Dagenham 5 Mile (ish)

The 2016 Elvis Race Series got off to a good start at Eastbrook End Country Park on Tuesday Evening when Dagenham 88 hosted the first of this years 7 summer races with their 5 mile ish event. The ‘ish’ purposely appears in the title courtesy of the host Club to announce that the measurement of the course is notoriously inaccurate. Past races have been anything from 4.7 – 5.3 miles but this year most runners garmins recorded around the 5 mile mark. Last years race fell on the hottest day for 16 years, and this years featured a magnificently moody sky and double rainbow.

After a lot of rain during the day it hadn’t really abated for the start of the race which set off both in thick grass and cold conditions. The course was remarkably complex, full of twists and turns in mud, grassland and trail paths which made it difficult for runners to overtake in many places, and passing the start half a dozen times which although good for spectators only served to confuse the runners.

[shashin type=”album” id=”172″ size=”medium” crop=”n” columns=”max” caption=”n” order=”date” position=”center”]Nevertheless the Ilford AC men’s squad put in a very good performance making a clean sweep of the male veteran categories with Robi McNelis (MV40). Steve Philcox (MV50) and Andy Catton (MV60) taking the respective honours. It was notable that the scoring team of Philcox, McNelis, Wotton, Crisp, Alexander, and Knightley were 2nd in the Elvis team competition despite all being veterans and with the 6 of them sharing a combined age of 297.

Mens results:-

5th Stephen Philcox 30:28 1st M50
9th Robin McNelis 31:35 1st M40
11th Kevin Wotton 31:51
13th Neil Crisp 31:57
27th Rohan Alexander 33:46
30th Terry Knightley 34:17
44th Andy Catton 35:43 1st M60
45th Bradley Brown 35:48
68th Declan Cullen 37:47
96th Billy Green 40:07
97th John Mackenzie 40:17
113th Ernest Forsyth 41:47
158th Peter Spelman 46:07

The ‘Ilford ladies’ squad also put in a great effort despite missing some of their ‘big hitters’ and some very good early season times were recorded with Nicola Hopkinson triumphing in the FV45 category. There was also a great debut performance from Nichola Fairbairn who combined with Nicola Hopkinson, Rachel Halpin, and Dianne Crisp to close the squad to 3rd in the Elvis team competition.

Ladies results:-

87th Nicola Hopkinson 39:24 1st F45
132nd Rachel Halpin 43:17
133rd Dianne Crisp 43:19
167th Nichola Fairbairn 46:58
171st Nicola Chester 47:16
185th Carol Muir 49:39
187th Doris ‘Lady’ Gaga 49:49
206th Julie Gillender 52:38

European masters road race championship
Friday 20th May
Monte Gordon Portugal

Ilford AC had two representatives in the British contingent in the 10km event at the European road racing championship stage in the small Portuguese town of Monte Gordon on the Algarve neat the Spanish border. Even though the race started at 7pm both Edward Skinner and Rob Sargent found the going tough with the temperature still above 27C. Skinner in his first international competition fared better of the duo to finish the two lap out and back course in 49 mins 09 secs to place 283rd out of the 356 finishers in the men’s race, giving him 42nd in the m60 age grouping and 8th British man in this group. Sargent finished in 56 mins 27 secs in 328th overall 53rd m60 and 11th Brit in this category. The competitors in the race represented ages from 35 to over 90.

Virgin London Marathon
Sunday 24 April

A very chilly morning day provided some good running conditions for the 39000 plus finishers in the 36th staging of the London Marathon first run back in March 1981. This suited the 11 strong squad from Ilford AC enabling them to produce some good results. They were cheered through the 19 mile mark at Canary Wharf by a team of dedicated volunteers many of whom had braved the cold since early morning to man the Ilford AC water station with their customary enthusiasm and encouragement.

