Silver for Sid

A brief line here to congratulate Sidney DeLara on his MV50 silver in the Woodley 10k. The man himself has been too modest (or knackered) to mention it but Peter grassed him up!

London Marathon - Supporting VRUK members

Every year since I last ran the event in 1998 I have been supporting our members (VC&AC members prior to 2005) and arranged the meeting point for members if they were prepared to find their way through the crowds depending on their finish time and aching legs.

Like the last two years, I stayed overnight at the Thames YHA in Rotherhithe also on the route so could have waited here at about mile 9 but prefer to be at the Start and part of the build-up. Had our general banner to display at the Start 'Plant Energy, Best of Luck, Veggies / Vegans'. I also had a dual role to play in supporting the members of the VC&AC.

Although only 4 miles from the Start, it is a typical slow journey on public transport via Canary Wharf and the long walk uphill to Blackheath. The elite women's start was also at the far end but reached it with time to spare, positioning myself two hundred metres or so along the course to takes some photos. Unfortunately this year Fiona Oakes was not running due to serious illness earlier in the year and as a consequence no training. Running was out of the question, however VRUK had its highest number of entrants since our 2005 debut. Representing the VRUK were: Dave Arnold, Andi Gaywood, Stewart Boulton, Verna Burgess and running as 2nd claim members we had James Meldrum, Colin Braybrook and Frances Humphries. Verna had carried over her place from 2007 also our guaranteed club place, this year we had two due to our increased membership, allocated to Stewart & Andi.

After seeing the elite women's start I walked over to the Blue Start, passing all of the sponsor's balloons. With runners allocated a pen number, one at the front I was able to find out from some members where they would be lining up. For the first 3 or 4 pens there was mesh fencing. Before it was crowded close to the start time, I found Andi Gaywood in pen 7 hence the photos seen earlier in the blog and on the website. I also met two VC&AC members in other pens. It was here I made use of the banner and attracted a lot of attention if little in the way of comment. As the race started I stood adjacent to what was pen 1 holding the banner aloft. I saw Stewart pass by without attracting his attention but suddenly I was greeted by Verna who came right up to the fence and I quickly took a photo. Andi also saw me again. I waited until all of the runners went past before moving away and the long walk down to Greenwich. Earlier I received a text from Sharon Davidson who was already in a prime position near the finish to support our members.

Originally I had planned to see the runners in the Cutty Sark area but as it was approaching 1030 decided to take the train to Canary Wharf. As I arrived, the leading women had just passed and I saw Liz Yelling in her British vest. To cross the road I had to take a detour through the underground shopping centre as there were restrictions despite only the occasional runner passing at this stage. Saw most of the elite women pass and the leading men. Was conscious of the need to reach the finish and our meeting point for 1210 in case James Meldrum ran an extremely fast time. A heavy shower was also approaching so the timing was right to leave. Arrived early at the Finish so decided to take a walk up past the baggage lorries to the Finish Line where professional photographers were also in place taking photos of the elite women after they finished. There were also large numbers of medals on racks ready to be distributed as well as foil blankets, etc. Walked back to our meeting point where I had planned to stay for the next maybe 4 hours.

It was not long before Annette Herold turned up to give her support. Annette only lives maybe 2-3 miles away on the other side of the Thames so this is familiar territory. James turned up looking like he had only just run a short distance event but was disappointed with his performance due to cramping he believed was caused by the rain however he still lowered his PB by 10 minutes to 2.37 and 135th place. Running first claim for Liverpool Harriers he had to wear their vest otherwise would have been proud to wear the VRUK vest. Next to reach the meeting point was Dave Arnold who despite his lack of training finished in 3.09 and was still wearing the VRUK vest followed shortly by Colin Braybrook. In the last miles, Dave had in fact passed Colin if correct. With other VC&AC runners also finishing in similar times it was an opportune moment to take group photos with Annette holding the banner aloft behind.

Meanwhile text messages were coming from Sharon, informing me of the number of VRUK & VC&AC runners she had seen if not naming them.

We had to endure a heavy shower whilst we awaited the arrival of our heroes but it did not dampen our spirits.

Possibly the best performance of the day came from Verna who has been at her peak leading up to the event, setting a PB for the half marathon and here lowered her PB by something like 35 minutes to 3.47. Next to arrive was Stewart who despite a half marathon PB of 1.37 a fortnight earlier did not reproduce his best form here, finishing in 4.28. One day Stewart will easily break the 4 hours. Our final member home was Andi Gaywood arriving shortly before 4pm. Andi was quite content with his time of 5.39 about the time he had in mind. Our support had also increased with the arrival of Vanessa Hudson.

