Essex Cross Country Relays.
Stubbers, Upminster
7^th October

In the Seniors race Ilford AC put out 5 teams, 2 women and 3 men.
The Womens ‘A’ team, consisting of Breege Nordin, Carlie Qirem and Diane Crisp came in 21^st place and the ‘B’ team consisting of Frieda Keane, Julia Galea and Pam Jones came in 40^th place.

The Mens ‘A’ team consisting of Moad Zahri, Tom Gardner, Alex Richards and Ahmed Abdulle gave the best performance of the day for the Ilford Seniors, just missing out on a medal place by 12 seconds to finish in 4^th place.
The ‘B’ team od Steve Philcox, Neil Crisp, Dennis Briggs and Seb Parris came in 18^th place, whilst the ‘C’ team of Steve Cheal, Andy Catton, Bill Green and Alaga Satha finished in 45^th place.
Unfortunately a lot of times went unrecorded due to the very large field in the seniors race, but all finishing positions are correct.

 

 Chester Marathon
Sunday 8 October

The 8th Chester Marathon was staged on Sunday from the town’s racecourse and after a short tour of the historic town before heading out into the Cheshire and North Wales countryside before returning to the racecourse for the finish alongside the River Dee. Ilford were represented by 2 runners in this event.

Sam Rahman came home in a creditable time of 3 hours 01 mins 44 secs for 162nd place out of the 2644 finishers. He was delayed in starting his training earlier in the year due to a back injury which led to him slowing in the second half after reaching 20km in 1 hr 19 minutes. The race also doubled as the British Masters Championship and in his first appearance in the masters categories he finished 10th in the M35 category.

Pramila Monro made her marathon debut breaking her target of 5 hours with 4 hrs 58 minutes 38 secs for 222th and 605th female. Despite her inexperience at the event she ran a steady race with a clocking of 2 hrs 11 minutes for the first 20km and slowing her pace only slightly in the second half.

 

Royal Parks Half Marathon

Sunday 8 October

The Royal Parks race a spectacular Half Marathon in central London – the first and only one of its kind. The stunning 13.1 mile route takes in the capital’s world-famous landmarks on closed roads, and four of London’s eight Royal Parks – Hyde Park, The Green Park, St James’s Park and Kensington Gardens.

Nicola Hopkinson put in an excellent performance to record 1hr 43m, her best time for 6 years, to finish 2201 overall, 319th female and 2nd in the F55 grouping.

The Big Blue Run

Harrow Lodge Park
8^th October

The Big Blue Run is a local charity run, now in its 4^th year, in aid of Havering MIND.
The race took part on an unseasonably warm October morning on the slightly undulating Harrow Lodge park course that is used for the weekly parkrun event.
Although billed as a 5k (3.1 miles) run, the course was actually around 2.7 miles so the times should be put in to a little perspective.

Ilford AC had 4 athletes on show for the race with Dennis Briggs leading the quartet home, finishing in 2^nd position on the day with a fantastic time of 18:25. This was Dennis’ 2^nd race of the weekend after competing in the Essex Relays the day previously.
Also competing in his second race in 2 days was Bill Green who came home in 19^th position in 20:35 followed closely by Tony Young in 23^rd place with a time of 20:55.
Nichola Fairburn, running in her first race for 4 months put in a great effort to finish 48^th in 28:26 and the quartet was completed by Jim Huddart who had to walk most of the race due to injury in 82^nd place in 36:55

Shoreditch 10k
8^th October

The Shoreditch 10k is the first in a series of ‘City runs’ organised by Adidas which enables runners to run traffic free through some of the capitals inner city districts.
Carlie Qirem, one of a number of athletes to race twice in 2 days after competing in the Essex relays the day previously, was Ilfords sole representative on the day clocking in a fantastic time of 48:35 for 1013rd place. There were 4,120 finishers.

Pleshey Half Marathon
Sunday 24 September

 

The Essex Half Marathon was once again held over a challenging one lap course on the country roads around the picturesque village of Pleshey, near Chelmsford, on a warm sunny morning.

Ilford AC had a squad of 7 in action with Sam Rahman, who is looking in good shape for the Chester Marathon in 2 weeks time, leading the way in 22nd spot with 1hr 20min 34 secs. Next over the line was Neil Crisp in 1h 26m 32s in 48th, which placed him 5th in the M50 age grouping. Steve Philcox came home 60th with 1h 29m 07s and Steve Parker completed the mens team as 7th in the M60 category , 207 overall with 1h 49m 25s.

There was double success for the Ilford Ladies as they took the Essex gold and silver medals in the F55 age group with Bree Nordin, 125th overall in 1h 38m 42s and Nicola Hopkinson 200th in 1h 48m 46s. Julia Galea made up the squad and found the going hard as she completed her run in 2h 07m 39s in 340th nad 10th in the category F55.

