Race Recap Amazing effort from all Chasers who represented at the Fast Friday race in Walthamstow last week. It was a hot evening and running laps around the track must have been super difficult. Well done to the Chasers who ran for their club at Summer League at Headstone Manor last Sunday. Some great times on the five miler followed by an exciting set of relays. More on that later. We are currently in 6th places but the top 4 is not out of reach particularly if we can rack up some points in the next couple of fixtures. Lastly, well done to Nicky Payne who ran a million miles at Endure 24 in Reading last weekend where her team finished 1st in their category. We will ignore the fact that she ran for a different club. Summer League – Perivale The next summer league is at Perivale on 3rd of July. Please click here to sign up for the coach. Volunteers are needed for our home fixture at Regent’s Park on 31st of July. Please click here for more information. Athletics Fixture 3 Lee Valley Athletics returns to Lee Valley on 16th of July. The deadline for sign ups is on Thursday the 14th. Headstone Manor Sunday League An overly long race report, by Charlie Fraser It was an early start for my first Sunday League race. Possibly too early on a Sunday morning. The picnic better be worth it, I thought, as I jogged along the pavement. We assembled on the road outside Talacre. I wasn’t late - unusual, but a good sign. Nick’s clipboard was reassuring, as was Eamon’s smile. John looked eager with some long socks on, holding his Achilles together. Some fellow Sunday League newbies too. A strong turnout. (But let’s work on the gender balance!) With 7:45 passing, there was some worried joking about St Neots and the coach driver sleeping through his alarm. Liam was sympathetic, seeming quite keen to return for a Sunday morning lie-in. How strong was our collective commitment to the Sunday League? Was it over before it had begun? Early morning suspense. Luckily, Nick had impressed the full might of his office as the Chasers’ Sunday League supremo on the Goldline driver. Our friend knew where he had to be and when. So he shortly pulled up, putting an end to our day dreaming. It was time to go. The coach ride was unremarkable, so I won’t comment. The usual rascals were on the back row, while up front were the more sensible ones. I was somewhere in the middle. We arrived at Headstone Manor in good time. We established the Chaser territory, and assembled our battle standards. There were clearly some gazebo games going on - Ealing Eagles arguably had the best, with their modern, geodesic design. But who needs a tent when the sun is out?! Not the Chasers. A picnic blanket, sun cream and determination are all we need. To the race. Looking at the course map, it was five miles on a spaghetti of interlaced purple, yellow and white arrows. A seeming indeterminate number of laps. The organisers appeared to think that a bigger diagram would add clarity. Did anyone know where the start was? Best advice for the day: follow the person in front of you (or not, see below). After some light touch warm ups, and sock readjustment for John, we were ready. We followed the ambling mass from the finish area to our supposed start point. Like the sun now burning up those early morning clouds, our minds cleared to focus on the task at hand. The race began. An immediate bottleneck around a tight right turn provided excitement and a quick start. John’s enthusiasm was infectious and we went off swiftly over the first mile, something I later regretted. It became clear early on that this would be an all terrain