A brilliant intra-club competition saw fierce rivalries and some of the fastest laps of Battersea Park ever run.

One of the main staples of a Belgrave winter season is the coveted XC Plate. A record of points earned by each Bel and Belle across the Surrey League fixtures, championships and relays, it celebrates not just those who win the one race, but those who put themselves through the wringer for their team time and time again. Without a proper racing season, there was no way to have a plate for the 2020-2021 season… or was there?

The Winter Plate is not a perfect substitute but it was a good way for the club to keep up morale and motivation during the tough winter months of cold, dark, lockdown. We did have some races, so why not use those the same way we would have done for the XC plate? Starting with the 5k road race in Wimbledon in mid October, we then had Arnegeddon in Morden Park, followed by Arnekiden in January. We needed one more the tie this whole thing up: HurricArne was born.

The concept was simple - one lap of Battersea Park. That’s it. That loop has been not only a sanctuary for runners across London during this pandemic, it is our home turf. It was time to remind the London running scene that Battersea Park is claret and gold. Coach Matt and TM Arne Dumez walked a full lap with a trundle wheel in December when the tracks closed again and found that a full lap is 2.81km. So, those who were in London would head out and complete one lap without having to worry about whether or not the GPS distance lines up exactly; something physical to aim for. We are painfully aware that the GPS tends to go berserk in there and that everyone gets a different result, so as long as the activity map showed a full lap without cut corners, the run was valid. Unfortunately, those who were out of London would have to head out on a road segment and run 2.81km (or 1.75Mi) according to the standard virtual racing rules.

We had a great turnout, including newcomers, debutants and even some Belgrave juniors (marked by a J) which is so good to see, especially in such a rough year. Here is how everyone got on.

TEAM A a.k.a. The Moriarty Mob - 47:09

Kieran Moriarty, Jess Saunders, Laura Goodson, Ben Ireland, Will Stockley

Belgrave debutant Kieran Moriarty was one of the first to kick off proceedings in the early hours of Monday morning. Already he gets extra points for enthusiasm. He also gets extra points for having a brilliant name and his stellar performance in the hit BBC show Sherlock. Although he typically trains for the longer stuff like half-marathons, Kieran was delighted to have a hit out over a shorter distance, although judging by Strava caption I’m not sure he’ll be doing it again any time soon… He is now cracking on with his marathon training for London Marathon.

Laura Goodson is also a newcomer to the club, put forward by our loyal scout, Will Cockerell a.k.a. The Cockerpillar. She went around the park with Cockerpillar Jr, chased by the Sr himself and managed to get the exact same time as the young buck - 10:21. Laura used to run middle-distance several years ago and is keen to get stuck in once again. She will be a more-than-useful addition to our women’s squad running times like this in March!

Will Stockley joins Nick Goolab on Team Manbun

Jess Saunders was part of the winning squad in the Arnekiden and was clearly coming into some fantastic form. That riotous Tuesday night saw her run a 10:00 lap, just as satisfying as it is soul-crushing. She reckoned there was more time to be had there without a silly fast opening 600m, so she decided to go again on the Friday evening. Her reckoning was right - and let this be a lesson in the importance of proper pacing for all you runners out there - a more conservative first km resulted in relatively fresh legs in the final stretch. Miss Saunders found another 15s and filed a 9:45, straight to pole position.

Ben Ireland had been struggling with injury and consistency for the past few months and was just looking forward to getting back to some form in the early months of the year. He decided to recreate the iconic Battersea lap in Bushy Park and must have gotten a tad too excited judging by his pace off the line… Nevertheless, 9:16 for 2.81km is pretty damn good going and a clear sign of a ‘comeback’ on the horizon. Keep an eye on this one, more to come.

St Mary’s missile Will Stockley left his run quite late and integrated it into his Saturday morning Richmond Park session with the boys in blue and white. A “hard tempo” effort in 8:12 catapulted him right to the top of the charts, right behind St Mary’s alumnus and teammate Euan Campbell. A great sign of recovery from injury from the young buck. You may recall he was a bit of a star in our Surrey XC League season when he dominated our roster in the Lloyd Park final.

