Apsey wins Tadley

Posted on January 25, 2018January 25, 2018 by David Dibben

ROADRUNNER Mark Apsey stormed to victory in the Thames Valley Cross Country League fixture at Tadley… but he was not the real hero of the hour.

That honour fell to his 11-month-old daughter Tilly, who for once allowed him a full night’s sleep before the race.

“That meant I was able to go into it feeling fresh,” said Mark, “as well as quietly confident after a fourth-place finish in our home fixture.

“So, following a trademark David McCoy fast start, I took the lead after about 500m and managed to hold on to it for the rest of the race.

“For the first lap I knew there was a group just behind me but each time they came up to my shoulder I was able to hold them off. On lap two the group had dropped back but I still felt strong and did all I could to take it out for the win.”

Along with the failure of home club Tadley to field any runners to contest their own event, the atrocious weather and conditions were the big talking-point of the day for runners, team officials and spectators.

But Apsey said: “The course was great. Perfect cross country… mud, water, ducks and leaps. The mud was different from our home fixture. This was slippery mud and although I felt my feet sliding around, my spikes just about kept me vertical the whole way round.

“It was nice to take the win. I’ve had a few in the green vest over the years but this was definitely up there with the best.”

Our winner got great support from McCoy, who finished 11^th, one place in front of another Irishman, the vastly-improved Fergal Donnelly, with Andrew Smith, Andy Blenkinsopp and Ian Giggs also scoring to bring us home in third place.

Gemma Buley was again first finisher for our ladies in 17^th, well backed up by Alix Eyles, Sarah Alsford and captain Sam Whalley, giving us fifth place and helping the club to fourth overall on the day.

The Thames Valley League roadshow now moves on to the Bracknell club’s home fixture at Lightwater, where there will be all to play for against Windle Valley, Datchet and Sandhurst in the battle for end-of-season podium honours.

The good news is that Mark Apsey will definitely be on the start line for us in that one to close out his cross-country season.

For the rest of the year he has one big goal, and a sub-35mins 10k looks well within his capabilities on last summer’s form.

The only event firmly fixed on his calendar is the Mayfair Tower Race in May, a charity run aimed mainly at the hospitality industry. The 5k round Hyde Park sounds OK, but good luck with the climb of 28 floors to the finish at the top of the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane!

Results link: http://www.tvxc.org.uk/results/detail?race_id=77

Reading TVXV Race Report & Results

Posted on January 15, 2018January 16, 2018 by admin

Report by David Dibben
Pictures courtesy of Cathrin Westerwelle

SEV KONIECZNY and Rob Corney were the toast of Reading Roadrunners after the club’s inaugural Thames Valley Cross Country League event at Ashenbury Park, Woodley.

Corney convincingly won the race and then led the plaudits for race director Sev.

“Huge credit to Sev, who I know had worked really hard to organise the race,” he said. “The course was superb… proper cross-country.”

Rob, who also won our final home TVXC fixture on the old

Crowthorne Woods circuit, stormed home with a massive 94 seconds to spare from Datchet’s James Sansom, with Richard Price, of Wargrave, just denying our own Mark Apsey a place on the podium.

Then Rob revealed one of the big secrets of his success. “I had 15mm spikes on, which definitely gave me an advantage over most of the field,” he said. “Most people were in normal trail shoes.”

For the star of Roger Pritchard’s You Tube home movie, it was the second great performance of the weekend.

He had finished a highly-creditable fourth on his debut in the hugely competitive Hampshire League fixture at Prospect Park the previous day.

Rob said: “I had heard it was a fast league. Mark Worringham mentioned that a top-ten finish would be a good result and I knew a couple of the quick guys who usually run were up in Scotland for the international so I made a solid top ten my target.

“For 9.2km it was bloody tough and I’m not looking forward to Parliament Hill and 12km of that sort of pace.”

Next morning, hardly surprisingly, his legs felt heavy and he didn’t want to run. But, like so many of our good clubmen, he said: “I was down for helping with the course set-up, so I dragged myself out of bed and down to the park.

“Once you get on the start line everything else takes a back seat. It was nice to win the home fixture for RR.”

What made the occasion all the sweeter for Sev, her hard-working committee and Katie Gumbrell’s ‘green army’ of marshals and volunteers was the news the following day that Roadrunners’ men had been declared winners of the event.

After the provisional results had been announced it was spotted that our third man over the line, Seb Briggs, had not been recognised in the veteran category.

Thanks to a superb run by our second ‘vet’, Fergal Donnelly, Roadrunners packed all six scorers in the top 22, pipping the strong Datchet outfit by just three points.

With our ladies, led by Gemma Buley, finishing fifth, that placed the club second overall on the day.

Afterwards there was as much praise for the race director as the race winner.

Social media was hit by a tsunami of acclamation, typically this from Chris Drew: “Lots of love coming your way, Sev. An absolute triumph.”

And this from Ashley Middlewick: “That was a proper RR XC event in every sense… tough, muddy, undulating course, superbly marshalled and supported, with a fantastic turn-out and great food afterwards.”

While the TVXC roadshow moves on to Tadley this week with Roadrunners in second place in the season’s competition, the club are in an even stronger place in the veteran’s division of the Hampshire League.

With only one race remaining at Aldershot on February 10^th, our vets… spearheaded by Mark Worringham, Ben Paviour, Andrew Smith and Lance Nortcliff… are top of the league, leading from the mega-strong Aldershot, Farnham and District side.

For the weekend’s champion Corney, however, there are even bigger fish to fry. His season’s targets include a sub-2hrs 30mins finish in the London Marathon and then “maybe a nibble” at Keith Russell’s club marathon record in Berlin in October.

Links for all the results:

Hampshire League & TVXC Combined Results

http://tvxc.org.uk/results/detail?race_id=79

http://www.hampshireathletics.org.uk/results/2018/20180113_hlmen.html

http://www.hampshireathletics.org.uk/results/2018/20180113_hlwomen.html

Roger’s Race Video available here