Twenty-six hardy souls braved the chill to run off yesterday’s excesses in our traditional Boxing Day races: three young athletes and 23 adults.
The finish funnel was managed by John Falvey and Roger Thomas, while Steve Barrington, our sole marshal, managed to break with tradition by getting everyone round the right route. (How did he manage that single-handedly? Must be that marathon-training). Though to be fair he had a little help from Laurence, who kindly volunteered as Tailrunner. Pat did her best to veer off-course, but even she could only manage a short detour this year.
The advantage of having just three young athletes was that they all won! Mikey Kouwiloyan led them home, winning the U13 boys’ race; Leah Kelly was next, taking glory in the U15 girls’ race, while Sarah Freegard won the U13 girls. Prizes all round.
In the adults’ race, the improving Keith Freegard won the handicap in 28:23. Runner-up was the lesser-spotted John Blanchard, who did his usual trick of turning up having not run for months and running a very respectable 25:40. Dorothy Johnstone sliced a minute off her time from last year and was rewarded with third prize in the handicap.
Overall fastest male was the familiar face of Mo Ismail in 22:09, and fastest female was the equally familiar Fiona Kennedy (28:16).
We were pleased to be joined by a few guests: Leah’s brother Billy, apparently more normally seen going up and down a pool, but turning in a useful time of 27:49. There were two Perivale 5 runners who would be very welcome additions to the club, should we be able to persuade them: Michael Charles (28:29) and Wayne Harris (32:34). Christine ran round with her daughter Kate in 37:09. There were also three of our friends from Ealing Eagles: Jen Watt (29:19), Liz Lees Wirdnam (40:16) and Linda, making her return from injury in 42:25.
For the prizes, a big thanks to Patricia, Jean, Christine, Fiona… and Santosh for donating a few leftover goodies from yesterday’s Northala Fields parkrun !
Full results below.