Team B a.k.a. The Battersea Lapdogs - 46:46

Will Cockerell, Orna McGinley, Ben Hurley, Jonathan Scott, Konstantinos Touse

The two Cockerells - if you look closely, you can just about tell which is the elder.

Will Cockerell, the eternal, the relentless, the pesky, wouldn’t have missed this event for the world. This is what he is made for - numbers, stats, predictions, handicaps, leaderboards - and there is no way we would have done this without him. He planned his leg in a handicap with his son Seb and newcomer Laura on the Tuesday evening, but decided he could do better and planned a second attempt on Saturday morning. When that a good 7s faster, he still wouldn’t submit the run… What if he needed to go back out there and go sub 10 to get the win? So he waited until Sunday when he knew there was a gold medal up for grabs if he could run 9:58 - his third effort in 6 days wouldn’t quite fast enough but still incredibly valiant. The Cockerpillar would have to settle for team silver and a 10:01 PB.

Orna McGinley, recovering from the ravages of Covid-19, was delighted with her 9:53 clocking from the Tuesday evening. Winter miles and racing nous were the secret ingredient, we think. While that time put her atop the individual women’s leaderboard, a savage challenge by Jess Saunders on the Friday evening forced the Irishwoman to try again on the Saturday morning - surely she could find another 9s there? A 9:50 result would be her final say in this competition. Not quite enough to reclaim the top spot of the podium, but more than enough for a bronze medal.

Always reliable, always strong and always pleasant is Ben Hurley. A veteran and a true sportman, he cherished the opportunity to show off his stuff against the young whippersnappers. It’s a shame he had to do it alone, as he probably would have benefitted from running with the four runners who ran 9:08 and 9:09. However, a solo effort of 9:21 is bloody good going for this lapdog.

Second claimer Jonathan Scott was one of the few who had to recreate a Battersea lap outside of London. He hit up his local fast road loop and smashed out an 8:40 without warning. Just KABLAM! We look forward to seeing more from Jonnyboy in a ‘real’ race, because I think we all know he would be a hugely eliable asset to any road squad.

Last to go was Konstantinos Touse who had been uncharacteristically quiet and coy all week long… was he hiding something up his sleeve? By the time he came to head out for his leg on Saturday afternoon, the team competition was far enough along to give him a precise target. For the Lapdogs to win this one, he would need to run no slower than 8:43. Was that on the table? Not quite, but his 8:54 was enough to rob The Haemogoblins of their hard-fought silver medal. It was also close enough to the target to motivate Captain Cockerell to head out for a third attempt, but after two hard efforts that week, would he have enough to make up for those 11s..?

TEAM C a.k.a. Seb, Mich and the Three Samsketeers - 47:00

Seb Cockerell (J), Sammi Amend, Sam Gebreselassie, Michelle Pearson, Sam Village

Seb Cockerell headed out with his padre on the Tuesday evening and ran his lap with Laura - stride for stride, apparently. The idea was that they would try and keep the elder Cockerell off their heels the whole way round. Not sharing his father’s persistence and obstinate number crunching, the promising young lad filed his 10:21 clocking. And just like that, there was just Mich and the Three Samsketeers to go.

Sammi Amend was next to file her run. Having had a bit of trouble with the imperial to metric conversion during Arnekiden, she made sure she hit a bit over the distance this time. With a busy schedule of ultra racing in the calendar for this year (fingers crossed), Sammi used HurricArne as an excuse to break up a ‘mammoth’ training block with something fast. Averaging 3:41.9/km she covered 2.88km in 10:40 which means she crossed the 2.81km mark in 10:24.

Sam Gebreselassie, our quite unbelievably talented ‘beginner’, caught wind that Arne was going to bike pace Nick Goolab around the park for a “quick lap” in Goolab terms. He wanted to tag along and see how long he could “keep Nick in his sights”, knowing full the former British record holder was planning on heading out at 2:30/km pace… You can only admire his courage. As expected, he fell off the Goolab wagon at around 800m and went through his first km in 2:40. What came after was much slower… Nevertheless, a 8:17 was enough to put him on leaderboard until the weekend. Imagine what he could have run if he’d run his own race?! Terrifying.

