June 2013 10K Handicap - Results and Photos

Once again the sun shone on our monthly 10K Handicap.

Hot sunny days may not be ideal for fast times, but they usually produce a good turnout for the races and today was no exception. We had several guest runners, plus first time appearances from Sam Dennison, Catriona Cairns and Ann Keefe.

First runner home with the worst prediction of the day was Jo Obertell, running five minutes quicker than she predicted! Fastest time was by Keith Hull. Most accurate prediction of the day was by Robert Littlejohn, coming home within 10 seconds of his forecast. Well done to Chris Phillips for running a new PB on a day when times were generally a bit slower than they were in the cool spring months.

Full times were as follows:

Keith Hull	43.08
Chris Phillips	43.21	PB
Sachiko Dixon	46.36
Sam Dennison	47.06
Giles Blackham	47.07
Mark Wye	47.36
Robert Littlejohn	47.50
Karim Jaser	47.51
Jo Obertell	48.03
Ed Butler	48.28
Christelle Gental	51.15
Gordon Trout	51.45
Gregory Brett	53.25
Catriona Cairns	53.51
Adam Donaldson	54.05
Anna Holland	55.27
Robin Wakefield	55.30
Alex Brett	56.18
Lyn Taylor	56.41
Tony Hatch	58.11
Barbara Rodriguez	58.30
Lisa Norman	60.52
Amanda Borthwick	66.10
Hadley King	66.10
Ann Keefe	70.06

Finish line photographer Chris "I'm no David Bailey" Dent took a fine set of photos which can be found by clicking the image at the top, or this link: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.519223874809381.1073741826.109710435760729&type=1&l=5f559116e4

Many thanks to Bob Webb for doing a water station out at the halfway point, we know many of the runners appreciated that. Also to the start/finish team of the two Daves and Steve. 

Kracking parkrun by Pete

Peter Mannion 'Krakow parkrun in Poland which I did with my daughter Sophie on Saturday. The other 2 in the pics were the only others from England there. Would have been a nice fast course if it hadn't been 30 degrees!'

Victory in the Windle Challenge

Battle commenced at the Lookout on Tuesday night, and was re-joined on Wednesday around the streets of Bagshot. Yes, the Windle Challenge was back for 2013, with WVR taking on Southern Navigators in a combined running and orienteering contest.

In the inaugural match last year, we had to settle for second place after proving that we probably couldn't navigate our way out of a paper bag.

This year, we turned the tables and won the match!

• We had a good turnout, with 23 members representing us across the two evenings
• SN struggled to get their members out for the run, possibly affected by the racing at Royal Ascot, making travel difficult. 

Cross-Country Race

We had a brand new course this year, set by me and Keith, and considerably kinder than last year's. Although it started with the long climb up Sandy Hill, once that was out of the way the only remaining hill to contend with was Surrey Hill leading up to the two mile point. From there on, it was flat or gently undulating, going via the two Star Posts and past Caesar's Camp with the final mile then ahead and a mostly downhill finish. The course was very enthusiastically marshalled by Geoff, Tony and Nathan, with Tony also fulfilling the role of on-course photographer. If he remembered to put film in his camera, we will bring you his photos as soon as the prints are dry. 

The race was very convincingly won by Ali, who came in a full four minutes ahead of Laura in 2nd place, and Gus just behind Laura in 3rd. WVR took 8 of the top ten places and, once non-attendance the next day had been factored in, we won the race by 74 points to 142. (Like in the cross-country league, the better you do the fewer points you get.)

Orienteering

The next night we congregated behind the Co-op in Bagshot High Street. Southern Navigators had an enormous number of people turn up for the orienteering - though fortunately for us most of them were ineligible to score as they had not done the run! Setting off at one minute intervals, we were set the challenge of finding as many checkpoints as possible in 45 minutes, spread out around the Bagshot streets and even in Lightwater Country Park. The map they give you showing the checkpoints does not have street names shown on it - you have to find your way around without that. 

Suffice to say that the enthusiasm we brought to the task was perhaps not matched by our skill at it. The best five SN scores were over 200 (not all counting) and our top score was 151, from both me and Robin, and 150 by both Rachel and Mark. 

Anyway, when all the scoring was done, Southern Navigators won the Wednesday by 95 points to 116. Then it was off to the pub to celebrate our overall win by 190 to 237.

Lessons learned for next year:

• Don't put your GPS stopwatch on auto-pause, which makes it stop when you stop to look at the map, write down a checkpoint etc. As you get penalties for returning outside the 45 minutes, this was a very costly mistake by Gus who ended up incurring 54 penalty points for a score of 26 ! 
• Don't cut it too fine. After a (failed) attempt to find one more checkpoint near the finish, I was gutted to find my official time was 45.01, and got a nine point penalty :(  Two others on our team were also just over the 45 minutes.
• Learn how to map read!!!!!!

The full results can be found here. 

Steve

Parkrun PB Blitz!

What a good June our runners have been having at Parkrun, with new PB's galore.

As Robin posted recently, Pete Mannion became WVR's first "100 Club" member, doing his 100th Parkrun at the end of March. Pete is now up to 110, and clearly practice is making perfect, as he did his fastest ever time in his 106th race - and then bettered it again in his 109th on 1st June.

Pete's PB time on 1st June was 18.21 at Bushy Park, which that morning would have been good enough to place him 2nd on our "all-time fastest" Parkrun leader board, squeaking in 2 seconds ahead of Jon Payne's 18.23...... except that the same morning, over at Frimley Lodge, Jon himself also ran a new PB, of 18.13, to stay second!

Meantime, our all-time leader, Ali McGeogh-Williams, was also setting a new PB, with an awesome 17.35 to finish 3rd at Frimley Lodge, while Ali's dad Nigel joined in the fun with his second ever Parkrun, coming in with a new PB of 25.53, a two minute improvement.

Not to be outdone, two of our ladies also set new PB's at Frimley Lodge on 1st June - Anna Holland took two and a half minutes off her best time with 27.17, and Lisa Norman took almost two minutes off hers with 27.34. Great stuff!

One week later, the PB's continued to flow as Simon Cutmore ran a 25.21 at Frimley, and Ben Feltham posted a fine 23.06 at Guildford.

Update on the 15th - The times continue to tumble. Ali and Nigel both lowered their PB's again, to 17.16 and 25.39. Ali is now 25th on the Frimley Lodge all-time fastest list. We will find out what they are eating for their Saturday morning breakfasts and report back!

Sadly, the Parkrun photographer seems to have been on on leave during June, but here are our three top men in earlier races. They hurt, these PB's!

Organised run at Frimley Green/Mytchett - June 17th @ 7:30pm

Hi All,

If anyone is interested, a 5-mile run is being organised by Steve Osborne, who was the original Frimley Lodge ParkRun Race Director.  Here are the details that Steve sent to me:

When: Monday, June 17th @ 7:30pm

Meet at: Frimley Green Working Mens Club (I would park at Frimley Lodge and jog back up to Frimley Green - the club is after the bridge on the left-hand side).

Where: "2 Valleys of Mytchett"

Format: You can either opt for a 3-mile walk, a 4-mile run, or a longer 5+ mile run.

A chicken curry is available afterwards at the Working Mens Club, but you will need to let Steve know if you want it - contact details below:

01276 506247
07510 128594

Brian Holden, one of the current ParkRun Race Directors, will be assisting.

All the best,

Robin