Ilford AC Press Report Week Ending Sunday 15th December 2013  

South of England Masters Cross-Country Championships
Shuttleworth Park, Biggleswade
Saturday 14 December

A group of masters athletes from Ilford AC travelled to Shuttleworth Park in
Biggleswade to compete in the South of England Cross-Country Championships
over a firm parkland course and once again produced good results.

The ladies were the most successful grouping for the team, racing in 4
different age groupings, all racing over a distance of 6km. Mel Jones
continued her good form of the winter with 14th place in the F45 category in
29mins 06 secs, while in the F50 Dianne Crisp came home 15th in 29m 54s and
Nicola Hopkinson 17th with 30m 54s. In the F 55 group Bree Nordin put in
her usual gritty performance to finish 5th in a time of 28m 42s. The ever
green Pam Jones took an individual medal in the F65 category finishing 2nd
spot for the silver.

Nordin combined with Crisp and Hopkinson for the F50 team competition and
finished in 2nd spot behind Arena 80 from Sussex with Winchester third.

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The men raced over a 4 lap course which was slightly longer than the
advertised 10km. There were determined runs in the M40 from Steve Philcox
and Paul Holloway who finished 18th and 23rd respectively in 39m 12s and 39m
42s. Neil Crisp was in god form in the M50 category coming home 21st with
41m 07s while Steve Cheal was 52nd in the same race in 54m 54s.

Report by Hank in the Bushes
Pictures Courtesy of Hanks Friends

Indoor Open Meeting – Lee Valley Athletics Centre
Sunday 15 December

Ilford ACs Krystle Balogun was in the action in the 800m, raced over 4 laps
of the banked indoor track, at this meeting. She improved on her showing in
her debut race earlier in the month to finish 4th in the senior ladies race
in 2m 30.13s, which beat her outdoor personal best of the summer.

Report by Warrior Dog

Southend 5 miles Rudolph race

Sunday 15 December

Four runners from Ilford Ac took part in the Southend 5 miles Rudolph race.
It was a great fun nice course which was very flat. Tony Hyde was 3rd in
30.39. Bradley Brown was very pleased with his 8th position. Carol muir had
a solid performance(144) in a time of 44.56 and Julia Ridley came home in
(280) 54.17. There were 329 finishers.

The results are up on www.nice-work.org.uk

Report by Carol Muir

Southwark Parkrun

Saturday 14 December

Here is the next instalment,

Dad and I took part in our fourth Park Run on the 14th. Dad was in good form
after another full week of running to and from work and his toe was starting
to feel much better after the op. We took our usual place on the starting
grid, anticipating a good time. The starting gun went, well actually someone
said go, and we were away. But what happened? Lots of people shot past us
before I had a chance to put on my scary face and we were well down the
field. I turned on the buggy motor and we were able to stabilise our
position at around 6:20 pace, but Dad was having trouble keeping up, so I
turned the motor off again and we settled into a much more realistic pace.
Fortunately, everyone else saw the error of their ways and slowed too.

Dad hooked on the tail of the 2 runners in front and this helped pull us
around. We were now able to enjoy the run and bask in the winter sun as we
cruised around the rest of the course. Nearing the finish, someone must have
been cooking eggs and bacon or something at the finish line, as everyone
around us including Dad started running really fast. We came in at 22:05, 8
secs up on last week. The eggs and bacon was a false alarm, but someone did
offer Dad a banana; I got a rice cake.

Report by Lukas Togwell