TRXCL Pamber Forest, Great South Run and Dublin Marathon

TRXCL Pamber Forest

Farnham Runners 2008 and 2009 Today’s Runner Winter League Divisional champions made a strong start with an overall third place in the first round organised by Basingstoke and Midhants A.C. The five-mile route with few hills and a modicum of mud through Pamber Forest near Basingstoke let in runners relatively gently to the new season.

Recovered well after his speedy Amsterdam marathon, Ian Carley led them in with an impressivs 6th place. Not far behind in 8th came the reliable Mike Anderson, now a convert to cross-country racing.

Charles Ashby, who recently gained a good for age entry in to the London Marathon with a 3.11.32 clocking in the Leicester marathon, finished 15th. Andy Eakins followed in 25th with Tim Cummins sprinting to the line for 63rd and the final scoring place for a team placing of second. Nine more Farnham Runners were there to back up the mens’ team: Steve Kitney 70th, Steve Parker 90th, Terry Steadman 94th, Chris Cramp 102nd, Neil Powers 117th (debut), Tim Withers 118th, Phil Masters 125th, Hillary Carter 128th, Stefan Klincewicz 136th.

Lacking a few key players the ladies managed a creditable 5th of the 17 clubs. Jane Georghiou was 11th followed by an impressive Amanda Allen, 21st on her debut in this league, and Lindsay Bamford with a very useful 25th. Sue Boxall and Sylvia Harper ran strongly for 36th and 41st respectively with Wendy Carley (50th), Kay Copeland (52nd) and Emma Drinkwater (58th) providing further back-up.

Great South Run

Ideal conditions and Farnham Runners training sessions helped some to personal best times in the Great South Run 10 miler. Martin Billett improved his time by over three minutes for an excellent 1-06-30 (258th of almost 15,000 finishers and 13th in his age category). Jane Georghiou was pleased with her best time for a few years (1-08-16) to go second on her UK age category table for 2010.

Others celebrating their results were Tim Cummins 1-08-53 (PB), Malcolm Fitzsimmons 1-16-38, Suzanne Munton 1-23-24 (PB by six minutes), Andrew Perrin 1-36-44, John Applebee (clad as a banana for Leukaemia Research) 1-48-56 and Claire- Marie Lamport 1-52-30.

Dublin Marathon

Emma Doven was delighted with a close to personal best time of 4-14-28 in the recent Dublin Marathon.