The Bumper Bank Holiday Results Edition

Yes, you read it right... the results edition! After months of virtual racing, finally the real thing is back. Not quite as we know it, of course, thanks to the new norm of Covid-19-guidelines, but what a joy for all concerned to take part in some proper competition after months of race starvation. And not just one event but two distance meetings and a sprint competition in the space of a week.

After a barren Spring and most-of-Summer, thanks to UKA giving the green light to restricted competition, low-key, low entry, carefully choreographed, socially distanced and strictly sanitised meetings are beginning to spring up like mushrooms after the rain.

Lockdown with its solo challenges, followed by a gradual, but still limited return to training, has frustrated some athletes, but seemingly benefited others. And for coaches, still aiming for their athletes to peak at some undefined moment before the end of summer, it has been an unusual opportunity to think outside the more usual pattern of training and competing.

'We are constantly looking at what we do in training anyway', says HW distance coach and performance director, Ben Noad, 'but these last months have been about responding to the situation and being flexible. Whereas in a normal season, some of our athletes might be looking to come off the winter and do the 800m, 1500m or steeplechase on the track, we all focused on the same goal of 5K down to 3K'. 'It was all part of a grand plan geared towards the hope of racing maybe in July, August or even early September', says fellow coach Keith Scofield. 'We tried to keep everyone in touch, setting monthly virtual challenges, and everyone was doing really well, but they had nearly three months of running on their own, so once the first group training was allowed, being able to train with people of a similar ability again really helped everyone stay focused. Coming back to the track provided a new environment and there was a renewed hope of being able to race again this summer'.

'The pandemic forced us to completely change our usual approach to training this year', echoes Charlie Eastaugh, who, along with Fred Slemeck has come storming back to racing with PBs in both the 5K and 3000m in the space of five days. 'Early on, instead of the scheduled diet of Spring lactic for 800/1500m with Ben I refocused on building for 5K—an event I have never given much thought previously', he admits.' The Tempo Doctor, Mr Dimos Evangelidis (well he is a surgeon) and everyone’s favourite trusty coach-on-wheels Keith – see formation training picture below – have been huge supporters throughout. In the past few weeks', he says, 'our training has gradually transitioned down to 3K-type work' in anticipation of stepping back onto the track.

The socially distanced men’s team in training

The 3000m, amusingly dubbed the Herc Wimbo 3K by Ben, was initially conceived as a low key 'mob match' between HW, Kent AC, and Highgate Harriers, but as England Athletics announced that numbers could increase from six in a race to a maximum of twelve, it expanded to include pacy athletes from other clubs The final race of the night, won by Kieran Reilly of Tonbridge, who is warming up for the 1500m at the British Championships in Manchester on 4/5 September, saw five of the nine athletes clocking PBs, amongst them Eastaugh, who finished fourth in 8:20.7 and Slemeck, sixth in 8:23.6. Overall, Wimbledon Park kept up its reputation for fast times, with 45 of the 74 athletes achieving PBs over the eight races, while in Race 2, Pippa Roessler of Aldershot, Farnham and District, clocked a massive PB of 9:38.6 to shoot to number one in the U17 ranking list for 2020.

For HW's middle distance athletes the first chance to properly test themselves pre-competition came on Thursday, 13 August when the unstoppable Ben Noad organised a time trial over the 5K Surrey Road relay loop, which begins and ends in the stadium at Wimbledon Park. Twenty five athletes from Ben and Keith Scofield's group and Maurice Sharp and Trevor de Silva's groups, took part with single runners setting off at 20 second intervals. Impressively, six men clocked under 15 minutes, and the fastest women, Grace Batchelor and Alex Binley finished the course in 18:10 and 18:35 respectively. Quickest of the men was Charlie Eastaugh with 14:24, followed by Rhys Boorman (14:38), the Mallett brothers, George (14:39) and Ed, (14:51), Fred Slemeck (14:54), and Howell Harrod (14:56).

