The race gets under way (photo by Steve Rencontre)
Last Sunday saw the 20th running of the Perivale 5 mile road race, writes Race Director Phil York. Thankfully, weather conditions on the day were clear, crisp and dry – had the event been held a week later, it would have been cancelled due to the snowy conditions. Just ahead of the run, Phil was relieved to find that a parked car, which had been blocking the course for several weeks, had finally been removed.
The 2017 edition of the Perivale 5 proved very popular, with the 400 available places being snapped up by the beginning of November. A record number of 361 runners finished the race. In theory the course should now be faster, following the creation of a wide tarmac cycle route along the Ruislip Road section, between Argyle Road and Costons Lane.
Left to right: Moe Hashi, Andy Greenleaf & Chris Busaileh
It was therefore no surprise that the leading five athletes all recorded times below 26 minutes, although the course record of 24:36 was never under threat. Serpentine’s Andy Greenleaf was first home in 25:22, closely followed by ESM’s Moe Hashi and Herne Hill’s Chris Busaileh in 25:39 and 25:47 respectively. Jonathan Poole (Serpentine) and Jamie Taylor-Caldwell (ESM) were just a matter of seconds behind, illustrating the quality at the front end of this year’s race. Alison Turrell, riding the lead bike, later admitted that she had to work quite hard just to keep ahead of the leaders!
For the statistically minded amongst you, the top five finishers now feature in the top 13 of the Perivale 5 all-time ranking list, although Jamie Taylor-Caldwell equalled his previous personal best for the course.
Female winner Melissah Gibson (photo copyright of Bespoke Photos)
Local club Ealing Eagles provided the first female finisher in Melissah Gibson, who recorded 31:19, well clear of second placer Sasha Birkin of Metros RC in 31:48. Rachel Badham (West 4H, 32:00) and Leigh James (London Heathside 32:05) were third and fourth respectively, with all four now featuring in the top 40 on the all-time list.
Records are there to be broken, and it was good to have three new age-group records. ESM’s Simon Shaw not only returned a top-10 placing in the race, but also set a new M45 mark of 27:18. Sasha Birkin did likewise in the women’s W45 category.
The performance of the day came from Vale of Aylesbury’s Paul Gregory as he improved the M60 mark to 28:29, achieving an age-grading percentage of 94.78%.
Further down the field, West 4’s Jane Rowden topped the women’s age-grading figures with 87.48%. The W70 women took second and third, Liz Zass from The Stragglers scoring 84.14 against 83.41% for ESM’s Janice Newman.
Visually-impaired runner Janice Newman (W70) produces one of the best female age-graded runs of the day, guided by Mary Walsh
The event was well supported by local clubs. Ealing Eagles, using the race as their club championships, led the way with 87 finishers.
As host club, ESM provided most of the volunteers, but still managed to field an impressive 52 athletes. Fifteen of our runners set personal bests for the distance.
Steve Barrington’s Shepperton Running Group also turned out in large numbers, and were thrilled with the race medals and bright orange t-shirts awarded to all finishers.
Metros RC, London Heathside, West 4 Harriers and Watford Joggers were also well represented. Many local residents also took part, including some completing the distance for the first time.
A flock of Eagles: Greg Lawes, Andy Guy, Campbell Easton & Nils-Kristian Liborg (photo by Steve Rencontre)
ESM’s Arun Manget led home the impressive group of thirty runners completing the 2km under-15s fun run, which started and finished on the athletics track.
This year’s Perivale 5 could not have taken place without the many volunteers who helped out on the day. There were over 30 marshals, supervised by Keith Freegard, directing the runners and making sure everyone stayed safe. Malcolm French took on the job of Race Adjudicator, alongside a team of officials recruited and organised by Richard England. John Falvey and Ben Farmer produced the results in double-quick time. Nilu Dewan, Bishnu Dewan, Brigitte Job and Debbie Gorman did a superb job handing out the goodies at the finish. The Race Director was very grateful to Seema Roka Magar and her team, who managed the baggage area very efficiently. We also had Carole Densley and Mary Lynch selling those delicious cakes, plus Bob Densley performing a ‘meet and greet’ role at the entrance to the Race Village. Don’t forget Lynn and Martin Wilson, who were up early on Sunday morning to set up the course. Likewise the trio of Stephen Cliff, Gary Stringer and George Davidson, who dropped off the cones at various points on the course. As with parkrun, some club members discovered that it is possible to both volunteer and run! We welcomed back Ian Capon, who resumed the role of announcer.
Amanda Rencontre models this year’s medal & T-Shirt (photo by Steve Rencontre)
The race was sponsored by Ealing-based Prince Evans Solicitors LLP (t-shirts), Tesco – Perivale Superstore (bananas) and Up & Running East Sheen (prizes). We are very grateful to our sponsors for supporting our event.
Full results of the 5 mile race are on runbritain. Team scores, previous years’ results, the all-time rankings and the age group records, can be found on the ESM website, along with the Fun Run results.
The rest of Steve Rencontre’s album of photos is here, and thanks to him for sharing it with us.
You can also buy photos from Wayne Meek at Bespoke Photos; click here for his album.
Next year’s race will take place at 10.00am on Sunday 2nd December 2018.
ESM results summary (PBs marked *):
Men: 2 Mohamed Hashi 25:39*; 5 Jamie Taylor-Caldwell 25:56*; 6 Simon Shaw (M45) 27:18*; 9 Manish Kunwar 28:03*; 11 Santosh Rai 28:07*; 15 Peter Flewitt (M45) 28:26; 18 Nick Steel 28:36*; 19 James Hughes 28:38*; 28 Nick Di Paolo 30:30*; 29 Stephen Plummer (M55) 30:55; 32 Mark Delahunty (M40) 31:07; 33 Peter Drew (M50) 31:08*; 37 Alex Leslie 31:35; 38 James Steel (M45) 31:39; 57 Javaher Sondh 32:46*; 64 Malcolm Woolsey 33:43*; 65 Kevin Falvey 33:48*; 74 Ian Leslie (M60) 34:11; 106 Keith Freegard (M55) 35:49; 109 Wilton Grey (M60) 35:58; 119 Andy Leung (M45) 36:19; 130 Martin Daoud (M55) 37:15; 133 Darren Halford (M40) 37:21; 154 Simon Turrell (M45) 38:19*; 160 Steve Curd (M40) 38:33; 165 Stephen Cliff (M40) 39:02; 168 Tony Hursey (M50) 39:18; 174 Iskandar Mohammedi (M40) 39:31; 191 Martin Wilson (M65) 40:55; 199 Davinder Sohal (M55) 41:21; 211 Gary Stringer (M55) 42:36; 219 Olov Hansen (M60) 42:59; 322 Laurence Messer (M65) 50:36
Women: 51 Sarah Richardson (W35) 32:24; 126 Leanne Smith 36:48; 151 Carol Jones (W60) 38:02; 157 Patricia Thomas (W50) 38:23; 181 Jane Ruhland (W50) 40:13; 186 Louise Prince (W45) 40:36; 197 Stacey Mcmanus (W40) 41:18; 206 Liz Mann (W50) 42:10; 228 Sarah Holroyd (W55) 43:29; 229 Katie Di Paolo 43:30; 239 Catherine Gunnewicht (W45) 44:10; 251 Danielle Mercey (W55) 44:47; 264 Jennifer Jones (W50) 45:47*; 265 Janice Newman (W70) 45:54; 287 Pringla Awale Rai 48:09; 289 Sughra Mohammedi 48:13*; 291 Tracey Cliff (W45) 48:26; 294 Annick Hooge (W60) 48:45; 315 Claire King (W35) 50:12