HORSHAM 10k, Sunday 18th May: Full Report I hope you’ve all seen the excellent photos from Lorraine Bulbeck, Liz Bowen, Neil Jennings and Emma Catlow which I’ve already posted, the thank you message from organiser Paul Aylett to his many helpers, and the tributes to Paul from Tony Johnson and others posted on the timeline. I’d like to add my own congratulations to Paul for the magnificent job he did in making the event a huge success; to the many marshals and helpers from HJ and the Lions Club, plus James Munden and the police cadets, for all their hard work; to the wonderful young athletes who raced in the junior event; and to all who competed in the 10k itself. The subscription limit was more-or-less reached and 442 runners actually completed the course, 74 of those being Horsham Joggers. The number of children competing in the Junior race was up from 46 last year to 70 on Sunday. All-in-all, it was a brilliant achievement. Many people admired the beautiful HJ 30th Anniversary balloon arch above the finish line. There’s a little story behind it, which I’ll tell you to give a flavour of the level of stress Paul has to endure, and his flair for last-minute improvisation. He had arranged long ago for the now-standard inflatable finish arch to be provided, but received a call the day before the event to tell him that it would not be available! Instead of throwing up his hands in despair and making do without, Paul - who undoubtedly had many other last-minute jobs to attend to - went straight out and bought a couple of hundred balloons in HJ team colours, the inflatable ‘30th’ and a helium supply. His wife Rebecca then spent her evening learning how to make the arch from a Youtube video, and the next morning she and a band of helpers blew up all those balloons and assembled the arch from scratch. The result (see photo on this timeline) was far more elegant and attractive than one of those blobby inflatables, and neatly represented the club and its anniversary. It was a brilliant solution to a last-minute problem, producing a result far superior to the original item. Below you will find what I hope is a complete list of the club’s results, chip times only. The order is that of time taken to complete the course, not the order in which runners crossed the finish line, so a few placings have shifted. I have trawled through the official results looking for HJs who were not listed as such, but I don’t, of course, know the names of all the 3 to 4 hundred members, so may have missed a few. Thank you to Fiona Clifton and Mike Thornton for their help with this. There are 74 names on my list - a huge increase on last year’s 40-odd - and I have put in brackets, after the 2014 time, the 2013 time of each runner who competed in both years. Comparing these times, the effects of the unseasonal heat on virtually all our runners last Sunday is plain to see, with almost everyone finishing over a minute later than last year. This makes the achievements of the few who were quicker and managed PBs all the more remarkable. Two notable improvers were Samantha Smith and Carol-Anne Davies-Jones. Despite complaining of illness, Sam managed to take 2m 32s off her ’13 time to finish in 44:28, a course PB which left a gap of just 1m 15s between her and partner Rachael. Carol-Anne, who was at Sam’s shoulder for most of the race, showed an even bigger improvement, cutting her ’13 time by 2m 41s to finish in 45:02, an outright PB over 10k. (Her time in the recent Hastings 5 was almost 5 minutes better than last year’s.) These two have made remarkable progress over the last 12 months and look set to provide Cat and Rachael, who were both a tad slower this year, with some healthy competition in the future. The difference between his ’13 and ’14 times was only 6 seconds, but for Bryan Camfield, 1st V45 and 6th overall, that was enough to take him below the 36-minute barrier he’d missed last year. Congratulations to Bryan on his superb 35:57, and to the unstoppable Paul Oakley, who knocked 31 seconds off his 2013 time to achieve a course PB of 37:19, taking the 1st V40 prize in the process. Well done to Steve “Wiggy” Wigmore, too: 2nd V50 in 37:49 (15 seconds quicker than 2013), to Raff Vitale, who