A superb
personal
best of 53
minutes 36
seconds from
Ilford
Athletic
Club's
Malcolm Muir
secured a
wonderful
victory in
the Stebbing
10 mile road
race as
nearly 450
took to the
country
lanes near
Dunmow on
Sunday
morning. Muir
took over
the lead
from Billericay's
prolific
campaigner
Crispian
Bloomfield
after the
first mile
putting nearly
a minute on
last years
winner and
course
record
holder who
finished
2nd in
54.13.
Afterwards a
delighted
Muir offered
several explanations
for his
recent
upturn in
form, but
settled on
his new
training environment in
Chelmsford
as the main
contributory
reason.
Keith Ennis
ran 72.22 to
finish
125th in the
same race.
Saturday
morning saw
the
inaugural
running of
the Lee
Valley
"5togo"
trail
marathon
which followed a
point-to-point
course
alongside
the stunning
waterways of
the River
Lee,
starting at
St Margarets
in
Hertfordshire
and
finishing at
Hackney
Marsh. This
is a truly
unique
marathon
along an
almost
exclusively
traffic free
route. Ilford
Harrier Amanda
Heslegrave
gave a good
account of
herself
finishing
in 3hrs 58
minutes
despite the
course not
being
particularly
to her
liking.
The previous
weekend
Steve
Parker competed in
the classic
Athens
Marathon
which
followed the
route taken
by the
legendary
Greek
messenger
Phidippedes
as he
delivered news
of the
Athenian victory
against the
invading
Persians. Upon
his arrival,
after
running the
whole
distance
from
Marathon to
Athens, he
was only
able to
pronounce
the word
nenikikamen
('we have
won') before
dying of
exhaustion. The
Ilford man,
however, finished
in
far better
shape
managing
several more
words than
his Hellenic
counterpart
as he
proclaimed
himself to
be very happy
with his
time
of 3hours
28mins considering
the high
humidity &
the large
amount of
long hills.
Parker
placed an
excellent
371st
overall.
The club now
forward to
next weeks
Essex 10k
championships
to be held
at
Chelmsford
next Sunday
afternoon.
