Olympic Effort by the Stags at the VeloPark in the Chingford League

Wednesday evening saw the Stags put in a great performance at the Lee Valley VeloPark. It’s a terrific course in the shadow of the Olympic Velodrome which we enjoyed wandering around prior to the race. The 5K cycle track itself is a great one to run; never flat but gently undulating rather than hilly, well-lit and quick! Men and women ran separately and there were three laps with lots of cheering and encouragement from spectators (particularly Stags) which made for a fantastic trackside atmosphere. It’s not an easy location to reach midweek and all credit to those who made the effort on a cold night, particularly Matt Clark who landed at Stansted Airport at 3AM in the morning and still raced; typical of the commitment the Stags have been showing in the Chingford League all season.

On the night 31 Stags competed and Ed Fraser, once again, led our men home and finished a magnificent 8th overall in a time of 16.41. Will Morris says he’s improving with every race and he proved it on the night as our 2nd finisher while Richard McCormick for the 4th race in a row was the 1st M60 finisher and our 3rd finisher in a magnificent time of 18.19. Brilliant! Once again Alex Shuker won the prize for the longest warm up, having run from Old Street, and he had a great race too although I’m not sure I would recommend this approach to others. Will Cooper secured a new PB (sub 20!) and he did that with his shoelaces undone so imagine what he could achieve with them tied! Scott Fraser continued his run of good form and demonstrated he is more than just a chauffeur although a very good one.

In the women’s race Kath March led our team home with another great run, very closely followed by Karen Murphy. Kathryn Ellis was our 3rd finisher demonstrating once again how much she likes racing on tarmac over 5K, while in spite of her trademark over-exuberant start Agnes Jacobs had a great race too.

There were the usual happy faces after the race but the happiest were probably Anneli Sydenham (a sub 32 PB) and Steve Holmes recovering his mojo (sub 30) after a period of illness. Superb!

Given its location on a midweek evening this was a difficult fixture for us but we can be very pleased with the turnout and the performances. Well done everyone!