FRC Round up #48 *** 2018 #5

May 11 2019

FRC Round up #48 *** 2018 #5

Darwin Day Marathon, Surrey League XC, SS5, Worthing Half, London Indoor Middle Distance

This week saw a good mix of distances from our runners who, undeterred, braved the harsh Winter weather conditions. We still have some bandits lost somewhere down South chased by lions and red hartebeest but that’s nothing compared to being chased by furious XC runners fighting for a place in Div 1 and Div 2. The fight was so on! Here’s what you’ve all been up to this past week:

Darwin Day Marathon — 26.2 miles

The Charles Darwin Day marathon is a running event held in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, on International Charles Darwin Day, and is run on a purpose built cycle track. The event offers the option to do the half or the full distance. And the fact that this is entirely run on a track means only one thing: there will be laps, lots of them, enough to make you feel dizzy or give you hallucinations. Or both. All pumped up with his newly acquired folding table, meant to be used to hold all his food & drinks, Bryn offered us a whirlwind and cracking run, bringing home a sensational PB, sub3 marathon, and 2nd place. Spectacular Bryn, this is a massive achievement. And now onto Bryn’s own race report:

By Bryn Jones

Sleet, hail storm, snow and wind but… PB by near 6mins!

The night before, I was like a Doris before a night out… Forecast -1degree and snow. I spent ages on deciding what to wear. Race day and I got stuck in school traffic. It was Choca-bloc, so I decided to drive about 800 yards on the wrong side of road to make sure I got to the start line on time!

Finally made it to the start line, with 70 or so lined up to run 43.5 laps. Everyone was wrapped up, except me in shorts, and my Lakeland100 t-shirt! I laid down hammer early with a 1:22 half, tussling with a young iron man but I thought I had him in my pocket, until some guy caught us up at 21km. “Hiya lads… I thought I’d put in two 3:30km to catch you boys”. I recognise him: Charlie Sharpe, Ultra legend and the only British guy to have run under 13.5 hours for a 100 miles trail! Bang goes my dream of first place. He was out for a training run! 2:48 training run marathon! I dropped to 3rd and then the hail came sideways for 10 minutes, denting my pace. Then snow. If it was not snowing it was sleeting. Every time we hit the back straight the wind was brutal in our faces and it was an incline … 43 times! I eventually broke the Ironman with about 8km to go. Last 2km were tough as I was cramping a little, as I actually forgot to take on any water for the whole marathon, just 5 gels… no wonder it is Darwin Day hey! Well chuffed with a new PB … stopped for cheeky Macdonald’s on way home too… great also to meet a running legend!

— — — END — — —

So what happened to the famous table?

All we know so far is that all of Bryn’s water and salt tablets were blown off from it by the strong winds during the race, leaving him with only gels to sustain him till the finish. We currently do not know the exact location of the table, but our team is on the case, and we are very confident that more information will emerge in the coming days.

Bryn Jones — 02:54:58

The champion, the medal and the misterious table

Surrey League XC — 8km-ish — Round 4

There is no better way to report on those two events than by letting your very, very proud XC captains write their piece. Here it comes, unedited:

Ladies’ Race — Richmond Park

By Amy T and Judith C

How time flies! How could it be the last round of the XC Surrey League already? For the first time this season we didn’t have a super early race so a nice chilled morning for some, parkrun for others and then finally it was time to run in our last fixture of the season!

With the FRC flag strategically placed nearest to the finish line and away from the rest of the club flags, it really stood out. The Fulham Ladies were here and we were not going to go unnoticed.

Although some injuries and holidays (prime ski season) meant that we were a few ladies short of a hen party, it did not take away from our enthusiasm and determination to secure our place in division 1. We were as fired up as ever, and even made it to the start line early enough to pick our starting positions.

A few mumbled words from the race organiser about cold conditions, hills, and more hills and then we were ready to go…3…2…1 and we are off!

The course was a 2 lap route, totalling 8.3km (yet another race where the ladies ran further than the men!); it was an interestingly undulating course. Thanks to the park’s wide open space, we were able to see the route panning out in front of us, following the line of ladies snaking up and around woods.