Michelle and Reece - the two Aussies who have dominated our individual results since they arrived in the country

Speaking of scarily fast running, Michelle Pearson waited long enough to stamp her dominance on this one. Early riser that she is, she headed down to the park with hubby Reece for a 7am start on Saturday. She had big plans. Having Jess’ 9:45 to shoot for, she charged on and overdid it slightly. Nobody else was going to get close to that 8:54 lap (yes, that’s 3:09.9/km pace). Yikes! If you listen carefully you can hear Herne Hill, Thames Hare & Hounds and the Clapham Chasers shiver in their boots.

Finally, Sam Village left it until the early hours of the Sunday morning to get his run done, but by golly he got it done. Speaking to Arne the day before, he admitted he would be pleased with a sub 10 time as he really wasn’t sure what sort of form he was in. Later that day, he did admit to having “some pop in the legs”. It was on the middle road of Bushy Park that he put down a 9:04 run, beating all expectations. Without knowing it, he had just put his squad at exactly the same total as The Haemogoblins. What are the odds?! Great run, Sam!

TEAM D a.k.a. The Haemogoblins - 47:00

Arne Dumez, Christian Smith, Daniella Maggs, James Morris, Alex Janiaud

First of the Goblins was TM Arne Dumez who hit the park with coach Matt (who incidentally is also his housemate). His 16km leg for the Arnekiden competition was clear sign that his focus on endurance over the winter had paid off, but how would he fare over ‘not even 3km’? He didn’t need to worry, his 8:21 clocking put him 3rd on the leaderboard at the end of day 2 - but that would not be long lived…

Canterbury-based nutritionist Christian Smith ran 15:12 for 5km at the end of 2020 and then got tendonitis in his quad. He has been a staple of our virtual races and there was no way he was going to miss out on HurricArne, even though he was only just getting back to some fitness. After some discrepancy between the numbers (Strava said 8:42 for 1.72Mi, Garmin app said 8:38 for 1.71Mi but Garmin watch said 8:51 for 2.83km) we decided to go to VARne for a final decision - the elders settled on 8:45. A nice dip of the toe after some weeks away, but keep your eyes on this one. He’s going to be very fast come 'real’ racing time.

Daniella Maggs joined the club convinced she was “sh*t at the short stuff”. Her 10:18 clocking means she can no longer say that with any pretense of a straight face. She set off with teammate James Morris chasing 3:45 km splits, but when the first one was clocked in 3:41 they both knew they were on for something quick. James pushed on with 1km to go, and Daniella did her very best to stick on his heels which meant that the pair were absolutely flying over the final stretch of the course. James crossed the line in 10:10, only 8s ahead of his teammate. James has also always preferred the longer distances (specifically marathons, nine or ten of them per year, actually) over the short stuff and suffered a lack of confidence in his intensity. It’s fair to say that is no longer warranted.

Last was Alex Janiaud who saved his legs for a Friday lunchtime effort. This young man made his debut in claret and gold at the 2020 Surrey League Final, just a month before the first lockdown. He hadn’t raced a few years before then and, well, it didn’t get any easier to get back to the sport after that. But he is back now! Having returned to some training over the past few months, Alex took the park with a clear goal of hitting 3:20/km pace. With a clocking of 9:26 he was only 1s off that! Just far off enough to keep him hungry for more.

Team E a.k.a. Andrew Cumine or Are We Dancers? - 49:48

Alex Mills, Drew Laidlaw Hoare, Ben MacCronan, Palmer Newson, Andrew Cumine

What is it about 9:09? Is there some link to the Beates’ “One After 909”? Why did no less than three of our runners hit that time? We will never know, but we do know that Alex Mills was one of them. Having had a fantastic breakthrough summer season across pretty much all distances, he just didn’t quite have the legs to stay with 2:48 marathoner Dylan over the final strides of the course on this occasion. Not to worry, Alex is a beautifully consistent performer and next time he’s staring at the back of a Herne Hill vest within one km to go he won’t let history repeat itself.

