Our Perivale 5 road race, Ealing’s longest established, was a sell-out for the second year running, with 400 runners signing up in advance.
In cool conditions with light intermittent rain, Mo Hashi took an early lead, with a blistering but unsustainable 4:40 opening mile. Jamie Taylor-Caldwell then took up the running, tracked by Samir Haddad, and this proved to be the final result, Jamie winning in 26:15 with a comfortable margin over Samir (27:29).
Mo hung onto third for a while, so there were hopes of an ESM 1-2-3 in the early stages. However, he was eventually overhauled by a trio of runners, Perivale 5 regular Matt Woodman of Stafford Harriers claiming the third place not far behind Samir (27:35).
It was a tight finish for the top veteran time, Ben Martin-Dye of Bracknell Forest Runners – another of our regulars – placing fifth overall in 27:53, just a second ahead of Steve Norris of Thames Valley Harriers. Steve had the consolation of a PB though.
Similarly, Gavin Evans of London Heathside was pipped by just one second to the first M50 spot by Laurence Duffy (29:32) of the Stragglers. Right behind them, Bob Bradbury of Woking ran a notably quick time for the M60 category (29:34), placing 22nd overall and winning a prize for the best age-graded performance of the day. A total of 29 men broke the 30 minute barrier – including for the first time, Lee Davis of Prince Evans Solicitors, our main sponsor.
The close finishes continued in the women’s race, which Jean King captured in a great series of photos. Leigh James of London Heathside, winner on two previous occasions, was first to emerge onto the athletics track for the final 350m, followed by veteran Victoria Carter of Thames Valley Harriers and Cathy Jeremiah of London Heathside. The gaps narrowed as the line approached, and Leigh (31:13) only just held off a fast-finishing Cathy (31:14), with Victoria just three seconds adrift.
Our own Sarah Richardson was fourth female, taking the veteran award (32:04) with a PB. In ninth place, Bridgit Napleton was the first over 45 (34:35), also securing women’s team honours for London Heathside. Christine Meek of ESM/Ealing Triathletes took honours in the W55 class. The very sprightly-looking 72 year old Jackie Stallwood of Datchet Dashers also ran a very creditable 45:00, leaving a quarter of the field in her wake.
We know the race always attracts a diverse range of participants: well over a third of entrants were Ealing residents, but many others travelled from across London and the Home Counties to take part. The biggest club entry – 39 runners – was from Ware Joggers in Hertfordshire. (In case anyone isn’t aware of the connection, Julia Gristwood is a first-claim ESM member and second-claim Ware Joggers, and she kindly suggested our race for their 5-mile championship).
There was good support from the local running scene too: 35 Ealing Eagles, 31 from ESM and 10 from Ealing Triathletes. A lot of the Ealing Triathletes are Associate ESM members, so it’s hard to know which camp to put them in. James Hughes entered as an Ealing Triathlete but ran in his ESM vest… Christine Meek entered as ESM but ran in her Ealing Triathlete vest. I think we can be forgiven for feeling confused!
So how did ESM members do? Well, believe it or not, ten were running their first 5-miler: Samir Haddad, Mo Hashi, James Hughes, Florjan Bakalli, Darren Halford, Clive Richardson, Matt Samuel, Gary Collings, Stephen Cliff and Colin Kirk. Another nine ran a PB: Jamie T-C, Pete Flewitt, Gary Cummins, Santosh Rai, Sarah Richardson, Grazina Narviliene, Keith Freegard, Bev Packwood and Alison Grist. Alison did the biggest PB: nearly two minutes quicker than her last effort in 2010. Nearest miss was James Steel, who was just two seconds shy of last year’s PB. The most consistent runner must be Sarah Percival: she’s run the race for the past three years and her times have only varied by eight seconds – between 34:51 and 34:59.
There were also a good many first-timers from the recently-established Northala Fields parkrun. If you haven’t been up there to join us yet, you’re warmly invited – we’re there every Saturday morning at 9am and even on Christmas morning this year: parkrun.org.uk/northalafields.
The fastest male in the Borough unattached to a club was Tony Truepenny-Phillipson in 29:00 – though let’s be honest, it’s probably fairer to say he’s “between clubs” at the moment. The fastest unattached local female was Liz Mann in 39:51.
The 5 mile race was followed by a 2km Fun Run for Under 15s, participants ranging from 6 to 13 years of age. Winner by a comfortable margin was 13 year old Naoki Kanai of ESM. 10 year old Christopher Hudson of Metros took second, closely followed by Dylan Foster of ESM, also 10. The first girl to cross the line was 13 year old Sarah Freegard of ESM, followed by 12 year olds Lani Charles and Amelia Sturt. It may have been a Fun Run, but there was some fierce competition, as captured by Jean’s camera. Rhianna Foster of ESM just held off Susannah Sturt in a final sprint, while it was eyeballs out all the way for Archie Cunningham as he edged past Saoirse Donoghue at the finish.
Congratulations are due to Laurence Messer for his tireless work as Race Director, and thanks to our main sponsors Prince Evans for the T-Shirts, and to the legions of helpers who made the event possible. A feedback survey will be emailed out to all finishers in the next day or so, and please do respond, as it really does help us in planning for the future.
You can find the full 5-mile results and the Fun Run results below, or you can look up the 5 mile results on Power of 10.
There’s also an updated version of the All-Time Ranking (sub-30 men, sub-35 women and age group records). We had a few new age group records this year, so check it out…
Perivale 5 all-time ranking (sub-30 men)