Forbidden from our infamous cow bell ringing, our wonderful supporters Hannah, Tariq and Laure made the best of it by shouting and cheering, strategically placed at the bottom of a small steep jump so best to capture our ladies in action tackling the course. Thanks for the great photos and memories of the day! Perhaps our lucky charms, because we absolutely smashed it. Scoring for our A team: Jackie Skinner (15th overall!), Helen Burke, Susannah Weiland, Leah Walland and Juliette Braithwaite. Very well done A team! In our B team we saw: Emily Clarke, Faye Lynam, Daphne Dadzie, Jenni Cunniffe and Laura Garrod. Excellent running all! Not to mention 14 more of our ladies finished meaning we were 24-strong and finished an amazing 10/15 for our 4th round.

To see the full listing of results click here: https://surreyleague.org/sll/race/191/

Special mention to Alice Riddell-Webster who came 3rd in her age category (despite only running 3 of the 4 races!) Brilliant running!

Also to Leah Walland who scored for the A team in all 4 races. Well done Leah! She’s been joined throughout the season by Maddy Marriage, Jess Ridout, Judith Clarkson, Louise Garlick and Florencia Guerra. Thank you all for your dedication to the team!

So now to announce our overall standing. **Drum roll please** Fulham Ladies A team finished 10th!! This means we have successfully secured our place in Division 1 for next season.

Thank you to each and every person who ran in stripes for us, came to support us and voluncheered like no other! We couldn’t do it without you all, and what a pleasure to be part of a team alongside you. Here’s to the next season in division 1 together!

Our winning FRC ladies and the wet voluncheers

Men’s Race — Lloyd Park, Croydon (a far, far away land)

By Chris C and not read proof by Andy S

After some three years of ending the Surrey League Season at Lloyd park, and sampling the entirety of what the county’s best Cross Country Courses have to offer, from Golf courses in Beckenham to landing light ridden, muddy landing strips in Hounslow, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are some things in life which simply make you ask yourself “why?”, and that Round four of the Surrey XC League at Lloyd park, Croydon is invariably, year-in, year-out, one of those things.

The answer to the question “why” is, of course, because we all love it. Deep down, we do, but the 29 monochrome striped bandits, huddled for warmth on the start line at Lloyd Park, probably weren’t quite as sure of the courage they previously had had in their convictions when signing up. But there they were, one final time, looking for suicide pace in what, frankly, could only be referred to as “suicide” weather and the 52 points required for a third successive promotion in the surrey cross country league.

The race was on. Race, however, probably wasn’t the right word. Based on a straw poll taken in the Boathouse a few hours later, with the added clarity of hindsight (but inhibited slightly by beer), “Slip N Slide”, “Debacle”, or “Struggle” might have been more apt. terminology for what had awaited us. All of the above being accurate descriptions of what the underfoot conditions were like.

In the weird and wonderful world of the Surrey League, your “reward” for finding yourself in Division 2 is that you get to run the course after Division 3 and 4 have merrily trundled around it twice. The result being mud that graded out somewhere between “ploughed field”, “sheep dip” and “soft in places” dependent on where you found yourself on the course, and which was worth about a minute a mile of pace relative to road running. In three years in the Surrey League, you’d be hard pressed to have encountered more challenging conditions than the hand Lloyd Park consistently deals runners year after year.

Yet, unbowed, all 29 bandits manfully took to the course, some with more traction than others, all manfully supported from the side-lines by Captain Stringer, who had already covered the breadth of the county of Surrey on a single speed in the rain, and his cowbell. Messrs. Thomas (senior) and Sandison were first home, the latter aided by a particularly keen set of spikes, with Andy Thomas our third finisher, locking up an impressive 2nd place in the U20 competition for the league year after a year of solid running.

Bandit after bandit slipped and slid over the line to the tune of a 5th place team finish, on paper our weakest showing in the league this year, but one that considering the conditions, was not for lack of effort. This, in the final standings, meant a third place finish in our debut season in Division 2, missing out on promotion to a Striders of Croydon outfit who have spent three decades trying to get promoted. Would have been a bit cheeky of us to have managed this in three seasons, to be honest. Now that we are established at this level, however, we stand to kick on again next year and set our sights on the promised land of Division 1 once more.

FRC’s second string held on for a 3rd second place finish of the year, sealing second place overall in the B league competition. Throughout the year, the FRC engine room has proven to be force to be reckoned with in its own right; not many more established clubs could claim to have better depth than FRC right now, and that is down to every single runner this year. Hats off to you all!

