Weekend Round Up 13th 14th August
Another week and still the good news continues with some sensational performances. It is wonderful to report another medal from two superb performances in Munich, a night marathon, swim marathon and closer to home PB’s at parkrun. Read on:-
WORTHING PARKRUN (STRUN)
Worthing parkrun is one of Tuff Fitty’s home venues and having been selected as the fourth in our Summer Tuff Run Series (STRUN) it meant club members would see their finish time graded against their gender and age, levelling the field to see some very close positions in our STRUN league.
It was one Tuff’s first ever parkrun, another six who were running this location for the first time through to Ed Lay who has now completed 80 at Worthing, Elaine Rousseau 103 at Worthing and Les Pearce who has completed 159 Worthing runs. The course record for Worthing is held by Jake Wightman who recently won gold in the 1500m at the World Championships in Oregon, who competed at Worthing in 2019 crossing in a scintillating 14:43.
There were some great Tuff times on a morning of oppressive heat and humidity even at 9am in the morning. Mark Walford demonstrated our club’s intent crossing as 3rd runner overall in just 17:38. Simon Thistlethwaite finished 15th overall in 19:05 just four seconds outside his PB. Dom Amey was third Tuff home. He has been training/racing exceptionally well and punched out a new PB of 20:23. No one would have guessed this was Chris Robinson’s first ever parkrun as he finished four seconds behind Dom in a great 20:27. Juliette Reader crossed as 6th female home with another strong time of 21:39. Shelley Dodman, next as 8th female (22:00). Adrian Oliver finished in 22:02, just one place & 2 seconds behind.
Another close run was between Ed Lay who finished in 23:37 and Les Pearce also one place and 2 seconds behind (23:39). We look forward to reporting on Ed clocking up his 100th parkrun very soon (99 completed) and Les still showing people how it is done on his 166th. Sue Neilson was our third Tuff lady in 24:42 and then Clive Harvey who crossed the line exactly 6 years to the day since Worthing PR was a venue for STRUN in 2016.
Great to see Mark Sole back in action completing his 25th, and Janet Shepherd running well to position herself up the STRUN table; then Claire Moyle . Further Tuffs with strong parkrun tallies, saw Jenny Oliver finish her 38th PR, Alistair Evans (96) Elaine Rousseau (136) & Sue Pinky (120th).
An impressive 18 good Tuff results on a morning not ideal for running. This still left space for Kate Evans and Sheila Bailey serving multiple roles – course marshals, key Tuff cheerleaders, and some excellent photos from Sheila which are in the following album. Adrian quickly updated the latest STRUN table which can be accessed here. Congratulations to Les Pearce who is in pole position closely followed by Simon Thistlethwaite & Janet Shepherd.
The fifth and final venue for the STRUN series is the Arundel 10k on August 28th – no entries on the day – entry link here There are several with two results on the table who could be rapidly propelled up the table by entering Arundel as the best three scores.
PARKRUN ROUND UP
Starting at Burgess Hill parkrun, congratulations to Emily Vaz, nee Moore, on her first parkrun outing since her marriage, Emily completed her 134th parkrun in just 20:25
Eastville parkrun is another venue to now be able to say ‘Tuff woz here’ as Phil Turner competed at Eastville park in Bristol which comprised two small loops of the park, with a larger loop in between including around the lake as Phil notched up his 82nd parkrun.
Whilst most of the Tuff action was across at Worthing, Littlehampton parkrun still had some Tuff regulars. Richard Budd finished his 183rd PR in 23:45. Sue Simpson completed her 154th PR with husband Colin Simpson just behind to bring his very impressive total to 191. Nick Hartfield was on the organising team
EUROPEAN SPRINT TRIATHLON CHAMPIONSHIPS – MUNICH
The Europe Triathlon Sprint Championships for age group athletes took place in Munich on Sunday as part of the Munich 2022 European Championships that have been featuring so much on television. 1,000 age group athletes from all over Europe competed for the medals in their respective age group including in this number, Niki Treacy & Maisie Johnston. The 750m swim took place at “Karlsfelder See“ northeast of Munich. They then cycled 20km from there to the Olympic Park where the 5k run took place. Pleasing to report we have two reports. Firstly from Niki & then Maisie’s view of the event:-
“OMG !!!!! I actually made it to a GB team event. I qualified for the team back in 2019 when the world was normal, …… Aug 2022 I finally make it to the start line at the Euro Sprint champs, and I’m in reasonable enough shape to at least ‘not be completely shit’. (Covid, having put the kibosh on lots of events in the intervening period.)”
“The main venue was Munich Olympic park. 🤩 wow stunning venue! The race was part of the European Champs for all sorts of sports, so the atmosphere was awesome. Everywhere was buzzing and BUSY!!!”
“Race logistics were not the easiest, with T1 and T2 a 20min drive apart, and everywhere in the Olympic park being completely mobbed”.
“The swim was in a stunning lake on the outskirts of Munich. The atmosphere there was calm and serene, so quite the opposite to the Olympic park. Maisie and I went there for a swim a couple of days before the race but I ended up just sitting on the grass eating cake, drinking coffee and soaking up the lovely tranquillity, while Maisie had a swim”.
