Champions
Past the post
Jack Holland and Katherine Wilson
Age-graded
Elaine Dodds and John Matthews
Results as follows:
The rain cleared as if bidden, with 40+ club members able to stand in the sunshine and let the nerves really kick in. As many remarked on the day and after, this is in some ways the hardest race we do – just a one-off for most of us, not quite a flat-out sprint yet a much harder run than we would normally aim for, it might be introduced by the Pythons: “And now for something completely different”.
The evening was decent enough for a run, but conditions weren’t perfect, with a blustery wind. In honesty, I didn’t notice the wind whilst there, and you’d think that on an oval route you’d have to have it with you as much as it would be against, but certainly a few of us felt our times were a little down on where they might have been.
First to go were the ladies, the start slightly delayed to allow everyone (cough) to get there. Unfortunately Zoe Ashcroft was not able to reclaim the title she took a couple of years ago, forced to pull up at the first corner. That left Katherine Wilson with a lonely run to take the crown, dipping nicely inside 6 minutes. Fiona Mcdonnell was in second for a good while, but Libby and Natatcha hunted her down and overtook before Natatcha’s speed took her past Libby for a fine second, though both were credited with the same time, and picked up the same age-graded score. Down the field there were some tussles, with Natalie Coghlan not quite able to pass Fiona, while Julie Chasin held off Zoe Wingfield and Sue Garnish. Elaine Dodds stayed clear of Andrea Bennett and Maria Cenalmor to record the highest age-graded score and take the trophy – well done Elaine.
For the men’s race, I’d need a video to know what happened. With 33 of us racing the start was something of a bun fight, though carried out in a gentlemanly fashion with nary an elbow or cross word. Jack Holland took and maintained a lead, with the conditions alone depriving him of a sub-5 time. I managed to stay close enough to take the age-graded maximum while behind plenty of personal smackdowns (copyright parkrun) took place. PBs (judging by last year, apologies if you’d run quicker in previous years) for Richard Goulder (13 seconds, plus some good scalps) Kevin Parker (7 seconds), Kevin Furlong (5 seconds) Grant Davison (4 seconds) Ben Downe (3 seconds) are worthy of note.
Well run all – the Dorking 10 on Sunday is the next Grand Prix.
Ladies
| Katherine Wilson | 05:59 |
| Natatcha Goul-Wheeker | 06:41 |
| Libby Marchant | 06:41 |
| Fiona McDonnell | 06:49 |
| Natalie Coghlan | 06:49 |
| Jo | 06:56 |
| Linda Grossmann | 07:05 |
| Julie Chasin | 07:23 |
| Zoe Wingfield | 07:23 |
| Sue Garnish | 07:24 |
| Elaine Dodds | 07:34 |
| Andrea Bennett | 07:43 |
| Maria Cenalmor | 08:02 |
Men
| Jack Holland | 05:03 |
| John Matthews | 05:12 |
| Oliver Collis | 05:15 |
| Daniel Harris | 05:16 |
| Luke McDonagh | 05:16 |
| Joe Chang | 05:20 |
| Chris Coghlan | 05:28 |
| Ed Brunskill | 05:30 |
| Mark Weight | 05:32 |
| Mark La Frenais | 05:34 |
| Richard Goulder | 05:36 |
| Dominic Collier | 05:37 |
| Kevin Parker | 05:41 |
| Jason Blair | 05:44 |
| Steve Ramek | 05:47 |
| Joe Brewer | 05:48 |
| Simon Gerrard | 05:50 |
| Daniel Hookey | 05:51 |
| Ben Downe | 05:53 |
| David Pimm | 05:53 |
| James Thurston | 05:57 |
| Graham Ashby | 06:02 |
| Peter Grecian | 06:07 |
| Alan Collis | 06:20 |
| Ricky Emery | 06:24 |
| Greg Whiteman | 06:26 |
| Matthew Pritchard | 06:27 |
| Grant Davison | 06:37 |
| Kevin Furlong | 06:58 |
| Kevin Stone | 07:10 |
| Mike Gray | 07:12 |
| Howard Brinkworth | 07:26 |
| Peter Tozer | 07:44 |