Next stop nationals, then the summer break, then only 7 FRC run to the hills intervals sessions until we get do this all again. Hurrah! Until then…

— — — -End — — —

Thank you, thank you Captains for those superb reports, I know who to call if I take a week off!! May I just emphasise that Saturday’s weather conditions were horrendous: we had it all: continuous rain and icy winds. Brrr

Thanks as well to all of you who came to cheer at the XC races; I think there is no better reward than standing by our runners’ side and encourage them when they need it the most, whether they are flying past you effortlessly or struggling to stand on their feet.

Now, not that you are here for the glory, but should someone omits your name in the “thank you for cheering” list, you can use this hashtag: #iwastheredaphne. You won’t feel alone and we’ll offer moral support to help you go through this difficult moment.

**Attention** **Attention** **Attention**

On Saturday 24th Feb, for XC Nationals, we have the biggest FRC team ever entered and your Captains would love a huge crowd of cowbell supporters to come. “The whole Nationals event is like no other XC, seeing is believing!” (Judith’s words).

Look up for “FRC at the Saucony National Cross Country Championships 2018” in the event tab to find all the necessary information.

If you wish to eat with us post-race, do fill in the food pre-order spreadsheet by this Friday 5pm latest.

Second Sunday 5–5 miles

And it was a small crew last Sunday attending the monthly Wimbledon trail race. In all fairness, our SS5 regulars had been pushing their limits the day before at XC and totally deserved a well-earned rest. That is for your regular runner. Then you have your badass, die-hard ones who still got up and went for it! Namely Amy, Emma, Daphne and Andrew who seemed to not have been deterred by the thick mud and miserable weather on Saturday.

Lucky for them, Sunday morning saw a magnificent, cloudless blue sky, and the warming rays of sun filled our bandits with enough energy to help them tackle another very muddy course.

Well done all of you, and we hope to see more FRCs next month!

- Amer Ismail — 38:37

- Daphne Dadzie — 40:52 (TH&H)

- Andrew Fickling — 43:12

- Amy Tayler — 44:22

- Emma Less — 47:39

- John Grigg — 48:09

Worthing Half- 13.1 miles

Worthing is a traditional seaside town in West Sussex, situated at the foot of the South Downs, 10 miles (16 km) west of Brighton, and 18 miles (29 km) east of the county town of Chichester.

And this weekend, the town was hosting its Half-Marathon, which is described as one of the flattest and fastest course in the UK (but they all say that, don’t they?). The closed route is taking the runners along the promenade and onto the streets, and we bet the view when by the sea must be quite inspiring, if you have time to look around.

This is also where you could have found 2 of our amazing top runners this past Sunday, Rhianon and Stephanie, battling strong winds from the sea and waves of runners; but nothing was going to get in the way of superhero Rhianon who ran to a fabulous PB. Massive well done to you both

Stephanie Muzzall — 01:38:56
Rhianon West — 01:39:41 — PB!

London Indoor Middle Distance — 800m & 1500m

And then they were 4. 4 musketeers in their quest to the PB graal, that elusive goal time which often seems way out of reach. We’ve gathered once again at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre last night for what was promised to be “the best 2-legged race” available (Nick Thomas).

800m team:

John, Nick and myself.

John, who had not trained much since last week due to long working hours and is still in injury recovery path, arrived much fresher and relaxed compared to last week. We could feel his confidence gaining strength but little we knew what was going to come out of it. He started off strong, pacing and placing himself in the middle of the pack, only to give us chill when half way through the 3rd lap, he started gathering speed, steadily closing the gap with the 2 runners in front of him, to then half-way through his final lap, moved the gear up and started sprinting and overtaking the last 2, to finish first of his heat. What A Race John!! Brilliant running and pace management.

Nick also took part in tonight’s 800m. Now, Nick had been pushing really hard at the very challenging Lloyd’s Park XC on Saturday and had been injuring his calf a bit during another casual run with Thomas Junior on Sunday (brothers, they can’t do without a bit of competition, can they?). So off he went, starting strong and placing himself at the front of the pack, keeping the lead and the pace, once again showing what a strong and fast track runner he is. 800m is his favourite distance and you can clearly see the grit determination on his face during the run. But unfortunately, his sore calf started to flare up and resulted in him slowing down slightly towards the end of his last lap, leaving his competitors take advantage and sprint to their victory. Nick still finished in a superb time and we now hope he’ll take the time to rest his leg, because we need him at the Nationals!

