Fleet Half Marathon

Twenty-six Farnham Runners enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather for the popular Fleet Half Marathon, this time into its 31st year. There were some very good age category placings and a number of admirable personal bests among their results. (Times given below are chip times.)

Ian Carley led the Farnham contingent in an excellent I hour 20 minutes 4 seconds, for 64th place of 2251 finishers and 10th place in the very competitive M 40 category.

Steve Kitney goaded Charlie Hill-Venning before the start that he would beat him by one second. After various tussles along the way and both sprinting to the line he did indeed do exactly that, though Hill-Venning came out on top on chip time (1.26-08, Kitney 1-26-15).

Jason East returned to racing after a foot injury (1-28-16). Next Mike Anderson, in his first half marathon for five years and fresh from winning a recent Lord Wandsworth cross-country, was a very creditable 3rd in the M55 category in 1-28-51.

New member Mike Taylor clocked 1-34-18 while Farnham’s first lady home, Susie Chan, gained a new personal best by two minutes for a superb 1-35-34 and 11th age category placing.

Stuart Morel gained from his recent training regime for a PB by 5 minutes (1-36-16.) followed by John Hill-Venning in 1-37-46.

Farnham’s second lady was Wendy Carley, who ran her best race for a while in 1-46-23.

Most notable among the other results was Elaine Ashby’s PB by an astonishing 25 minutes (1-59-12), Emma Drinkwater’s by 15 minutes (1-55-27) and Claire Pengilley by 3 minutes (1-59-08). Some were sportingly paced by Charles Ashby to achieve their sub 2 hour target.

Jessica Page ran 1-56-20 on her debut at this distance. Sally Lawrence’s 1-57-11 and Peter Strange’s 1-56-33 gave them 10th and 12th their respective age groups. John Applebee (2-03-34) as usual raced for Leukaemia Research.

Other results: Alistair Wilson 1-40-37 (PB), Terry Copeland 1-43-40, Daren Carter 1-47-23, Neil Griffiths 1-52-27, Martin Eves 1-52-52, Becky Martin 1-53-59, Andy Marsh 1-57-46, Steve Payne 2-04-00.