epic, across trail, tarmac and grass. But nothing was stopping us. Rendy and I soon found each other. Although we had planned for some sort of aerodynamic arrowhead formation à la Kipchoge, it was rather tricky as a pair. So we kept it cool and ran like normal people. I was soon grateful for this: the course necessitated more concentration than anticipated, with curb hopping and tight turning required throughout. The hazards became clear when a runner a metre ahead of us tumbled around a sharp left hander. Let’s focus, I thought. It was hot in the sun. I had gone off quickly, making things tough as we entered the fourth and fifth miles. I found myself looking forward to the shade offered by the avenue of trees on one section of each lap. That was also where the water station was, but my two attempts at grabbing a cup were unsuccessful. The final section of the course required particular concentration. Having done two long laps, on our third we were required to turn off back into the park about three quarters of the way around. With runners on different laps, you couldn’t just follow the runner in front of you anymore. Some didn’t catch the turn off, including Marcos. I saw him come across the wrong grassy lawn to finish the race, having run an extra kilometre. Nevertheless, it was all cheers at the end. The race finished next to the various club tents. This was perfect for immediately availing ourselves of the excellent and plentiful picnic provided by the Metros. The baking was particularly good. The early alarm that morning had been worth it :) At this point we saw some speedy performances from Alexa and Isla in the tenderfoot race. Impressive running and a sign of the bright future to come for the Chasers. It also became clear that some of the other clubs have been investing substantially in their youth academies, apparently to service future Summer League glory. It was only after scoffing a plateful of sandwiches, sausage rolls and cakes that I learnt about the relay race. Unlike Queen’s Park Harriers, rumoured to have a selection panel and qualifying times for their Summer League relay team, Nick’s selection process appeared to involve choosing anyone who said the word ‘relay’ in his vicinity. My innocent question landed me with a leg in the first men’s race. We had teams in the three men's/mixed races, which was great to see, although disappointing that we didn’t have enough for the women’s race (come on girls!). Everything went smoothly, including the baton changes. After the relays finished and we left behind the bemused youth cricketers around whose field we were running laps, it was time for some awards from the series last year. Well done to Alice, Sarah, John and Mike (??) for their prizes. By just after midday it was time to leave. Bundled back on to the coach, I enjoyed some early afternoon snoozing as we rolled back to Talacre. What a lovely Sunday outing, I thought. Good running, good cheering, good eating. Thanks Chasers! See you on 3 June in Perivale. Calendar Here's whats happening over the next few weeks other than our usual Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday runs. You can find our full calendar on the website. 