Perivale 5 – Perivale Park – Sun 02 Dec 2018

Some of the prize winners on the start line: female winner Jill Collett (62), overall winner Jonathan Poole (307), runner up Chris Busaileh (42), third-placed Andy Greenleaf (142) & Xavier Gruot (149) final scorer for the winning Serpentine men’s team. Mohamed Ali (458) ran the second fastest time ever by an U17 GB qualified athlete (photo by Bruce Li)

This year’s Perivale 5 once again proved to be a popular event, with online entries reaching the 400 limit by the beginning of November, writes Race Director Phil York. He was delighted to welcome back a large group of runners from Ware Joggers, who used the race as their club’s five mile road championship. For the same reason, local club Ealing Eagles also turned out in force. Their members often comment on how much they enjoy the fast, flat two lap course. In addition, it was very kind of the Eagles to provide so many volunteers on the day, helping the event to run smoothly. Many thanks to all the volunteers, particularly those who were involved in traffic management out on the course.

A group of Ware Joggers examine their t-shirts post-race (photo by Bruce Li)

There were 355 finishers, all of whom were delighted to receive the much sought-after Perivale 5 race t-shirt, which displayed the logo of sponsors Prince Evans Solicitors LLP printed on an ‘electric green’ coloured technical fabric. Nice and bright to wear while training on those dark winter nights. ESM member Tracey Cliff designed the race medal, which captured the concept of completing the five mile distance on an all-weather athletics track.

Precisely 50% of the field comprised competitors from the host club ESM, Ealing Eagles and Ware Joggers. Metros RC, Jetstream Tri, Metropolitan Police, Shepperton Running Group and West 4 Harriers were also well represented.

The morning of the race was rather damp and overcast, with a little drizzle at times. Not bad for racing in fact. In the lead up to the event there was much talk of an attack on the male/female course records, which stand at 24:36 and 27:16 respectively. A cash bounty of £150 was on offer to anyone who could revise these times. However, as the leading group approached the halfway point, the records looked to be safe. Serpentine’s Jonathan Poole, last year’s fourth placer, led for most of the race and moved up to second on the Perivale 5 all-time men’s list as he won in an impressive 24:58. Behind him Herne Hill Harrier Christopher Busaileh improved on last year’s third place with a 25:23 clocking, with the 2017 winner Andrew Greenleaf (Serpentine) snapping at his heels in 25:28. It was no surprise that Serpentine took the men’s team prize as their third scorer, Xavier Gruot, came home in 6^th place. Fourth place went to Alex Dunbar (City of Norwich AC) who works for Up and Running, another of our race sponsors.

Hannah Copeland, part of the winning women’s team, accepts the prizes on behalf of Ealing Eagles clubmates Fiona Plain & Yvonne Linney (photo by Bruce Li)

First lady was the Datchet Dasher Jill Collett in 29:22, a time which ranks her fifth on the Perivale 5 all-time ladies’ list but well short of the course record. Woking’s Jaydee Peters and Leigh James of London Heathside filled the next two places. The Ealing Eagles trio of Fiona Plain, Hannah Copeland and Yvonne Linney comfortably took the women’s team prize.

ESM fielded a total of 54 runners, even more than the club normally get turning out for cross country races. First home was U15 National cross country champion Mohamed Ali in his first ever five miler. His 26:44 clocking was a Perivale 5 age group record and the second fastest time by an U17 GB qualified athlete. Mohamed Hashi was nearly a minute behind, but his performance was remarkable given that he had suffered a leg injury while negotiating the water splash in the previous day’s Met League cross country race at Uxbridge. Perivale 5 regular Jamie Taylor-Caldwell and 800m track specialist Ben Waterman also featured in the top ten. Ian Leslie would usually expect to be a challenger in the M60 age category, but found himself up against Woking’s Bob Bradbury, who set a new M65 age group record of 30:43 and the best age graded performance (90.30%) of the day. Sarah Harris was the first lady home for the club, winning a prize in the W35-44 age category.

This year’s race saw a total of seven new Perivale 5 age group records. In addition to those mentioned above, the other new marks were as follows:

No wonder Ware Joggers made this race a club championship event! Hopefully they will return next year, when the race will take place on Sunday 1^st December 2019.

Andy Price, Catherine Gunnewicht, Andy Leung and Pardip Singh Minhas were reliable pacemakers and could well get the job next year. The same could be said of Alison Turrell, who was very professional in the lead bike role.

The usual 2km fun run followed the main race, and attracted 26 entrants. Finn Combe of ESM was the first finisher, in a time of 7:41 with Martha-Rose Blackman leading home the girls. It was a new course, starting and finishing on the track, but with the remainder of the circuit being within Perivale Park. Safer and more scenic than the surrounding streets, the route incorporated the brand new path alongside the golf course. Our event coincided with a tree planting session, and those involved were able to cheer on the runners. Hopefully by next year the trees will have matured somewhat, making the fun run course even more pleasant.

Huge thanks to Bruce Li for taking photos of the event. Click here for his full album.

ESM results summary:

Men: 5 Mohamed Ali (U17) 25:54; 7 Mohamed Hashi 26:44; 8 Jamie Taylor-Caldwell 26:51; 9 Ben Waterman 27:23; 11 Jonathan Horan 28:04; 17 Santosh Rai 29:27; 27 Sam Ashcroft 30:30; 35 Akira Anzai-Jackson 30:57; 37 Rob Brown (M50) 31:06; 41 Alex Leslie 31:58; 44 Adam Goodman 32:06; 46 Stephen Plummer (M55) 32:21; 47 James Steel (M40) 32:23; 49 Peter Drew (M50) 32:27; 65 Sean Hanrahan 33:14; 66 David Goodenough (M55) 33:14; 67 Malcolm Woolsey 33:33; 75 Ian Leslie (M60) 34:19; 80 Michael Charles (M45) 34:41; 83 Javaher Sondh 34:54; 85 Andy Price (M40) 35:00; 100 Ricky Grimes (M55) 36:22; 101 Keith Freegard (M55) 36:25; 106 Wilton Grey (M60) 36:36; 118 Darren Halford (M45) 37:27; 122 Tony Hursey (M50) 37:50; 142 Larie Hector (M45) 39:20; 146 Andy Leung (M45) 39:32; 161 Mark Fuller (M50) 40:44; 178 Martin Wilson (M65) 42:10; 193 Karl King (M45) 43:04; 194 Gary Stringer (M55) 43:06; 205 Olov Hansen (M60) 43:43; 209 Davinder Sohal (M55) 43:49; 240 Philip Prince (M60) 46:24; 242 Stephen Cliff (M45) 46:32; 297 Philip Sindall (M60) 50:52; 310 Laurence Messer (M65) 53:11

Women (positions within women’s field): 6 Sarah Harris (W40) 34:16; 13 Angel Grimes McTavish (U20) 35:50; 26 Patricia Thomas (W50) 39:42; 27 Kylie Goodman 40:17; 43 Barbro Julin (W55) 42:39; 51 Sarah Holroyd (W55) 43:47; 52 Louise Prince (W45) 43:57; 54 Jennifer Jones (W50) 44:32; 55 Annette Galloway (W50) 44:32; 65 Stacey McManus (W40) 45:41; 69 Lindsay Donoghue (W45) 46:16; 71 Tracey Cliff (W45) 46:32; 94 Catherine Gunnewicht (W50) 49:12; 100 Danielle Mercey (W55) 49:35; 142 Bridgette Job (W55) 60:47; 147 Savitha Maggi (W45) 67:44

Full results on runbritain.