Me: well, my attempt at 800m was not as fancy as those two. It was a DNF.

Now, one would ask: how can someone who ran countless 5ks, 10ks, a couple of half marathons and everything in between can DNF an 800m?! I mean, that’s a pretty small distance compared to what most of you are running. The answer is:

1 = Lack of speed work and 2 = injury. Yep, those elevated bends got the best of me because when you run an 800, it’s fast pace, you need to go full speed pretty much from the start-go and the faster you run, the heavier the impact on the leg at each step. So the inflammation flared up quite instantly and the thought of DNF crossed my mind after the 1st lap. I did try to ignore and keep going but then the energy level dropped massively, I was nowhere ready to run so fast and with the pain increasing, I did the sensible thing and left the track. Pride got hit but the leg will thank me in the long run. The positive out of all this is that I will now incorporate more speed work in my training routine and who knows, might give the 800 another go someday!

1500 team:

Tom and myself.

There was enough time between my 2 races to think about what I wanted to do and if I should actually be attempting the 1500. Watching all the heats was very inspiring and the pain was fainting away. My thoughts were that the distance did not require so much power from the start and being 7 ½ laps, I could start slowly and would still have time to increase speed. So, boosted by watching other runners’ race, I made it to the starting line.

The gun went off and so did I. Once again, it was hard work and although I felt a bit discouraged seeing other runners in my heat running way faster than me, I was decided to not have another DNF; the pain was not as strong and was manageable; only my lack of fitness and strength was to blame this time, so I kicked myself in the derriere and kept going, completing my 2 final solo laps under the uplifting applauds from spectators and my team mates. Finish line crossed, and my pride was restored.

Then it was Thomas’ turn to delight us once again, and disappointed we were not. A nicely paced run within a heat composed of very fast runners; Tom, just like Nick and John, proved us how a talented track runner he is and bend after bend, lap after lap secured his position, pushing harder and harder up to the very end.

Although Kelly did not run under the FRC banner, we were all very excited to watch her race and she literally blew our minds with how fast she is — I understand 02:10.07 is not her best time over 800m, but it is still a very serious effort and deserves admiration. Plus, it’s a course PB! Thank you for being so inspiring.

Nick Thomas — 02:07.86

John Devoy — 02:20.81

Thomas Daley — 04:37.45

Laure Selle — 08:12.88

Parkrun

The Cross country Surrey League final on Saturday kept most of our bandits out of parkrun, knowing they will have to do an all-out effort later on in the afternoon.

Few of you kindly offered to volunteer instead, and this week’s high-vis heroes are:

Bob Empson, Leo Gebbie, John Grigg, James Hampshire, Amer Ismail, Tomoko Kikuchi, Bob Lynam, Margie Slade and Ted Townsend. Big thank you, it was once again a very harsh morning with icy winds, and you’ve helped making parkrun possible.

Fulham Palace:

No PB today, but a new FRC bandit made her parkrun debut, so welcome Joanne McMurray! A pretty nice time for your first, better than mine! We hope you’ve enjoyed it; see you again next Saturday?

We also had the immense pleasure of seeing Hooper running alongside Justin, always good to see you both!

Same for Stephanie who’s had her first post baby parkrun and finished in 23:31 and commented “hoping to slowly improve that to get closer to my previous running form, inspired by Emma and Carolyn!” We’re sure you’ll be back in great running form very soon Steph. And this is a reminder to NOT forget your barcode this weekend J

Stuart Macdougall was our first FRC male home, and Katherine grabbed the first FRC female, while Margie closed the run, in tail walking duties.

Rest of the World

Natalie C has delighted us with not only a new PB, but ran like she stole it and grabbed a 1st lady position at the Rising Sun parkrun. Immense Natalie, congrats. PS: I love that parkrun’s name, very inspiring.

In Wycombe Rye, Richard G pushed really hard too and got himself a PB. We haven’t seen you for a while Richard, it’s time to come home!

2 more PBs: While the Lucas are vacationing in South Africa, Steve took part in the Port Elizabeth’ parkrun, and found himself running with Lindsay C who, for her 2nd time at this parkrun, got herself a PB! We bet that felt good.

Last but not least, Lloyd H was running his 4th Newbury parkrun and knocked a full 1min 7sec off his last week’s PB. You are in great form Lloyd, well done!