Back row from left: Lynn, Wilton, Steve, Jonathan, Martin. Front row: Mark, Adam, Kylie & Claire
While a group of runners travelled across London to Dulwich for the Summer League last Sunday, nine ESM road runners opted for this popular local race, reports Mark Kencroft.
This year saw a late change of organisers, who had just over five weeks to get the event up and running, so entries were well down on previous years.
Claire makes a point of hydrating!
Apart from organisers Fast Fitness, ESM had the largest amount of runners present, and we got a nice thank you and shout out from the Event Director for coming out to support the race. Nick Bamford, one of the organisers, had volunteered the day before at Northala Fields parkrun.
It was by far the hottest day of the year so far, so my personal dilemma was: do I run with water or not? I decided to skip carrying a bottle and take water en route if needed. I didn’t need to worry as was given the biggest water bottle on the second lap, which was well-needed by then.
Jonathan in *hot* pursuit of the two leaders!
The hot weather didn’t seem to affect Jonathan as he got an explosive start, even beating the marshal who should have been positioned at the first corner! Jonathan sped off in the wrong direction until team mate Adam bellowed out to him which way to run. The mishap at the start didn’t seem to affect him too much as he sped off again hunting for those front-runners.
Luckily for us, there were areas of shade on the course – which most of us tried to run in. Worryingly, some sections of the course were missing a few vital marshals at the junctions; however, we all made it back to the finish safe, having had great morning’s running.
After the run, during our warm-down, some of us helped clear the empty water bottles left on the course.
Martin & Wilton on their way to PBs
Several ESM members cleaned up nicely on the results as well. Jonathan Horan was third overall, Mark Kencroft was first M50, Wilton Grey was first M60 and Lynn Wilson was first W60.
Martin Daoud, Wilton Grey and Kylie Goodman all ran PBs.
Thanks to Caroline Plummer for taking these great shots. There are more on the Facebook page.
ESM results summary:
Men: 3 Jonathan Horan 29:52; 8 Mark Kencroft (M50) 30:48; 13 Stephen Plummer (M50) 32:23; 15 Adam Goodman 32:41 13; 16 Martin Daoud (M50) 33:44; 19 Wilton Grey (M60) 35:41
Women: 7 Lynn Wilson (W60) 40:46; 8 Kylie Goodman 42:39; 18 Claire King (W40) 47:38
Full results on runbritain