HRRL Gosport Half and HXCL Goodwood

HRRL Gosport Half Marathon

Farnham Runners had a very successful outing to the Gosport Half Marathon, the fifth event in the Hampshire Road League series. Now over a two-lap course partly on a disused airfield, a cool breezy day didn’t deter many members from gaining new personal best times, illustrating the value of training with the club.

Jane Georghiou added a fourth to her tally of second in UK for her age group (W55) for 2010. First ever W55 in UK to go under 2 hours 28 minutes for 20 miles at a race in February to qualify for the “all time” list for that distance but now second for that distance, she also lies second for the year at 10 miles as well as 10,000m on the track. Her time of 1 hour 31 minutes and 18 seconds at Gosport won her first prize in the W50 category.

Other notable results from the ladies were the personal best times of 6 minutes by Amanda Allen and a massive 32 minutes by Elaine Ashby.

A beaming Andrew Ellison welcomed in the other club’s runners as he crossed the line in a superb time of 1 hour 17 minutes 42 seconds for 40th place of over 1,400 finishers and an impressive 6th in the very competitive M40 category. Not far behind was an equally jubilant Ian Carley in 1-18-39 (50th, 7th M40). Both these times were personal bests by over a minute.
Fighting off a cold Charles Ashby clocked 1-24-22, followed by Steve Gillingham in 1-27-34 to complete the A team that came 6th in division one.

Mike Walberton was pleased with his time of 1-29-15 and final position at the head of the B team, only winning a battle with new member Sean Smith (1-29-49) in the closing stages. Nick Hill also made a useful contribution in 1-33-03 while Chris Cramp squeezed out a new best in 1-39-06 as fourth counter for the 9th placed B team.

Amanda Allen’s excellent 1-41-08 gave a boost to the ladies’ hopes of promotion back to division one at the end of the season. Lindsay Bamford, reliable as ever with 1-44-20, also helped the A team increase their lead at the top of division two (second in this race). Overcoming injury problems Wendy Carley led the B stream to 8th in a time of 1-47-56 with Suzanne Munton clocking a very commendable 1-52-17 in her debut at this distance. Caroline Freeman completed the scoring in 1-53-31.

Not making the teams this time but making just as much effort over this challenging distance were Phil Masters (1-49-04), Stefan Klincewicz (1-52-22), Shirley Perrett (1-55-46) Tim Withers (2-02-09), Elaine Ashby and Jenny Andrews (both 2-22-41).

HXCL Goodwood

The ladies performed equally well at Goodwood in the second of the five Hampshire League cross-country races. A strong run by Angela Epps for 51st slot in a time of 26-49 over the hilly 6km course was backed up by Sue Boxall in 29-11 (69th) and Helen Cathie in 32-45 (85th). This result gives the team an impressive aggregate position of 10th and 2nd veterans in the whole league.

Tim Cummins clocked 38-44 for the 9km men’s race (155th).