Roding Valley Half Marathon 2016
The pavements of Woodford, Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill were again filled with runners on Saturday morning as the club hosted its annual Roding Valley Half Marathon. This year 571 runners completed the 13.1 mile course which involved a small loop of around 2 miles plus 2 loops of 5.5 miles. Undulating up and down the sides of the Roding Valley, with cold winds, it was no challenge for the faint-hearted. Organiser David Hollingworth had found a huge number of volunteers to ensure that road crossings were safe, numbers distributed, bags stored, finishing medals issued, etc.
At the 8 mile mark, Thomas Grimes of East London Runners was leading David Jones of Victoria Park Harriers. Jones, who only came into the sport via the ParkRun initiative in 2012, is very much an improving athlete and on the second large loop he took command to run away and win by 35 seconds, clocking 74 minutes 35 seconds for a new personal best. The more experienced Grimes also set a PB of 75:09.
The winner of the women’s race was never in doubt after Dani Nimmock, of City of Norwich AC (above), built a lead of more than 5 minutes over second-placer Jennifer Ansell of East London Runners. Nimmock’s time was 82:17 – she ran faster over the distance in 2011 but it is 4 minutes quicker than she ran here in 2015 and bodes well for her upcoming London Marathon. Ansell is relatively new to the sport and for her it was a successful half-marathon debut.
In 8th place overall was Woodford Green’s Dave Cox, now 63 years old. His time of 81:19 puts him second on the UK M60 half-marathon ranking.
East London Runners won the team prize, sponsored by local accountancy company Haslers.
David Hollingworth and the club committee would like to thank all those who volunteered their services - it is an important fund-raising activity for the club.