Monday 27 February 2012

Roding Valley Half 2012 and F3 Events #2 now live



Roding Valley Half Marathon 2012 - setting off into the sunlight

The Roding Valley Half marathon photos are now live here:
 http://bit.ly/Roding-Valley-Half-2012-Official-Photos

The F3 10k and 5k gallery is live and online here:
http://bit.ly/F3-Events-10k-2-2012-race-photos


The F3 Duathlon is live and online here:
http://bit.ly/F3-Winter-Duathlon-2-2012-race-photos




Races to enter coming up that still have space:


Colchester Half marathon - March 11th: http://bit.ly/Colchester-half-marathon-2012
Finchley 20 - March 11th: http://bit.ly/Finchley-20-race-entry (entries close on march 3rd)
Worthing 20 - March 18th: http://bit.ly/Worthing-20-2012-race-entry
Spitfire 20 - March 18th: http://bit.ly/Spitfire-20-2012-entry






Roding Valley
On the sunniest day of the year so far (well according to my almost sun burnt face) the Roding Valley Half Marathon and the F3 Events Duathlon and 10k race series took place.
All go at the start for Roding Valley

Roding Valley Half Marathon is a very popular race based at Woodford Green athletics track made up of one small starting loop and then two larger laps around the Roding Valley. 910 hardy souls took up the challenge this year, which in the sun was arguably slightly easier than the torrential rain of a few years ago.

Full results can be found here: http://uk.trumin.com/online/result.ctrl?cmd=result&event=893653105
The winner in a time of 1:12:25 was John Franklin (#1009) from the Met Police, who was almost a minute ahead of Mo Ismail of Herne Hill Harrieres (#1151) . First lady was Isobel Rea of West 4 Harriers (#397) in 1:24:45 and 29th overall, over 2 minutes ahead of Claire Shea-Simmonds from Leicester Tri Club (#174)

Congratulations to Dave Hollingworth and the team on another great race !
John Franklin plodded round to win the Half for the Met Police in  1:12:25

Isobel Rae flew round to a strong finish and first Lady in 1:24:45


The pavements are quite wide giving plenty of space for racing

With his legs going at the finish his daughter kept him on track to the finish

Meanwhile on the other side of London and out a bit at Dorney Lake near Eaton the


F3 Events Duathlon and 10k Race series was taking place with race number #2 taking off.

With a full set of racking as well as the students from Cambridge & Oxford lined up in the sun up for the F3 Events Maxifuel duathlons it was going to be a competitive days racing.
The sun was out at a balmy 3.5degC when it started (according to the car) but it soon warmed up - especially if you were on the run. The three distances of Super Sprint, Sprint and Olympic Distances all set off at the same time and then go through transition after the correct number of laps.

Whilst the sun is good from some angles - it's never the best for photographers when it's the background. We go blind and we have to mess with things like manual settings on the camera so we can see faces in the images instead of silhouettes. Usually however from the other angles we can make sunny happy photos - so when the finish line is directly into the sun , we only really have one choice of where to point the camera - and that's the other way round.
Also with the multi-laps we can often take many more photos of people that usual - and whilst we do our best to read hands, and helmet stickers - if we can't see your number then you're in for a 000 search to go through all the ones we can't identify. Unfortunatley for anyone using a tri belt - that would most likely be you.

It was tight racing through the morning, with clearly some chaps out on solid wheels making a real go with the perfect calm conditions on the flat course, whilst others were getting into the racing groove and testing new bike set ups (like one with an aero water bottle mounted sideways with rubber bands).

A brief rundown of the results - which can be found on http://www.stuweb.co.uk
Super Sprint: Mens - Andy Croft (#294) in 47:45, Womens - Katy Shrimpton (#309) 55:54
Sprint: Mens - Hugh Mackenzie (#156) in 1:03:54, Womens - Gillian Sanders (#263) 1:06:59
Oly Standard: Mens - Richard Winchester (#59) in 1:56:56, Womens - Clemence Copie (#47) 2:13:56
Varsity Duathlon Champs: Mens - Alexander Young (#184) 1:04:01, Womens - Sophia Saller (#26) 1:10:58 (Oxford). It looks like Oxford won the team champs too.

Rodger Spencer won the V40 Sprint Duo in 1:09:45

The sun was pretty strong

Remember - you run faster if you're smiling

The face says it all. Ride as fast as you can, and then some !

Remember - you ride faster if youre smiling

A bit of remote off-camera fill in flash and voila

Surrendering at the end of the Olympic distance
 The 10k and 5k runs went off again with a full race with 54 in the 5k and 130 in the 10k. All the results can be found on http://www.stuweb.co.uk
Two items of note - the 10k was won in 38:31 by Issy Menzies - who of course was also first female, and in the 5k - second place went to #501 Alexander in 22:15 in the M13-14 age group.
These races are really filling the space for those new to the sport or getting into running for the first time with dorney lake providing a safe and flat course - meaning some good benchmarks can be put down to see how well your training is going.

Very well done to Martyn and the F3 Events team - they coped admirably with the strong sunshine and tricky weather conditions !


Off from the start - that's the lake in the background


No surrender

Plenty of people out training together over the distances

Remember - you run faster if you smile

This chap is 11. He did 43:35 for 10k. I am jealous.

In other news:
The left calf muscle exploded on a run on friday - went off too fast and didn't warm up properly so my own fault. A weekend of excersise rest and then a 1:30 cycle this morning instead. Fingers crossed it will be ok for a short gentle run on Friday, the plan is to keep the cardio going somehow and not injure the calf before the Cambridge Half on the 11th of March. Any time will be a PB for me. So as long as I can walk faster than a 3hr time I'm up for it as it will be a trip round my old home town, and raising some money for The BHF


keep running and remember - you run faster if you smile.

until next time,
Anthony

p.s. definetly being archived any second now - so don't forget to get your memories now !


Soon to be archived
18/09/2011 Pilgrims Half and Full Marathon 2011 18163 files
11/09/2011 Bacchus Full and Half Marathon 2011 7881 files
11/09/2011 Chestnut Tree House 10k 2011 12896 files
04/09/2011 Newbury Tri 2011 4290 files
04/09/2011 Maidenhead Half 2011 20355 files





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