by our men’s captain last year.

There were a number of other PB’s on the day, including Sarah Richmond-Devoy (59.03), who didn’t get the hump when passed by the camel and said that she only kept going up the hill so as not to miss a photo-opportunity at the top.

* The inter-counties cross-country championship was held at Loughborough on Saturday, giving an opportunity for those who qualified through the Berkshire XC back in December to run for Berkshire.

Well done to Jacob Atwal who was Roadrunners’ sole representative, placed 46th and part of the team winning a silver medal in the Under 20s. It was a shame none of our senior men could attend this year.

* The next big event is Reading Half Marathon on April 2nd  and we can also look forward to seeing lots of green vests in round three of the club championship, the Maidenhead Easter 10 on Good Friday, April 7th.

* Goring results can be found at https://chiptiming.co.uk/events/goring-10k-2023/

Silver lining for Lance after Roadrunners suffer sinking feeling at the seaside

Roadrunners chair SAM WHALLEY reports from King’s Park, Bournemouth, on the final event of the cross-country season…

There was a tense end to the Hampshire XC League season on Saturday, with Roadrunners men’s team finishing ninth on aggregate in Division One, and in the relegation zone. 

This was despite men’s captain Tony Page’s best efforts to get a big team out. Home team Bournemouth did just enough to pull themselves out of the bottom two.

Skipper Tony said: “We’ll come back stronger than ever next season, aiming to win promotion at the first attempt.”

But he warned: “We will need to get more seniors out next year — all our runners at Bournemouth were vets.”

It wasn’t all doom and gloom though, with Lance Nortcliff claiming an individual V50 silver, and Helen Pool seventh vet overall for the season. Julie Sugden claimed a 5k PB during the women’s race.

Roadrunners men’s scorers were: Lance Nortcliff (42nd, 9th vet, first V50), Tony Page (113th, 46th vet, 13th V50), Jamie Smith (122nd, 53rd vet), David Fiddes (184th, 105th vet, 41st V50), Mark Allen (185th, 106th vet, 10th V60). The team were tenth on the day and ninth over the season.

Our men’s vet scorers were Nortcliff, Page and Smith, with the team finishing ninth on the day and fourth overall for the season.

Full results are here: https://www.hampshireathletics.org.uk/results/2023/20230304_hlmen.html

Roadrunners’ women’s scorers were Kat Charles (30th), Helen Pool (43rd, 11th vet), and Chloe Lloyd (54th). The team were tenth and finished ninth over the season but avoided relegation.

Our women’s vet scorers were Pool, Sam Whalley (96th, 46th vet, 15th V50) and Claire Raynor (97th, 47th vet, 16th V50). The team were sixth on the day and fifth over the season.

Full results are here: https://www.hampshireathletics.org.uk/results/2023/20230304_hlwomen.html

Thank you and well done to Pete Jewell, Gary Clarke, Claire Seymour and Stephanie Smith for also making the trip to the coast and giving it their all. We’re already looking forward to 2023-24.

Final results in the club’s XC Championships are here: https://readingroadrunners.org/2022/03/tvxc-results/

* Sadly, there are no images from Bournemouth. Our pictures show Lance and Helen battling it out in the previous Hampshire League fixture at Popham.

 

Good Golly Miss Holly, you sure like a big PB in the club championships!

Men’s captain TONY PAGE reports as the 2023 club championship programme gets underway…

Once again the green vests were out in force in Wokingham on Sunday for the half marathon,  the first race in this year’s club championship.

There were more than 100 of us on the start line out of a high-quality field of more than 2,500 runners, with a winning time of 1.05.10 and first vet in sixth place with an amazing time of 1.08.20. Also, despite the undulating course, there were lots of big PBs to report.

The first Roadrunner to finish was closely contested between Seb Briggs in 1.16.26 (98th overall, 32nd M40) and Chris Burt (1.16.41, left), a three-and-a-half minute PB, with Joe Bend (1.18.51) and Chris Moseley (1.19.51) next.

Jeff ArmstrongDimi Gospodinov (1.20.21, PB), Dave Parton (11th M50, PB 1.20.35) and Callum Evans (1.20.52) all narrowly missed out on a sub-1.20 finish.

It was nice to see some strength in depth and hopefully this will continue throughout the other rounds of the championships.

Katherine Streams was first female RR to finish in 1.25.26 (32nd and first F50), followed by Nikki Gray in 1.26.26. Third place was closely fought out between Holly Sedgwick (1.27.49) and Flo Ledger (1.28.01, right, with Brooke Johnson), both sub -1.30 for the first time, and Kat Charles (1.29.29).

Helen Pool (21st F40), Katherine Streams (F50) and Stephanie Smith (34th F60) were first RR in their respective age categories.

Top age group places for the men were Seb Briggs (M40), Dave Parton (M50),  Alan Freer (1.36.19, 21stt M60) and Eddie Thorpe (1.56.01, fifth M70).

It was pleasing to hear of other landmarks being achieved — Pip White (1.32.48 PB, left), Liz Johnson (1.41.28 PB), Mark Allen (15-year PB, 1.46.04), Julie Sugden (1.48.13, PB) and Becky Mellor with a 19-minute PB (2.28.46), to mention but a few. 

Do please email results@readingroadrunners.org with your PBs so that they can be included in the results pages of the newsletter.

Well done to everyone who ran, and a huge thank-you to all of our volunteer marshals and to other members than turned out to support us.

Next Saturday, March 4th, is the last Hampshire League XC fixture of the season at Bournemouth. The next club championship race is the Goring 10K on 1March 12th. I hope to see lots of green vests there!

Here’s your link to the results and pictures from Wokingham: https://results.sporthive.com/events/7034491866264349440