First Ilford vest to coss the finishing line in The Mall was Blair McWhirter who recorded a notable 74th position overall in a time of 2h 28m 12s having passed the half way mark in 72m 10s. Next home in a new personal best time of 2h 48m 17s was Robin McNelis , with Sam Rahman crossing the line in 2h 55m 44s Neil Crisp ran his first marathon for over 10 years reached half way in 1h 29m 07s suffered slightly along the last miles on the Embankment to record 3h 12m 12s. Rohan Alexander maintained an even pace throughout going through halfway in 1h 43m 41s and finishing in 3h 30m 25s. Declan Cullen once again improved his best time for the distance for the 4th time in as many races to 3h 36m 26s.

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There was also a personal best for Rachel Halpin , who was at halfway in 1h 51m 31s, of 3hrs 53m 50s, the first time she had broken the 4 hour barrier. Jenni Sheehan ran a steady race on her debut at the marathon distance to finish in 3h 55m 50s, while Julia Galea set a mark on the Club record books as the only over 60 woman yet to have a time recorded for the distance with 4h 18m 30s. Peter Spelman was very disappointed with his time of 4h 44m 05s admitting that running Paris and London again so soon afterwards may have been foolish. Completing the team was Nicola Chester who improved her best time for the marathon by over 20 minutes to 4h 48m 50s.

For those inspired by the London Marathon and wanting to take up running or if you just want to improve your parkrun Ilford AC are holding a beginners and improvers course starting on Wednesday 4th May. The sessions are suitable for all standards from complete beginner to running 4 miles around the park. It is a small friendly group and there will be 2-3 coaches in attendance so you will get plenty of encouragement and 1 to 1 assistance. If Interested come along on Wednesday 4th May Melbourne Rd entrance at Valentines Park.

London Mini Marathon 24th April
Ahmed shines at the Marathon

Nine Ilford athletes had to previously come through tough Trials to represent their local borough in this years London Mini Marathon on Sunday. All of the young athletes competed to a very high standard, but it was Ahmed Abdulle ,who shined through to win the U17s Boys 3 mile race. Ahmed beat a very high quality field to win by over 20 seconds in an outstanding 15:05.
In the same race Usamah Patel , running with an injury came home in 91st with a time of 18:07
In the U15 Boys, Mungo Prior gets better with every performance and came a very promising 19th place. His time of 16:57 was outstanding , for an athlete who has only been in the sport for 6 months
In the U 13 Boys, Ilford AC had 5 athletes competing and all of these performed well against a very tough field. Farris Patel, after a bad start , came through the field to come a very credible 10th Position, in a time of 17:26. Farris once again is getting better with every race this year and used his speed at the end to take over many of the other athletes.
Bradley Deacon ran his fastest time in the Mini Marathon to come 92nd and Matthew Hick,only 11 and 2 years left in the age group,came 100th. Bradley ran 19:22 and Matthew 19:31 respectively.
Euan Johnstone, also only 11, ran 21:53 for 166th and Mehdi Hurun was 168th

In the Girls U15s race, Jordan Hinds and Katie Deacon were Ilfords representatives. Jordan came 59th in a time of 20:31 and Katie 29:00 to finish 172

It was great to see so many of the Ilford youngsters perform to such a high standard

Woodford Open Meeting 23rd April

A number of Ilford ACs youngsters competed at Woodford open meeting on Saturday in a very testing conditions. As usual the conditions at Woodford was windy and cold but we still saw some good performances

Isabella Hick,14, ran her first ever 300m hurdles race in the u17s age group came third , in a very promising 55.87.She followed that up with a 200 m and came 4th in a time of 30.63
Young sprinter Anthony George ran in the 75 m Hurdles, 200 and 300 . Anthony ran some very good times, all against the wind . He ran 15:00 seconds in the 75M Hurdles for 3rd, 27.11 to win the U15s 200 m and came third in the 300m in 41.36
Krystle Balogun moved down events to show her speed over 200 and 300 respectively. Krystle came 4th in the 200 in 28.97 and 4th in the 300 m in 45.14