BANK HOLIDAY BLING

WITHAM 10
Monday 2 May

​This year’s Mayday Witham 10 incorporating the Essex 10 mile Championship was held on a cool cloudy but still morning, ideal for running. The course was held over fast rural undulating roads and Ilford Ac entered 12 runners and returned with 4 medals and three new personal best times.

First home for the club in 22nd position was Sam Rahman in 60 mins 31 secs showing that he is in good form for next weekend’s Essex Marathon Championship at Halstead.
Next in was Steve Philcox in 63 mins 17 secs finishing 39th overall which meant he placed 2nd in the M55 age category in the Essex Championship.
Terry Knightley collected the bronze medal in the M60 grouping with 64 mins 58 secs for 46th in the race. Amazingly this is Terry’s 70th County medal
Richard Woolterton raced the distance for the first time and produced a creditable 68 mins 59 secs in 81st. Dennis Briggs ran a personal best time of 70 mins 11 secs for 91st and there was a 3 minute plus personal best for Joel Denning of 71 mins 26 secs.
Joanne Reeves was Ilford’s first female finisher in a new best time of 71 mins 25 secs finishing 20th female and winning the silver Essex medal in the F45 category.
Bree Nordin took the silver medal in the Championship in the F65 category with a time of 76 mins 07 secs in 140th, while Adam Coals was another making his distance debut in 76 mins 24 secs for146th spot.
Gaye Young missed her personal best by 10 seconds finishing 174th after a good run in 79 mins 54 secs.
Completing the Ilford line up were Julia Galea in 303rd with 102 mins 6 secs and Ray ‘Sparra’ Everingham with 104 mins 32 secs for 306th

ILFORD AC MAKE CAPITAL GAINS

Vitality London 10k
Monday 2nd May

On Bank holiday Monday over 15,000 runners lined up for the iconic Vitality London 10k, including 6 runners from Ilford AC.

The race starts on the Mall, takes in such landmarks as Trafalgar Square, St Pauls, Horse Guards parade and Parliament Square before finishing in front of Buckingham Palace.

Leading the team home was Amin Koikai with an impressive 35:30 which placed him 190th and 2nd in his age category.

Phil Davis was pleased with his time of 45:26 which placed him 2,003rd.
The first of two PB’s for the day went to Alison Sale who finished in a time of 50:18.

Billy Green, running his first race for over a year, was pleased with his time of 51:56 which placed him 4,414th.
The second of the day’s PB’s belonged to Mandy Reid who finished in 56:42 for 6,576th.
Frieda Keane put in another determined effort to place 7,628th in a time of 58:57

Vitality Westminster Mile
Sunday 1st May

Ilford AC had two runners representing the club in this weekend’s Vitality Westminster Mile.
Krystle Bologun put in a fantastic effort to finish 13th and 2nd F35 for a time of 5m 57s.

Julie Gillender completed the duo and was very pleased with her time of 9m 23s which placed her 95th and 13th in her f50 category 

TRACK

As the longer nights and warmer weather finally arrives, Ilford’s track runners have finally started reappearing.

Open Meeting Havering   Saturday 9th April

The first athlete  out of track hibernation first was Oliver Blainey, who has moaned about hills and long reps all winter, but has done them all and was rewarded with a win and a new pb of 52.35 in his 400m race, knocking almost half a second off from last year. 

Open Meeting Lee Valley Sunday 10th April

Oliver was back at it again the next day. Different venue and different distance, but the result was the same with another pb, this time over 200m, in a time of 23.12. 
Sisters Ayshah and Aleena Lawrence started their seasons with solid runs, both finishing in 4th place. Ayshah clocking 31.07 for 200m and Aleena 13.92 over 100m.
Rhys Edwards who is concentrating on shorter distances this season  ran a very good season opening 400m of 56.08

Inter Club Challenge Lee Valley  Saturday 16th April

Three of Ilford’s  lady sprinters took part in the  Inter club Challenge match at Lee Valley.
Efe Austinz started her season with a solid performance over 100m, placing 4th in her heat in a time of 13.41. 
Aleena Lawrence improved by half a second on last weeks run out to take  6th in a time of 13.54. 
Ayshah Lawrence who normally concentrates on the longer sprint, stepped to the 100m and finished in a time of 14.54.
Ellie Wright, decided to start her season with a 200m, and her time of 27.11, showed that the winter training has gone well.

ROAD

Little Bromley 10k
Saturday 16th April 

Saturday saw the 7th running of the Little Bromley 10k, a race held to raise funds for the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance Service. Comprising a single lap road course through the Essex Countryside, 470 runners took on the course including Gary Coombes of Ilford AC who finished in 15th place in a time of 34m 18s which placed him 1st place in the M50 category. Gary, in his new M50 age category, is attempting to secure his name in the Ilford AC history books, and this time places him 2nd fastest M50 over 10k in Ilford’s history.

BOSTON MARATHON
Massachusetts
Monday 18 April

Two runners from Ilford AC took part in the 126th Boston Marathon on the challenging course from Hopkinton, just outside the city, to Copley Square. The section from 18 to 21 miles is over the Newton Hills and finishes with the climb up Heartbreak Hill.

Diarmuid Mac Donnell took a steady approach to the race reaching halfway in 1 hr 32 m 46 s and after tackling the tougher second half crossed the line in 3hr 10 m 58 s, just over 2 minutes outside his personal best for the distance.
He was placed 5438th out of the 30000 plus in the event

Carlie Qirem had a tougher race reaching the 13 mile point in 1 hr 41mins 07 secs. In the second half she was bothered by an Achilles tendon issue which slowed her to a time of 3 hrs 32 mins 34 secs, her second fastest Marathon time,  placing her 2904th lady finisher and 11115th overall.