It was a drizzly Sunday morning as we headed to Black Park for the South Bucks 10k, writes Cath Gunnewicht. This was one of the club championship races and it was good to see nine of us turn up to run, just one week after the Ealing Half. The race was a well-balanced mixture of well organised and low-key. The course was two loops on beautiful country roads and was well marshalled along the way, so no-one could even try and say they got lost!
It was also wonderful to see six club members turn up to support and encourage. Fiona and John placed one of Claire’s unique flags on the course, which made me smile and gave me a bit more energy as I ran. Meanwhile they cycled the course in reverse a few times, to cheer us on, which was a massive boost to us all. I also spotted Bob Stanbrook and Barbro (both marshalling), Philip Prince, and you couldn’t miss the Incredibly-Popular-Claire-King (1) with her ESM-coloured umbrella hat.
(1) As officially described in a recent parkrun report by Martin Wilson
Sarah Gerrie and Mark Kencroft did ESM proud by winning a trophy each. Sarah for third female and Mark for first in his age category. Mark also did a PB by 40 seconds – his best time for two years, and he only became an M50 in September, so it was a bit special for him to win his age category. Well done both!
Jav and Malcolm continued their long-term friendly rivalry with Jav leading by under a minute at the finish. Jav was given added impetus when informed by John halfway round that he was second Sikh – he caught and overtook his rival, but conceded the place at the finish “because he was older than me and in our culture it’s polite to give way to your elders”. Satnam Singh (M40) of Datchet Dashers beat Jav by the length of the finish funnel, so Jav clearly decided to leave a very respectful distance…
Kevin (centre of the photo) was hot on their tail and finished exactly at the same time as Malcolm! It took Malcolm rather by surprise: “John shouted earlier on that he was closing the gap. But didn’t realise till I crossed the line and looked over my shoulder and he was there”. Kevin only ran his first 10k this June, but he improved his time by nearly three minutes. A great achievement and a well-earned PB.
Olov also did well to complete it as he had an eye operation earlier this year and has barely run recently. Huge praise also has to go to Annick, who completed her first ever 10k run and she only started running earlier this year. Congratulations and hope to see her at many more 10k and longer races. Sadly, Pat had to pull out half way through due to an injury but joined the others to support team members.
There was plenty of the usual post-race banter over the coffees, and it was a good morning out. Let’s see a healthy turnout at the next event, which is the Ricky Road 10 on October 29th.
ESM results summary
8 Mark Kencroft (M50) 37:14, 39 Javaher Sondh 42:36, 41 Malcolm Woolsey 43:20, 42 Kevin Falvey 43:20, 46 Sarah Gerrie 44:01, 104 Louise Prince (W45) 51:06, 135 Catherine Gunnewicht (W45) 57:06, 169 Olov Hansen (M60) 1:01:58, 182 Annick Hooge (W55) 1:03:16
Full results on runbritain