cut last year’s 43:05 to 42:39, and to Paul Burgess, who cut 51:43 to 51:09. I must also mention Matthew Anstee-Brown, husband of Kirsty, who has just joined the club: he was 5th Jogger home in an outstanding 39:00. Welcome to Horsham Joggers, Matthew - nice one! As I’ve reported in my press article, our champion Neil Boniface didn’t have an easy time at the front, with a very fit Matt Bradford of Lewes AC, who finished 3rd behind brother David last year, staying with him all the way until the final climb of the Hammerpond hill. Not wanting to risk losing out in a sprint to the line, and probably sensing that Matt had pushed himself to the limit of his endurance, Neil chose that point to kick hard and break away, winning by just 11 seconds. But let’s pay tribute to Matt Bradford, whose 32:55 was a PB - on that course, in that heat. A sportsman through-and-through, Neil handed over the wine he’d won to Matt after the prizegiving: “He ran really well, a 10k PB - and no matter how fit we are, I love a good scrap!” Congratulations to Matt, and to our magnificent Mr B. Someone else who ran a PB - not just for the course, but for 10k - was the fabulous Kirsty Anstee-Brown, who has been training with me and turning up for loads of parkruns and races with unswerving commitment and determination. (Two days later, she was first female HJ home at Trundle Hill - see report.) Admittedly, she did have a little enticement, in the form of a packet of MMs, hanging agonisingly just out of reach, on the shirt back of her pal and pacer Matt Brown! He cleverly kept just in front and at a speed which ensured Kirsty ran an excellent time, her 51:46 making her the most improved Jogger at the H10k since last year. Well done, Kirsty, sub-50 for you before the summer is out! RESULTS FOR HORSHAM JOGGERS (Chip times, 2013 times in brackets) Neil Boniface (Champion’s Trophy, 1st Senior Male) - 32:44 (32:19) Bryan Camfield (6th overall, 1st V45) - 35:57 (36:03) Paul Oakley (13th overall, 1st V40) - 37:19 (course PB) (37:50) Steve Wigmore (17th overall, 2nd V50) - 37:49 (38:04) Matthew Anstee-Brown - 39:00; Roberto Nacci - 40:28; Nicholas Williams - 40:57; Dave Sandham - 41:13 (39:44); Mike O’Grady - 42:07; Mal Thornton - 42:12; Cat Corck (2nd Senior Female) - 42:28 (41:39); Raff Vitale - 42:39 (43:05); Rachael Lloyd-Smith - 43:13 (41:58); Ben Ageros - 43:24; Tony Frankland - 43:43; Laurence Carpenter - 43:56; Mark Smee - 44:11 (41:37); Ben Willis - 44:25; Samantha Smith - 44:28, Course PB (47:00); Phil Liberman - 44:46; Carol-Anne Davies-Jones - 45:02, PB (47:43); Michael Catlow - 45:08; Alan Pettitt - 45:52 (44:21); Harry Wilcox - 45:56 (43:26); Steve Keary - 45:57 (43:52); Stuart Carruthers - 46:09; Vic Dooley - 46:31 (43:33); Paul Addie - 47:30 (42:34); Guy Gilder - 47:31; Lin Whiting - 47:32; Aeron Rees - 47:46 (45:05); Mike Thornton - 48:06 (46:20); Duncan Caskey - 48:13; Paul Yokom - 48:58 (45:28); Richard Cherriman - 50:28; Sarah Burnett - 50:45; Peter Tyrrell - 50:58; Kevin Croker - 51:17; Paul Burgess - 51:09 (51:43); Anna Titchmarsh - 51:17; Kirsty Anstee-Brown - 51:46, PB (1:00:00); Holly Wanless - 52:30 (50:59); Julia Johnson - 52:32 (2nd Female V60); Emma Catlow - 52:34 (51:59); Veronique Cowan - 53:04; Amanda Sullivan - 53:24; Helen Woods - 53:39 (53:36); Emma Wilkie - 53:43; Lawrence Roy - 54:16; Rod Thomson - 54:20 (3rd VM70); Karen Wigmore - 54:55 (3rd VF55); Helen Mallows - 55:05 (52:58); Phil Hedges - 57:12; Caroline Lowe - 57:29; Laura Fordham - 57:55; Steve Fordham - 57:55 (53:52); Kaisa Muhonen - 58:01; Daniel McLynn - 58:33; Sue Binks - 58:33 (53:51); Fiona Clifton - 59:32 (58:08); Viv Underhill - 59:44 (59:51); Colleen Conti - 1:00:11; Margaret Wadman - 1:00:34; Caroline Bransden - 1:02:01; Marie McNeil - 1:03:22; Paul Arnold - 1:04:52; Karen Sciberras - 1:04:52 (1:02:06); Kevin Elvidge - 1:05:33; Mick Duplock - 1:05:33 (1:02:39); Jenny Boniface - 1:06:11; Rebecca Clay - 1:09:05; Tom McLeish - 1:09:07; Louise Simpson - 1:22:27; Wendy Mason - 1:22:28 (1:10:12). Both the HJ Men’s Team (Neil, Bryan and Paul) and the Women’s Team (Cat, Rachael and Sam) came 2nd. Mark
Posted on: Thu, 22 May 2014 22:53:11 +0000
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