Wind Speed

Next test for five of the top six in the time trial was the MK5K PB Special, a road race plotted around Willen Lake in Milton Keynes. Waves of no more than 10 runners seeded by time were set off every five minutes, from slowest to fastest. 'It was a great return to racing, a nice distance and event', says Fred Slemeck. 'Charlie and I were seeded in the same race and it took a lot longer than normal to collect our numbers as we kept meeting people we hadn't seen since racing in the National Cross Country Championships in Nottingham – almost 6 months to the day earlier!

'Although the race was run under the new normal conditions, because of the seeding once you got going you didn't notice you were in a smaller field. However it was all bit of a step into the unknown. Although I had been training consistently through lockdown, without any racing I had no markers as to where I was fitness and speed-wise. We ended up going through 3K in around 8:45 helped by a nice downhill in the first km, but Storm Ellen had ideas about us running too quick on the first outing out, and once we turned for home at 3.5K we hit a big head wind which put paid to any really fast times. Nonetheless the run gave me confidence going into the Wimbledon 3000m'.

For Jonny Cornish, seeded in the Men's Elite Wave A, his time of 14:37 was all the more impressive, given he has been out of the Noad/Scofield training group, struggling with 'what should have been a fairly innocuous injury from tripping on a tree root at the very start of lockdown on March 20th. It was such a good feeling to be back running again after three months of frustration, managing a maximum of 5km on a good day and struggling with aches and stiffness in the knee, not to mention swelling which did not seem to go down!' he says. 'At some points I wondered if I would ever be able to run properly again. I was able to build up the training from mid-to-end of June but I wasn't really training at full capacity until July. There are times when I still feel stiffness and a slight ache but I have been able to manage it quite well, and I am so grateful that I have been able to train and race properly without any pain'.

Having last raced in the Bath Half Marathon back in March, in which he set a PB of 65:16, he admits he was apprehensive about running at Milton Keynes 'in such a fast wave of high quality athletes where there would be no hiding place – but going off in waves like this is a bit more like track racing, and I think it could be conducive to more people achieving PB's as you are in a group working together at the same sort of level, which makes the pacing easier and there is less of a scrum at the start. Having said that there is no substitute for a competitive mass race to get the heart and adrenaline pumping! However, I was very happy with the time, especially given the windy conditions'.

Despite the best efforts of Storm Ellen Jonny Cornish (top left, photographed by Alistair McDonnell) was happy with his comeback race in the Elite Wave A; there were PBs too for Charlie Eastaugh and Fred Slemeck in Wave E (photograph by Brian Graves) and George Mallett in Wave J (below, also photographed by Alistair McDonnell)

Home of the PBs

And so to the 'Herc Wimbo' 3000m. After Storm Ellen, the conditions for running were perfect. 'Everyone arrived with a great mindset', says Ben Noad. 'Athletes were so grateful to be racing again and very focused. In any normal summer if your race doesn't go well, you think, "oh well I'll do another one next week at Eltham or Loughborough or wherever", but at the moment who knows when the next chance will be'.

'The Club definitely has a reputation of putting on quality distance events, with Wimbledon Park becoming the home of the PB', says Fred Slemeck. 'I have received numerous messages from runners across the country asking if we are putting on any more events this summer. It is a great testament to all the hard work from Ben, the Club and officials to put on an event in these unprecedent times, and something we are extremely grateful for'.

'Everyone was gasping to race on the track after such a long absence and the races were grouped really well with high-quality fields', says Jonny Cornish.' If you had said I would run sub 8:30 before the event I would have been quite happy with that. However I put myself in a good position at 2km at a good pace, only to waste it by going a bit too early and trying to take it on with 1km to go. I didn't put in enough to get to the front and so got stranded in lane 3 and ultimately didn't have enough in the last 400m-600m to be competitive. It was a bit disappointing as if I had been more patient I think my time would have been closer to 8:20 and a PB would have been on the cards. Nevertheless, it was a valuable learning experience for next time! And the positive is I know there is more to come!'

