Posts from — October 2015

As many of you will be aware, the Management Conmmittee have had concerns in recent years about the stretch of the Finchley 20 Race along Breakspear Road South. To try to make the route safer we have applied to Hillingdon Council for a road closure for the past two years but this has been declined. Therefore there will be a new course in 2016 which will be a mix of road and trail but will remain 4 x 5 mile laps. A map of the route can be found on the Finchley 20 web page. Thanks to Martin Bateman for finding and mapping out the only alternative route that will enable the race to remain in Ruislip.

Thanks to Steve and Dan for their organisation of a good night down at the clubhouse on Saturday.

Dan and Steve Thompson will be bringing along a large portion of Chilli Con Carne and Tunes post the MET League XC on Saturday 7th November at the clubhouse. All members and friends welcome come in 3 levels of hottness on the scoville scale. Cost £5 for a large Thompson scale dollop of CCC that will come in 3 levels of hottness on the scoville scale. Steve will be dusting off his vinyl and providing the music on the night. There will also be pool and darts available.

Hillingdon AC’s senior men just missed out on picking up team medals at the North of the Thames and Liddiard Trophy race at Kingsbury, finishing fourth in the eight to score competition for the Liddiard Trophy and fourth by just two points in the North of the Thames six to score competition.

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Adam Ireland returned to Pitshanger Park Junior 2K Sunday park run to try and race a sub 7 minute course reports Stevan Dokic. The young 12 year old has run the course record in 7.06. Now his 3rd run would need a 3.30 1/2 way split. This was paced well and on his own and now for the testing 2nd K. The last 300m of twisting path would test his pace also the little ones would cause Adam to weave his way through. But with the locals cheering him on Adam was spurred on. This just left a sprint to a new course record of 6.59. Also racing was new member and course record holder of the girls is Lydia Louw 7.28 as a JW10 and fastest JW. Abdirahim HAMUD is 2nd JM10 in 7.22 and could possibly break the 7.18 soon to be the new holder. These junior races are in a pleasant park and ideal to train for your race. And is spectator and Mums and Dads friendly.

Pitshangar PR Website

Hillingdon AC’s Senior Men secured a top 10 finish at the South of England Cross Country Relays at Wormwood scrubs with a number of strong performances.

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Hillingdon ladies had 2 (yes TWO) teams out for the relays reports Donna Nash. Unfortunately Eva Mack was overcommitted and had to withdraw and Debs Pratley picked up an injury. Ciara Williams kindly stepped up to the plate and then there was me left to make up a second team – despite no longer running at a competitive level, I was prepared to come out of ‘retirement’ for this fixture .
At the time of writing, the final results had yet to be published but I wanted to proudly share our individual results:
A team: Ciara – completed her leg in (13.21), the fastest of the day for us!, Lynn Hyde (14.39) and Hannah Wells (13.34) who pulled back 4 places to 11th.
B team: Donna – completed her leg (just) in 15.45, Melanie Spencer (16.24) and La Jolie Morganne Lesenne (14.30). Morganne  pulled us back 3 places from the 2nd leg  to 19th.
Thanks to all those who represented us on a lovely day; great team spirit; great conditions and plenty to cheer about (some more loudly than others Melanie Spencer!!).

Full results can be found here.

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A fantastic start to the cross country season for Hillingdon AC’s senior men as the A team secured fifth place in Division One in the first Met League race at Claybury.

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It was a bright and gorgeous day for the first Met League fixture on the season at Claybury on Saturday 10th October  reports Donna Nash. 7 out of 10 ladies made it to the start line on time with 3 getting caught on the busy North Circular.

Hannah Wells was first home for Hillingdon making it inside the top 50 placing 43rd. 16 places better than last year and looking on very good form. This was her warm up for the Great Parks Half Marathon on Sunday! Go girl.

The other 4 scorers for Hillingdon were Zoe Dobs (92 – maintaining her place inside the top 100), Pauline Fischer (126), Paula Jones making her cross country debut (137) and Melanie Spencer (140 although tied with 139!)

Well done to Sue Dyke and Lyndsey Browne making a welcome return to Cross Country.

Currently in Division 2, Hillingdon finished 6th out of 10 for the seniors and FIRST place for the Vets. Very well done senior Seniors!

Although the mud was not a factor this year, it didn’t make the hill any easier to tackle and Lyndsey commented that rolling down might possibly have been easier and gained her a place!

Commiserations to Steph Wigram, Ciara Williams and Anna Harwood who all planned to race but missed the start by minutes having delayed their departure from the clubhouse and then suffered traffic frustrations on route. They may, however, have started a new trend by joining the men’s race and raising more than a few smiles!

Roll on Stevenage!

Provisional results for all age groups can be found here.

HAC has only 2 club places on offer to club members for the London Marathon on the 24th April 2016.

If you are a fully paid up club member and have been for at least 1 year, have a VLM rejection slip for next year’s race, not previously won a club place in the last 3 years and want to do the marathon please email me, Martin Bateman at mbateman@hillingdonac.co.uk by the end of Thursday 29th October 2015.

Places will be awarded again this year by ballot and the draw/s will be at the clubhouse on a date to be decided.  Once all applications are in I will decide, in my role as club competitions committee chairman, the exact ballot process. It will either be 1 straight draw or 2 draws with the first “seeded” draw for one of the places then all names going into the second ballot for the remaining place. Anyone applying will need to pay the entry costs themselves if drawn from the ballot. With only 2 places on offer it is difficult to please everyone with the system. These places are offered by VLM as a kind of reward to clubs so in turn the seeded applicants  will be those that have put a lot into aspects of  management and organisation of HAC.