Drew Laidlaw Hoare is another one of our runners who found himself on the wrong side of the Covid pandemic and had to take several weeks off with the virus in his lungs. His recovery is going well, though, we are glad to say! A 10:07 lap might not be the sort of pace he had in mind, but it’s a promising sign of much more to come soon. Keep at it, Drew!

What can we say about Aussie legend Ben MacCronan? We’ve covered his ridiculous weekly mileage average, we’ve covered his chicken nuggets and vegemite, and we’ve already adopted his adorable Australian-isms. Oh yes, he’s also very fast when you ask him to be! He was on a bike crit circuit (by the way, did you know Australians cyclists actually get out of your way instead of shouting abuse at you?! What a strange country) and rolled out those smooth sub 3:00 kms. Arne woke up to a video and a little report to accompany the 8:25 result.

Junior Palmer Newson has appeared in our match reports before but this time she thought she would spice things up by taking the seniors head-on. Unfortunately, she reported to the TM saying she had been suffering from shin splints. That didn’t stop her, though, and she decided to run her leg anyways despite the pain. The 12:47 she put on the scoreboard is not a reflection of her true ability, but once she’s fully healthy again she’ll be a force to be reckoned with. We’re so glad to see promising young talents like Palmer come through in our senior events. Who knows what she’ll be running in 10 years time?! In the meantime, take care of those shin splints, okay? The team needs you in one piece.

Marathoner Andrew Cumine ran a 9:20 on Thursday evening in a pitch black Dulwich Park but was hoping to run faster on the weekend. However, doubting he would manage anything quicker, he submitted his result to Arne on the Saturday evening. Andrew has been such a staple in our XC squad and recently improved his HM best to sub 71. Once there is something big to train for, he’ll be ready to rock n’ roll. London Marathon 2022, mayhaps?

Team F a.k.a. The Corona Karen Unappreciation Society - 47:29

Matt Welsh, Dylan Mitchard, Tommy Taylor, Emily Barrett, Natalie Beadle (DNS)

Coach Matt Welsh was first up from the ‘dawgs. He ran a massive 8:46 for 3000m at the Lockdown Burnup in August but had since then properly immersed himself in winter training, so the state of his fast twitch was a bit of a question mark. Led out by his housemate Arne over the first km, he took over the reins just before the mile mark and made a run for home with 1km to go. A decisive finishing kick finally got rid of the pesky Belgian and saw Matt click his watch at 8:19, our second fastest run after day 2. If he can do this in March, there’s a very good chance that 8:46 PB will need to be revisited in the summer.

Dylan Mitchard was tied to the hip of Alex Mills the whole way around the park. They set off fast, they ran fast through the middle, and they finished fast. Full of confidence after his huge marathon PB at the start of December and his strong Arnekiden leg in January, Dylan found a little something to pip Alex on the line and beat him by just one second - 9:08 for the gentleman in the arm warmers.

One of the most impressive runs of the competition came from Tommy Taylor who only made his debut for us at the Wimbledon 5k road relays in October. He also ran well at the Arnegeddon XC relays in Morden Park, but it would be fair to say nobody was expecting a 8:28 Battersea Park lap from him; that’s an average of 3:00/km! A fantastic breakthrough for the young man and another sign that our men’s squad is looking stronger and deeper than it has been for a very long time. Give us a road relays or something, please!!!

Emily Barrett placed third woman in the Arnekiden competition wit her 32:22 for 8.05km (long story) so she was definitely one to watch for the podium here. However, the ladies really let all hell break loose on this occasion and Emily’s 10:30 just couldn’t quite cut through the other results for that coveted podium place. Still, that’s a great time and she was delighted to once again be part of a club ‘event’ with a great atmosphere. More of that to come, Emily. Just a bit longer.

Poor Natalie Beadle was forced to pull out of the competition due to a persistent niggle in her hip, a real shame after her fantastic display of fitness over 10km in the Arnekiden competition six weeks ago. Instead of DNFing the Lapdawgs altogether, Arne decided to allocate her a time of 11:04 and, yes, he will show you his work. Her most recent performance of 41:59 over 10km is equivalent to a 11:44 3km. Which means that, at that pace, she would have covered the 2.81km lap in 10:59. Add a 5s penalty for the DNS, and you’ve got 11:04. See? Maths.