'Having seen the line up for the race, I knew it would be quick', agrees Fred Slemeck 'I went in with the plan of trying to hang with the group for as long as possible, race it and then que sera sera. Since I spent the majority of lockdown doing longer runs and hadn't done a massive amount of speed work the pace felt like 1500m from the off but as track judge Gary Forde kept showing decreasing numbers on the lap counter I realised I could hang with the pace. I didn't have expectations of running a best time so when we went through half way bang on my PB pace I was confident I could finish without embarrassing myself. After that point I didn't pay much attention the times being read out and just concentrated on the bottom in front of me. It would have been nice to have finished a lap earlier – the last 400m hurt – but on finishing I was delighted to find I had run a PB'.

In retrospect, he reflects, 'I have definitely benefited from lockdown. As well as being able to concentrate on getting in the miles, my wife Suzie and I have spent more time on the boring extra stuff that we normally always find an excuse not to do, for example we have been doing James Thie's circuits twice a week. All in all', he says, 'I have arrived at the belated start of the season feeling stronger than I have done before (I can do 10 press ups now!)'.

'The Noad Plan has clearly succeeded', says Eastaugh, 'given all the brilliant times we saw on Wednesday. Ultimately this success is down to the hard-working group suffering together on Tuesdays and Saturdays with one goal in mind: to let the clock do the talking'.

More photos from Wednesday night by Mark Hookway. Clockwise: Peter Giles, British M70 Record holder over 3000m, rivalling Fred Slemeck's 'gold shorts and tan combo'; U20 Henry Silverstein; Grace Batchelor and Jacob Plummer, who both achieved PBs in Race 1; Northern Ireland Masters International Justin Reid; Howell Harrod; and Joe Toomey and Rhys Boorman before Toomey finished ahead to go under 9 minutes for the first time.

Quick out of the Blocks

To say that sprint coach Paul Miller was delighted with a first competitive outing for his athletes at the South London Network (SLAN) Sprint Open on 22 August at Tooting Bec is an understatement. The meeting, once again a testament to the determination of organiser Ben Noad, featured a series of 100m, 300m and 400m races, with four athletes in each seeded race (England Athletics have since upped the permitted numbers to six in a race). ‘I was ecstatic to say the least', he enthuses. ‘And you know me, I can be tough to please! The athletes have worked really hard and after all we’ve been through it was just great to see almost everyone achieve a PB. They really deserved those results'.

U17 Freddie Arkell, who as an U15 finished 2019 ranked third in the 100m and first in the 200m, just missed out on a PB in the 100m, clocking 11.20, however there were PBs for fellow U17s Marcus Gayle and Missy Cooper; U15s Khalid Ali, Romane McFarlane, Kyra Stone, Cora Barnett, and Emily Scott; as well as U13 Javon Blake. Sade Ajami-Akinfolarin achieved a PB in the 300m, as did Morgan Rennie in the 400m.

‘Throughout lockdown we were running Zoom sessions with everyone at home', says Paul Miller. 'We split the athletes into small groups, with our coaches Patrick (Hutchinson), Devonte (Casely-Hayford) and Trevor (Whittle) all running different Zoom sessions according to the stage the athletes were at. Those who could get out on the grass did, and so we continued, keeping morale up with fun stuff like Saturday quizzes. Then came the transition to the first limited, light group sessions on grass, the return to the track, and finally: competition! Through it all the group has really settled down and matured into a new phase, which I haven’t felt so good about since the early days of coaching Chad and Rechmial (his talented sons) and a handful of other athletes. All of our coaches were so happy with the group at Tooting Bec, we didn’t even know who to choose as the most outstanding athlete on the day!’

There will be more chances for PBs on 5 September in a second SLAN event, which this time features the 100m, 200m, and 800m and is already on the brink of selling out. 'Some of our athletes are going again' says Paul, 'but anything they do will just be a bonus as we will then take a break as a group from mid September to early October'.

Results

Friday, 21 August: MK5K PB Special, Milton Keynes Full results
Saturday, 22 August: SLAN Sprint Open, Tooting Bec Full results
Wednesday, 26 August: Herc Wimbo 3000m, Wimbledon Park Full results