Race Results w/c 9th Oct

Written by: Xavier Faux

Ladies and Gents, Boys and Girls, sit back and enjoy a festival of wonderfulness. Your club mates are wonderful people and some of them even raced this weekend and many feature here!

First up is the ladies XC. Co-Captain Heather Mayer gives us the update on how it went: The Ful-on Tri women ventured into the deep, dark depths of Surrey to kick off the Surrey League Cross Country season on Saturday. Having had a rush of last minute sign ups, we showed up to Reigate with a team of just under 20, lured by the “fun” of a lung-busting run through some woods and the promise of cake at the finish line. The first team came in 10th overall out of 15 teams, with Paula Rutherfoord coming home first for the FOT ladies in sixth place overall, followed by CJ Jenkins, Sophie Tabor, Cheryl Boshi and Nicole Elliot. Scoring for the second team were Amy Ellerker, Siân Morgan, Heather Mayer, Sally Benton, and Katie Holmes. Well done to all who turned up to run: Sarah La Hausse, Angela Hughes, Ruth Mcintyre, Katrina Head, Lucy Orhnial, Sam Playfair, Caroline Crutchley and Eimear Toomey, and thanks also to Nicola Anderson for being our cheer squad!

Shortly after, the men were kick starting the season in Wimbledon Common. Mark Benton assembled a fine bunch of gentlemen and was even on time! Great baking from Tom Scott and thanks to the ladies for giving us their yummy yum yum left-overs. Having been demoted to Div 3 didn’t make the challenge any easier … the race started on a small path at the bottom of a hill. Except for the mud, everything we love about XC was there: up and downs, sharp turns, bumpy tracks but also nettles and thorns (ouch!). It was mega crowded as Div 3 and 4 race together (over 300 people!) and the intensity was sky high. New member John Borton grabbed 3rd overall (wow!) and we finished 6th team (out of 9) overall. Well done to John Borton, Alex Little (first time at XC although he has been a member for a long time), Alexie Calvert, Andrea Sala, Ben Clothier, Brian Canty, chris clarke, Cyril Deleuze, Dante Mama, Dave Bulmer, Euan Lees, Fernando Ramos, Francis Kung, Gareth Read, Haukur Heimisson, Jon Green, jon montoya, Julien Develle, Keiran Allen, Mark Benton, Mateus Pimenta, Paulo Santamaria, Pete Doubleday, Peter Moore, Pim Kalisvaart, Richard Bridger, Richard Harper, Shaun Wood, Tom Scott and Xavier Faux Pas (thanks for the joke Mark!). Next race is on 11th November in Epsom at 2pm. We really need everyone to run with their A game next race!

So the cross countriers were not the only ones to sweat away, there was the small matter of the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. It gets hot there, very very hot and also super humid. A tough exposed course … but it didn’t stop Ruth Purbrook absolutely eating it up! Exiting the water in 16th position in her AG, she then scored the fifth best ride and fifth best run in her AG to grab an incredible bronze medal in the F25-29AG. High 5s! Well done to Mr Thomas Claracq for a fantastic performance. A 3h47 marathon helped him to a sub-11 finishing time. Bien joué!

The other multi sport event of the weekend was of course the Jekyll & Hyde duathlon. Full round up here: https://fulontri.club/fot-race-reports/london-league-race-report-jekyll-hyde/

Now to running matters, it was the Cabbage Patch. The deal is simple, you win the 10 mile race, you get a cabbage. Best prize there is really!! Well done Sally Benton and Jane Dwyer (I don’t think they came home with the cabbage!). Also, well done to Michel Radermecker for doing the Amsterdam Marathon – he did it to support his mate, very good Samaritan.

Last but definitely not least: Katie Wright has just finished running the entire length of the Welsh Coastal Path. That’s 870 miles of coastal running in less than a month. The next day she set off to run Offa’s Dyke which is another 180 miles down the East coast of Wales. In a month she would’ve run all round Wales, literally. I’ll let that sink in for a minute. Visit her just giving page to donate to Bloodwise. Katie, you really represent a lot of things that are very right with the world (cheesy pun!). All the best this week!

Until next time, keep it cool x