There were 434 finishers

 

Elvis Race 7. Valentines Park 5k
Sunday 24 September

Despite the days fixture clash with the Essex Championships in Pleshey, Ilford AC still managed to field a strong squad of 21 athletes in the final race of the ‘ELVIS’  season held at Valentines Park in Ilford.

The race was hosted by East London runners, who always put on a great fixture with plenty of marshals, music and refreshments, on a warm and dry morning ideal for running.

249 runners took part in the 2 lap course which is run on gravel paths.
Although only taking home the one medal on the day, the evergreen Pam Jones who was first in the FV65 category, Ilford still gave a very good account of themselves on the day with one debutant running for the club and an astonishing 5 of the 21 runners achieving a pb on the day

Leading the club home, in 8^th position was Sebastian Parris with a PB of 18:04.
Next home was Terry Knightly in 25^th place, also taking 3^rd MV50 with a time of 19:30 followed by Rohan Alexander in 43^rd in 20:31with the ever improving Dennis Briggs completing the mens team scoring with a new PB of 20:53 for 49^th place.

Leading the women home was Carlie Qirem in 82^nd place with a chip time of 22:55 which was a PB and completes a very good first season for the club for her.
In 2^nd and third for the ladies with a joint time of 24:10 for 108^th and 109^th place was Dianne Crisp and Gaye Van Der Vyver who ran her very first race for the club after only joining the previous week.

Other Ilford runners with positions and chip times were:-
Gary Floate 65^th 21:47, Anthony Young 76^th 22:42, Satha Alaga 83th 23:05, Rhoan Gabbidon 84^th 23:07, Adnan Karim 87^th 23:14, Billy Green 91^st 23:22, Steven Cheal 100^th 23:46, Frieda Keane 183rd 28:01, Carol Muir  189^th 28:32, Natasha Mansouri 200^th 29:11, Launa Broadley 203^rd 29:20 PB, Pam Jones 1^st FV65 213^th 31:21, James Hubbart, 3^rd MV70 229^th 33:22 and Kim Baxter 239^th 36:48.

Nottingham Marathon
Sunday 24 September

 John Crawley travelled up to Nottingham for the ‘Robin Hood Nottingham Marathon’ on Sunday.
The race starts and finishes at Victoria Park with its many mature trees lining the banks of the River Trent which cups the park.
The course, although beautiful, is one of the hillier marathons in the country and the day was hot throughout the event which wasn’t ideal for running. The day before or day after would have been far better.
The Marathon runners are further impeded in their efforts at a good time at the half way stage when the larger ‘Half Marathon event’, which is run concurrently, finishes and the crowds disperse and the number of runners thins out as they are left to complete the final 13.1 miles.
John Crawley, although a little disappointed with his time still finished in a very credible 3:39:11 on the day.
The picture shows John with his sister, who also ran, and 2 boys at the end of the event.

 

Ealing Half Marathon
Sunday 24 September

In one of the larger Half Marathon events of the year, over 4,100 runners took part in the Ealing Half Marathon including Ilford runner Josnara Uddin who was running her first race for the club after joining in the last two weeks.

All 13.1 miles are run on closed roads and the local community come out to support this race, which is one of the most popular on the Half Marathon circuit.
Jos was very pleased with her run and put in a very good effort of 2:11:39 to finish in 2,974^th place

 

 

 

Ilford AC Press Report, Tuesday 12th September 2017

Woodford Open Meeting
Tuesday 5th September

The last track fixture of the summer was held at Ashton Playing Fields and there were 2 runners and three race walkers from Ilford AC in action.

Sam Rahman was in the faster of the two heats of the mile and ran his usual controlled race reaching half way in 2mins 33 secs. He moved up the field in the second half to record a personal best time of 4 mins 59.56 seconds for 8th place

Seb Parris took part in his first track race and put in an impressive performance to finish 8th in the 3000m in 10 mins 17.45 secs.
With just 5 minutes break between races Seb Parris quickly changed numbers to compete in the 3k race walk. Mark Culshaw of Ilford set the pace leading at the first km before Seb took control to finish with a massive 40 sec pb of 15:24 to take first place. Mark Culshaw came in 3rd place with a time of 16:39, closely followed by Stuart Bennett in 17:50 for 5th place

Great North Run
Sunday 10th September

The Great North run is the worlds largest Half marathon with over 55,000 runners taking to the streets from Newcastle to South Shields.

Anthony Young from Ilford AC returned to his native North East to run in club colours and ran a pb to finish in 1 hr 48 and finished in 5,765th place