HRRL Alton 10 miler, 250 Park Runs and the Headley Fun Run

Alton 10

Thirty six Farnham Runners enjoyed taking part in one of the few local events in the Hampshire Road Race League, the Alton Ten miler, the 10th race of the 12 in the series, organised by Alton Runners and Alton Lions. The men’s A team are battling to stay in the top flight but the ladies are becoming more confident of promotion from division two. The team results have been delayed until after the next round.

Stuart Morel was delighted to lead them in with a new personal best time, despite the hilly course. His time of 1 hour 3 minutes 10 seconds placed him 25th of 424 finishers. He overtook Richard Lovejoy, who clocked 1.03:36, for the first time. An under par James Clarke settled for 1:06:19 while Stuart Taylor, 1:08:40, was the final scorer in the A team. Matt Dellar (1:10:18) led in a close-packed B string of Mike Taylor (1:11:54) new member Darren Cooper (1:11:46) and Tim Cummins (1:12:41). Fifteen were in contention for the four C team places and they went to Chris Cramp 1:14:30, Jeremy Skedge 1:14:37, Paul Mackie 1:15:11 (PB by 6 minutes) and Alistair Hardaway 1:15:20.

Just four weeks after the Marathon des Sables and two weeks after acting as a Runners World 4:45 pacer in the London Marathon, Farnham’s first lady, Susie Chan ran at a steady pace for 1:13 10. Eloise Stradling started off fast to clock 1:17:39 and maintain a lead over Jane Georghiou in 1:17:50 (11 seconds but 43 years separating them!). Lindsay Bamford (1:22:20) headed a strong B squad of Billy McCulloch (1:23:34) and newcomer Sarah Marjoram (1:23:40). Farnham’s other results included some impressive personal bests: Stuart Haig 1:15:45, Tim Farrant 1:16:03 (debut), Steve Bailey (1:16:42, PB 11 mins), Steve Murphy 1:17:07, Terry Copeland 1:17:21, Nick Hill 1:18:07, Geoff Brown 1:19:10, Peter Chapman 1:23:15, Tara Hunt 1:24:07 (PB), Jane Mezzullo 1:25:31 (Debut), Craig Tate-Grimes 1:25:25, Tina Harrrison 1:26:57, Howard Inns 1:28:42, Mary Denise Fitzgerald 1:31:49, Zara-Jayne Edwards 1:32:22 (PB 15 mins), Peter Strange 1:34:59 (4th M70), Tori Shaw 1:35:18, Kathy Brown 1:51:47.

250 Park Runs

Meanwhile inveterate parkrunner Mike Anderson has mounted up an astounding 250 of the Saturday morning 5km timed runs in ten years at ten different venues, to earn a rare 250 parkrun T shirt.

His first was on 13th May 2005, at the Bushy Park venue where the phenomenon began. He went on to win the competitive men’s league at that course in 2008 and then at Frimley Lodge two years later. This was an historic “double”: no-one had ever won two leagues before. More impressive statistics include eight outright wins at four different parkruns, 243 age category wins, 234 age grade wins with a recent top age-graded % of 88.08.

He set 19 course records, his average time over 135 races at Bushy is 17.50, his fastest 17:06, his average speed for 250 runs in excess of 10mph or 16kph. 250 parkruns are the equivalent of 29 marathons.

Headley Fun Run

A few Farnham Runners enjoyed the Headley Fun Run and came away with some awards: Stuart Morel 2nd place, 2nd M40+, Colin Addison 4th, 3rd 40+ and Lindsay Bamford 3rd lady.