16/07/2022 Athletics Fixture 3 Join - deadline 2022-07-14 03/07/2022 Summer League | Perivale confirmed To let me get a feel on numbers for a coach 17/07/2022 Summer League | Dulwich Park Confirmed 🚌 Get the Bus - deadline 2022-07-01 01/07/2022 Finsbury Park 5000s Are you in?! 08/07/2022 Ceilidh 25/06/2022 Race to the Tower 09/07/2022 Maverick Chiltern Ultra 27/06/2022 Committee meeting 28/06/2022 Beginners week 2 - Volunteering Volunteers (2 of 5 left) 05/07/2022 Beginners week 3 - Volunteering Volunteers (4 of 5 left) 09/07/2022 Hassocks to Brighton Join 23/06/2022 Track Thursday Sign Up here 19:20 Results If you want to upload a photo or your results are missing, log in to our website and update your picture and Power of 10 ID. Orion Harriers Forest 5 (Epping Forest), 04/06/2022 5MMT Fiona Russell 38:00, 34 (4, 1) [74.09%]   Gary Homewood 43:46, 54 (12) [57.41%]   Andrew Disley 43:55, 56 (6) [59.74%]   Rafaele Lamour 44:03, 57 (20, 7) [61.45%]   Eamon Byrne 44:09, 58 (13) [57.40%] Southern Athletics League Division 2 E (Battersea Park), 12/06/2022 5000 Nicola Payne 20:55.2, 2 [68.89%] Southern Athletics League Division 3 North London (Parliament Hill), 12/06/2022 100 Collette Farnol 17.29, 3 NEW PB   Christiana Akingbola 28.71, 4 NEW PB 1500 Daniel Berry 5:43.15, 13 [73.28%]   Collette Farnol 6:40.49, 8 [58.56%] 200 Mehul Kotecha 34.12, 4 3000 Andy Davies 10:39.09, 11 [68.85%] NEW PB   Nick Johnson 11:57.68, 14 [66.35%] NEW PB   Nikolas Stephan 12:03.61, 15 [62.50%]   Daniel Lewis 12:39.43, 16 [63.19%] NEW PB 400 Mehul Kotecha 74.66, 5   Daniel Berry 75.80, 7   Jennifer Moore 92.93, 5 NEW PB 5000 Rebecca Taylor 21:29.14, 7 [74.01%] NEW PB   Cloudy Carnegie 22:22.11, 8 [64.43%] NEW PB   Ciara McManus 24:34.44, 9 [61.52%] NEW PB   Alice Sullivan 24:40.79, 10 [65.22%] NEW PB 800 Lydia Thomson 2:32.87, 4 NEW PB   Katrina Kelly 2:32.97, 5 NEW PB   Stephen West 3:46.97, 11 DT2K Stephen West 18.67, 1 HJ Stephen West 1.00, 1 HT7.26K Stephen West 16.00, 5 JT800 Stephen West 22.70, 8 SP4K Ciara McManus 5.42, 3 SP7.26K Stephen West 6.63, 5 RunThrough Clapham Common 5K / 10K (Clapham), 15/06/2022 10KMT Marcos Cuevas-Nunez 44:06 (44:01), 16 (4) [67.66%]   Eleanor Childs 55:33 (54:44), 71 (11, -) [55.42%] FASTFriday 10000m (Wallthamstow), 17/06/2022 10000 Janine Makaronidis 41:28.88, 13 [72.55%] NEW PB   Lydia Thomson 42:13.21, 14 [71.12%] NEW PB Parkrun 18/06/2022 Ally Pally Stephanie Mercier 25:56, 52 (-, 1) [57.33%]   Alina Williamson 26:21, 59 [56.80%] Bois de Boulogne, FRA Juliette Westbrook 24:29, 22 [60.31%] Canons Park Alex Renton 21:58, 6 [64.19%]   Meryl Walker 39:13, 88 [46.71%] Chelmsford Central Elizabeth Aryeetey 27:14, 252 (-, 1) [68.91%] Coed Cefn-pwll-du Rebecca Howarth 28:08, 14 (-, 1) [52.49%] Finsbury Park Lauren Longhurst 20:00, 21 (1, 1) [74.17%]   Daniel Berry 21:40, 47 [73.08%]   Rahul Mohindra 22:09, 58 [58.62%]   Camilla Ray 22:47, 73 [66.93%]   Gaby Anderson 26:11, 190 [56.40%]   Rafaele Lamour 29:14, 296 [56.50%]   Nick Herbert 32:57, 392 [39.40%]   Eamon Byrne 43:42, 467 [35.96%] Highbury Fields Pete Calvert-Barr 20:17, 22 [64.75%] NEW PB   Marcos Cuevas-Nunez 20:47, 35 [70.41%]   Fiona Russell 22:54, 73 (-, 1) [74.60%]   Bruno Papadacci 25:41, 136 [51.91%]   Lizzy Muggeridge 38:51, 286 [41.61%] Hove Promenade Rendy Prakoso 19:16, 18 [67.91%]   Matt Brand 20:40, 46 [64.19%]   Liam Moroney 21:59, 82 [59.06%] Huddersfield Ben Bond 22:10, 38 [59.85%] la Ramée, FRA Ellen Smyth 27:02, 12 [54.69%] Mile End Stephen West 30:10, 167 [48.18%] Milton Keynes Daisy Wooller 25:51, 101 [57.12%] Rugby Andy Davies 20:01, 9 (1) [64.95%] Southwark Steve Satchell 30:22, 263 [208.23%] Stratford Park, Stroud Sam Blackburn 28:21, 38 [49.03%] Wanstead Flats Jennifer Moore 29:41, 130 [49.80%] Wormwood Scrubs John H Grigg 43:19, 89 (1) [59.06%] Wythenshawe Ellie Holloway 22:16, 19 (1, 1) [66.32%] The Wall (70 m) (The North), 18/06/2022 Other Andrew Disley 20:46:58 (20:46:58), 389 Links Send your stories to newsletter@chaser.me.uk. 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