Autumn Marathons and HRRL Solent Half Marathon

Autumn marathons

After some dedicated training no fewer than nineteen Farnham Runners members have completed autumn marathons, many achieving personal best times, some by a considerable margin. This is in addition to the sixteen who finished the challenging Pilgrims Marathon. They ran the distance at venues here and abroad, from Chester to Kosice (Slovakia), from Abingdon to Amsterdam, from Mablethorpe to Jersey.

In Mablethorpe on an unseasonably warm day on October 2nd, Sarah Hill clocked a superb 3 hours 3minutes 30 seconds for second lady’s place and 10th place overall out of 255. The warm conditions on the same day didn’t deter Gabi Hitchcock from an excellent time of 3-37-51 at Kosice, her home town, for 11th lady’s position, followed by Nick Hitchcock in 3-44-34, while in her first marathon, Suzanne Munton was delighted with a 3-51-58 reward in Jersey for all her efforts. She was accompanied by club coach Steve Gillingham, also in his first marathon.

The following week Michael Rix battled the hills and wind around Chester for an enviable time of 2-51-35 (10th place).

Perfect conditions greeted those who had entered the events at Abingdon and Amsterdam on 16th October. Quickest back was Jason East in a personal best by 2 mins (2-55-05), for 348th place of 9633. James Finney and Nick King can both be proud to take off over 21 minutes for very respectable times of 3-25-19 and 3-34-29 respectively. Wendy Carley celebrated in style after her fine new time of 3-36-01, the second fastest lady’s time from the club this year (accompanied by Ian Carley). Guy Highfield Robert was yet another PBer in 5-08-04.

Sean Smith was justifiably pleased with 3-06-17 over the flat Abingdon course. New member Susie Chan, who won the ladies section of the recent Richmond 10k, recorded 3-48-33 a new best by 17 minutes, while Tim Withers took an amazing 57 minutes from his debut marathon time to creep under the 4 hour target with 3-59-12. Emma Doven clocked a sound 4-02-36 followed by Mark Beeson in 4-18-21 (PB by 10 minutes) and Richard Sheppard in 4-45-38.

HRRL Solent Half Marathon

The club also fielded good teams in the recent Solent Half Marathon, the men’s A team now topping Division Two of the Hampshire Road League while the ladies hold on to a safe place of 7th in the top flight. Charles Ashby flew round in 1-23-07, his second ever best time for the distance despite the hills and wind on this scenic route. Steve Kitney (1-28-15), Mike Walberton (1-31-25) and Nick Hill (1-36-11) were the other A team scorers. Tim Cummins (1-36-53), Martin Billett (1-38-50), Chris Cramp (1-45-38) and Tim Withers (1-54-53) scored for the B team followed by Mark Beeson (1-58-50), Peter Strange (2-01-36) and Richard Sheppard (2-11-17). Emma Doven led in the ladies in 1-57-12 with Helen Cathie also under two hours (1-57-44) with Tori Shaw in 2-01-08.