Team G a.k.a. You Gotta Fight For Your Rijks McCarthy - 48:44

Jim Rijks, Michael McCarthy, Pierpaolo Necchi, Sarah Chadwick, Liv Papaioannou

Exceeding expectations is one of Jim Rijks’ specialties. It could be because he is very new to the sport and hasn’t really set his ‘standard’ yet, or it could be that he just loves to disappoint people hoping for a slow time from him. Either way, he was a lot faster than expected of him here. A very fast opening minute resulted in a fast average pace that just never quite died down. Team G opened their week with a 9:19 set by the Dutchman on Tuesday evening.

After an impressive 14km leg around Battersea Park for the Arnekiden, Michael McCarthy would have to run his actual lap of Battersea elsewhere, unfortunately. Having spent several weeks in Rwanda with work, he found himself in Malawi for the first week of March. We’re not exactly sure what the running looks like around there, but judging by Michael’s 9:09 clocking it can’t be ideal. Our first man across the line at the National XC last year is worth a lot more than that time and he will be sure to remind us of that next time he gets the chance.

Pierpaolo Necchi was an unknown. Put in touch with Arne by Frida, he assured the TM he was in shape and aching to race. That’s all that needed to be said! Off he went, and 9:15 he clocked. Another great performance for the G’ers who were starting to look quietly dangerous…

At the wide end of marathon training and disappointed by yet another postponement of race day, Sarah Chadwick was probably not in the mood for a short, sharp, painful effort. And yet… She has been training very well these past few months and has fitness aplenty! Her 11:11 time is more reflective of a “let’s just get this done” mindset than anything else. She has been a recurring sighting of the ArnEvents and a key element in the good ambiance their participants have enjoyed it. Thanks, Sarah.

Meanwhile, in Reading… Liv Papaioannou is still a fierce competitor. She was not going to let Jess and Orna get away with anything without putting up a fight. It was in Palmer Park that she took her stand and gave it her best go. She matched Orna’s second attempt at 9:50 but was a mere 5s shy of Jess’ 9:45, so she will be sharing the bronze medal with Orna. Charlie and his group can’t wait to have Liv back in London for the weekly training sessions.

Team H a.k.a. Reece’s Pieces

Will Johnson, Conall McNally, Reece Edwards, Angus Lamb, Frida Engström

Keen bean Will Johnson was the one who got proceedings started early on the Monday morning. Accompanied by training partner and TM Arne Dumez on the bike, he set off at a very sensible pace which enabled him to unleash a monstrous finish from as far as 1200m to go. We saw Will finish a 3000m track TT with a 70s last lap in the summer so it shouldn’t have been a surprise, but who knew he had something like that in him on the roads at 8am? Turned out his 9:09 lap was enough to beat Will Cockerell’s prediction by a whole 14s, and they’re usually eerily accurate…

Conall McNally is one of those runners who really goes through the motions but never stops trusting the process. No matter how hard he may find training or how discouraged he may be from the fatigue and the ‘downs’ of it all, he always lines up ready to give it his all, come what may. This time, it bloody well paid off. Battling his training partner Tommy all the way through the park, Conall put down a 8:29 circuit, beating his ‘practice lap’ from the week before by well over a minute. There is clearly so much more to come from this young man, and we can’t wait to see it all happen.

Conall’s training partner Angus Lamb (it’s a bit like Angus beef, I hear) made this his virtual debut for the club. Having never raced for the club before or had the privilege of meeting his TMs, he was an unknown entity. His 8:46 clocking is a clear sign that he is bound to become a hugely helpful staple of our men’s road and XC team. However, he apparently has no pictures of himself running, which is deeply troubling…

Then came the Reece Edwards and Frida Engström duo. They may not have been aware of it at the time, but they joint performance would determine the winner of this whole shindig. Reece is an Aussie marathoner training for an attempt at 2:15 in Wrexham. Frida is a Swedish marathoner and Ironman triathlete enjoying the club scene. He needed to run 8:00, she needed to run no slower than 12:40 to secure the win for the Pieces. No worries at all - 7:55 for Reece and 12:21 for Frida later the same day. Nailed it! That’s checkmate. Well played.

