High Lights

A raft of HW runners were back on the road again last Friday night (29 April) in the sixth race of the hugely successful Friday Night Under the Lights series.

Four of the A team from the National 12-Stage Road relays in Sutton Coldfield were competing In the elite race (above) won by Toby Cooke of Winchester & District AC in 13:58. First home was Tom Jervis, who finished 17th and professed himself 'very pleased and a bit surprised' at a new PB of 14:28; closely followed by Dan Cliffe, in 21st in 14:31 – their times move them up into third and fourth on the Club's all-time men's ranking list over 5K. Charlie Eastaugh – who now turns his attention to the track and his favourite events, the 1500m and mile – was 23rd in 14:33, with Fred Slemeck 34th in 14:41, and Ed Mallett 49th in 14:55.

Finn Johnson and Howell Harrod, both on the comeback trail, had great runs in the earlier waves, finishing in 15:20 and 15:24 respectively, while Matilde Lomba, in her first race for the Club, clocked 18:03, which instantly put her second on the HW Women's all-time ranking list for 5K, behind Ellen Weir.

Full results

Above: Howell Harrod heading out in the earlier race, and below: left to right: Dan Cliffe, Tom Jervis and Charlie Eastaugh

Vitality Statistics

Only three days later, Tom Jervis, Finn Johnson, Matilde Lomba and 2nd-claim Andy Greenleaf were on the road again in the Vitality 10,000m as the event returned to the streets of London after an absence of three years.

While much attention was focused on Sir Mo Farah's return to racing and surprise defeat by AFD's Ellis Cross, Tom Jervis also enjoyed some quality screen time as he ran alongside and overtook Eilish McColgan in her attempt to beat her mother Liz's Scottish 10K record and get close to Paula Radcliffe's British record. In the end she achieved the former and came tantalisingly close to the latter, while Tom rounded off his road racing season with yet another PB as he finished 23rd (out of 7218) in the men's race in 30:57. Finn, who also had his moment on screen at the finish (below), was 70th in 33:04, while Matilde was a fantastic 29th out of 6317 runners in the women's race and 6th W35 to finish, in 37:08. Andy Greenleaf was 29th in 31:17.

Full results

Above: Tom Jervis cruises past Liz McColgan and below: Finn Johnson (right of picture) at the finish.

The previous day Richard McDowell was one of several HW athletes in action in the Vitality Westminster Mile – a mere snip of a race for Richard, given his appetite for tackling distances up to 100 miles! Pounding the London streets he knows so well, he finished first M40 and 12th overall, in 4:32.

Another great new addition to the women's squad, Bettina Urlbauer, was third in the womens race (second senior woman), and 76th overall, finishing in 5:31.

Felix Allen was 10th M45 and 59th overall in the men's race in 5:23, with Tom Cheetham 12th M55 in 115th – both have been notching up marathons recently (see below). Tom finished in 6:10 with M50 Gary Forde clocking the same time, one place behind and eighth in his category.

Anna Garnier was first W65 and 23rd in the women’s race in 6:24, while Club distance coach, Tony Austin, was sixth M65 and 144th in the men's race, in 6:53.

Full results

Below: Westminster Milers, left to right: Tony Austin, Anna Garnier, Bettina Urlbauer, Gary Forde and Felix Allen

Ninety-nine down, one to go

Tom Cheetham completed the penultimate race on his mission to notch up 100 marathons, when he clocked 3:07:54 in the Brighton race on 10 April. He finished just ahead of Felix Allen, who ran 3:12:25 only a week after achieving 2:59:40 in the Paris Marathon. Two other Club vets were happy with their times after grappling with injury: Simon Woodley, pleased to achieve 3:15:54, a personal best by 4 seconds, after suffering a slipped disc last year; and Charles Hampden Smith, who achieved his target of a sub 3:30 time, clocking 3:28:21 despite being hampered by a sore hip.

Tom now turns his attention to his 20th running of the London marathon, where he will hopefully notch up his 'century' over the distance.