“So to race day, I had no expectation of how I would do and was excited to just be there at last! My only hope was that some asthma problems I have wouldn’t turn the race into a DNF”.
“All I can say is the race was fun from start to finish”.
-it started with a good luck hugs on the start line with Maisie and Daf Belt. It was her 83rd birthday that day! She’s a legend!
– the swim in the beautiful lake went ok’ish.
– I got in a fab little pack with 2 other ladies on the bike and we worked really well together. It was so much fun I had to let out a loud yeee haaa! We caught two others in our age group with 5k to go, so now we were 5, and that’s how it stayed into T2. I thought I might be top 10ish but exiting T2, Steve (my better half), told me I was 2nd. Whaaaaa !!!!”
– the run was a cat and mouse with 3 of us for the 1st k. One lady faded and that left 2 of us. We had different strengths, I pushed ahead up hill 😃, she flew passed me downhill ☹️. With 1k to go I looked behind, my 2nd position looked safe, and I didn’t have the go to fight for 1st anymore. So I was trotting along grinning, almost in disbelief. 2nd was way beyond anything I thought I could achieve. I had a slight scare when I hit the blue carpet to run through the finish arch. I thought I was being chased down, so I sprinted for the line, only to realise afterwards that the person behind was a man. Derrr. But it was such a buzz to run down the blue carpet with a silver medal up for grabs.
“I’m totally chuffed and amazed. It’s been a weird/hard couple of years and this little silver disk is making me smile A LOT 😁😁😁😁😁”.
Niki
“What an amazing event, the sprint triathlon was part of the Munich European Championship Multi Sport Event, the largest sporting event since the Munich Olympics in 1972. The place was buzzing! The run and T2 were in the Olympia Park and the finish area a giant grandstand and blue carpets galore”.
“Logistically challenging, as the swim and T1 were some distance away, but once both the T’s were set up, we got racked and ready to roll!”
“Early start race morning, weather and water temp mild, sunny with slight breeze and wetsuit swim, perfect conditions”.
“Pre race serenity, time to focus! I set off in the swim and jumped onto some fast toes, fell away after the first buoy but was still swimming a pretty comfortable pace. T1, not my best moment, made some silly mistakes (not putting my helmet on-had to run back and re-rack my bike and put it on!) Concentrating so much on getting in a good bike group, as bike was draft legal”.
“Did bike with a couple of fabulous German ladies and we flew round the course in our ‘3-up’. Again, though, messed up transition, (ran passed my racking area with my bike arghhhh!) But away on the run in good shape. Undulating run course, managed to pass a couple of ladies to finish 10th overall and 3rd GB lady”.
“Absolutely amazing race, venue, atmosphere, loved every minute!”
“(Note to self, drill in the T’s! It’s definitely the 4th discipline.)”
Maisie
A few of Niki & Maisie’s pictures are in the album below:-
MIDNIGHT MARATHON
Second Wind Events organise this night marathon which involves marshals and signage to weave the runners out of Queen Elizabeth Country Park before getting onto the South Downs Way along to Cocking. We have a great report from Jason Rae on his night time adventure, a tough event covering 1,264m of ascent:-
“I’ve been playing lots of golf recently and the amount running etc has taken a massive dip. The prizes in golf are better and easier to win !!
The midnight marathon kept popping up on my social media feed so after marshalling the UK Ultras 100 miler I got inspired and entered to get me back on track to completing 100 marathons/ultras. Its an out and back from QE country park to Cocking along the SDW.
I had double booked Captains day (golf and free beer at my home club) with this but thought hey I can do both on 2 weeks of marathon training.
I started getting a few doubts though, especially after 6 pints during the mornings golf . Home to sleep it off for a few hours then off to the run.
There were a few friendly faces I recognised at the start then as it got dark we were sent on our way. The first 2 aid stations passed by quickly enough then the third hill at 10 miles had me questioning why I had entered. The SDW towards Cocking is a lot more rutted so the last leg to the turnpoint and back is more difficult.
Heading back I got back into a run walk rhythm , through the 17 mile checkpoint then on towards Harting. At 21 miles I started to feel a bit nauseous (apparently quite a few others had as well). I made it to the final aid station, filled my bottle then walked out thinking I was probably going to have to DNF. Finally 20 mins later the feeling cleared and I got going again. Back into QE park following the signs to the finish. I’ve started looking for number 87 already so any recommendations for trails marathons you’ve done (I prefer low key events) will be welcome.
Jason
THAMES MARATHON
The Thames Marathon is an endurance swim between Henley-on-Thames and Marlow. Parking in Marlow, competitors got transferred to Henley to begin their swim back. With a choice of Half distance (5.5km) or the the full distance (13km) it was perhaps inevitable that with Andy Tester entering, he would tackle the full distance swim.
The swim was split into four parts with swimmers having to exit the water to get around the three locks on the route at 3.8k, 9k, and 10.7km which nicely doubled as refuelling stations. There was a 6.5 hour cut off, but of course this was unnecessary for Andy who took part in a large field of 615 starters with a tow float obligatory. It was also very competitive with Richard Stannard winning the event but Andy did well finishing 11th overall in the wetsuit category in a time of just 3 hours 20 min. Congratulations Andy