Despite having ran a marathon many of the runners including Dave, Andi, Stewart & James were still keen to visit the Chi Vegan Buffet. We slowly made our way over, signing I recall some petition on the way influenced by Dave. We stayed in the restaurant for at least two hours before moving next door to a pub and finally called it a day at 8pm.

Coventry & Warwickshire Marathon Tour and no knee problems!

Stuart Boulton manfully staggers to the keyboard and reports:
I have just competed in the Coventry & Warwickshire Marathon Tour to celebrate 100 years since the first British Marathon was ran in Coventry prior to the London Olympics in 1908.  It was FIVE race stages within a week which equalled the magic total of 26.2 miles.

The first stage was the traditional Coventry May Day 5 Mile last week, and then this bank holiday weekend, it was 4 races back-to-back everyday Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon.  I am pleased to confirm that I did quite well in every race (with Mara-tour places between 11th - 14th) and out of 61 local club runners I finished 11th overall in the league table, completing all 26.2 miles in 2 hours 57 minutes... without any knee problems!!

Saltash Half in one line:

Cris Iles-Wright says:
Very hilly road race, I came in at 1:52:51, which i was happy with - 5:02 outside my PB but it was a tough old course.

Lochaber Marathon, Sunday 27th April 2008

Hazel Robertson reports on a happy day (following a spring of colds and sinus problems):
Result 3:27:46

Position 8/110 Females, 2/23 in F 45-49 category – and I got a prize for that !!!



It was an absolutely fantastic day – beautiful sunny dry weather all day with just a slight breeze to keep cool. After a few setbacks late on during training, I had downgraded my expectations, however, felt good on the day and set off strong. Felt great at the half way and realized I could make my target if I could just keep plodding on at the same or even a slightly slower pace. It is the best of 4 marathons I have done in terms of feeling good most of the way round (who feels good after mile 22?!!). I overtook a couple of women around mile 21 and that gave me another boost – one of whom crept up on me and slipped by at mile 25. We sprinted to the finish line and I’m a bit embarrassed about how competitive I was, just beating her by 1 second in the end! Anyway great result for me, a PB, and improvement of 13 minutes from last year. I was stunned to receive a prize for being the 2nd in the Female Vets 45-49 and picked up a nice wee trophy and a bath sheet (odd prize but I guess it was what a sponsor offered!). Good advert for Vegan Runners as well.



Recommend it to anyone who does not like crowds – only around 400 people strung out along “the Road to the Isles”, running along a lochside with Ben Nevis and lots of other mountains in the background. Just fabulous. Can’t wait for next time.

Sheffield Half Marathon Apr 27th 2008

Peter Simpson reports:
Despite the early rain and damp conditions there was no wind but it was mild. The first few miles to the City Centre were along the Don Valley hence the stadium name and helped me get a good start despite the large field. There were a couple of modest climbs from there to halfway where we did a u-turn and headed back towards the City Centre. This stretch was either flat or slightly downhill which helped me pick up pace. The City Centre was rather undulating but downhill on leaving and from there it was back along the Don Valley where again I picked up the pace. Did a loop around the stadium taking us above the seating on one side before descending onto the track and the finishing straight. To my amazement I could see the clock saying 1.32.+. The gun time was about 1.32.45 but looking at the official results I was surprised to see 1.32.07, my fastest for about 7 years. Position 393 / 4537, cat 30th MV45.

Saintly 5k (Wessex Cancer Trust), Southampton, Apr 20th 2008

Sidney DeLara says:
First ever running of the Saintly 10k,(in association with the Wessex Cancer Trust) starting outside and finishing inside the Southampton football ground. Flat course (traffic free on the day). Vegan diet aiding me to yet another PB.
(Ed: not only sub-20 but the 2nd vet!).

A Posse Of PBs

The last couple of weeks have smiled on vegan runners, with Sidney DeLara dipping below 20min for 5k, Peter getting his best half time for 7 years in Sheffield, Hazel Robertson taking a prize away from the Lochaber Marathon and Emile Kuijvenhoven returning from a 10 month injury layoff to run an 800m in Spain.
Great to see people's training bearing fruit!