Team I a.k.a. With Cunning and Witt - 48:10

Nick Buckle, Dave Walsh, Ollie Cunningham (J), Steph Hewitt, Alex Titmus

There isn’t much racing Nick Buckle would gladly turn down, especially not when it’s a running race under 42km. He has run so many laps of Battersea Park, what’s another one? A practice lap of 8:57 two weeks before race day got him a little worried, but on actual race day he easily chopped 6s/km off his average to finish in 8:39. That’s more like the Nick we know. With no XC season, he hasn’t really had his chance to shine, but now that he’s fresh and fit, the track season is looking more and more like a stage for the great Nickele Buckele.

“Enjoyed that even if it hurt like hell”, said Dave Walsh to Arne. The Irishman has been upping his mileage and immerging himself fully in winter training over the past few months. This was bound to be a painful reawakening of the ‘fast twitch’ muscles (you sprinters out there, hush!) but seeing 8:51 on the watch will have put a smile on his face. This Dave isn’t Walsh-ed up yet… I’ll see myself out.

Junior Ollie Cunningham is a promising young athlete who we hopes makes the successful transition to the senior ranks for Belgrave. His 10:12 effort is a sign that he is well on his way.

Steph Hewitt had a big week. A 10:20 HurricArne smashing was just the beginning - a virtual and unofficial 5km PB would follow on the weekend. Clearly this is one Belle eager to get back to racing so that she can put this shape on paper officially! At this point, her team was looking like one of the many dark horses that might end up taking this thing.

Running hasn’t been going so well for Alex Titmus over the past few months. Back at home in Newport he has been struggling with juggling work, life and sport, but he was very keen to get stuck in and give it a good go. He was going to divide his campaign into two attempts, but what was supposed to be a pre-second attempt bike shakeout turned into a proper ride after a few wrong turns and unexpected hills. So, the first attempt of 10:08 would be filed last thing on the Sunday afternoon. But Alex was the first across the finish line at Arnegeddon, let’s not forget that!

The solo acts

Not everyone could be placed in a team, but we all know the individuals rankings would be just as important here. To spice things up, we asked GB international athlete and former British 5km record holder Nick Goolab to have a crack at a fast lap. He said he was planning on doing a long tempo anyways to prepare for his pacing duties at the Olympic Marathon Trials in Kew Gardens, so we hatched a plan - run a fast lap, have a little break, and then run a four lap tempo. Nick was his own team and would run all five legs himself in the space of an hour or so. Needless to say, no one got near him individually or as a team. His blistering opening effort of 7:28 saw him fly through the 1km mark in 2:32! Poor Sam didn’t have a choice but to drop off the pace. After a few minutes of not vomiting against a tree, Nick set off for his four lap tempo accompanied by Arne on the bike. As he was finishing his fourth lap, he said “Actually, I got fancy doing five.” So they did another one. As they were finishing the fifth lap, he said “Actually, let’s do six so that I’ve got over ten miles.” In recap, that’s a 2.81km lap at 2:39/km followed by 16.87km at 3:06/km. Yikes!

Euan Campbell also impressed with a very fast lap in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Will Johnson and Kieran Moriarty had kicked off the competition at that point with some very strong runs, but Euan’s 8:01 lap was enough to really highlight to everyone that nobody was going to mess about here. The St Mary’s alumnus and Saysky rep has had a fantastic winter of training behind him and is looking dangerously fit as he heads into ‘sharpening’ season ahead of the first track aces in April and May (fingers crossed).

On the junior front, Alexis Delaney and Thomas McGraynor hit the trails of Clapham Common and ran 11:23 and 11:01 respectively, to put themselves amongst the individual rankings. A club such as ours would be nothing if not for eager, talented and competitive young runners such as these boys so it is great to see that they were up for the challenge. Until next time, lads.

Results

The Winter Plate

As we said, this was the final event in the ArnEvents series and was therefore our runners’ last chance to get a score on the board for the Winter Plate! Winners and full plate analysis to come very soon…

HurricArne: Battersea Park laps sees a thrilling (virtual) finale to the Winter Plate