HRRL Bramley 20, HRRL Salisbury 10, Frimley Lodge Parkrun and TRXCL Staunton Country Park

HRRL Bramley 20

Personal best times were the order of the day for Farnham Runners in the Bramley twenty miler, the eighth Hampshire Road League event of the twelve race series. Most used it as training for Spring marathons. The A team men improved their aggregate score to 8th of 10 in Division One while the ladies stay top of Division Two.

Pacing at target marathon pace Andrew Ellison came 74th of 857 finishers in an excellent time of 2 hours 11 mins 23 secs. (All times given are chip times.) Next came the flying Mike Walberton, whose pb 2-19-26 gave him 7th M50 place in a very competitive field. Charles Ashby judged his pace incredibly well for his 2.20 target clocking 2-20-03. Steve Kitney is returning to fitness with a respectable 2-25-42, while Sean Smith was well within his potential with 2-29-41.

Sue Boxall ran a splendid 2-50-50, while Wendy Carley and Stefan Klincewicz egged each other on for sub three hours (2-57-27/2-57-28) and Tim Withers recorded 3-07-40, all in their debut at this distance. Shirley Perrett (3-07-43) made a valuable contribution to the ladies A team with Emma Doven leading the B string in 3-08-28, followed by Helen Cathie in 3-32-23. Peter Strange (3-16-49) and Richard Sheppard (3-30-02) were both pleased with the effect of recent training.

On the day the men’s A team came 7th and the B team 8th (both Divison One). The ladies A team were 4th (Division Two) and B team 7th (Division One).

HRRL Salisbury 10

With nine of Farnham’s men under seventy minutes competition was fierce for the team scores at the Salisbury ten-mile race, the ninth of the Hampshire series. Ian Carley almost made it under sixty with a time of 1 hour and 45 seconds for 35th place of 564. Charles Ashby (1-02-36, 58th), Bob Brimicombe (1-04-38, 80th) and Steve Kitney (1-06-08, 97th) made an excellent contribution and helped the A team to 7th.

Sean Smith (1-07-10), Scott Salmon (1-07-18, PB), Mike Walberton 1-08-04) and Mike Ashworth (1-09-05) comprised the B team that came 6th.

Nick Hill also made the 60 minute target (1-09-52) with Steve Murphy close (1-10-24).

The reliable Sue Boxall led the ladies in 1-20-46 followed by Emma Doven who ran a personal best by three minutes in 1-21-41. Training for a marathon Wendy Carley, along with Stefan Klincewicz, had run five miles before the race and still clocked 1-24-14 to help the team to 2nd in Division two.

Chris Cramp (1-15-12), Leslie Boxall (1-17-32, PB), Stefan Klincewicz (1-23-31, PB), Colin Pirie (1-24-42, debut) and Mark Beeson (1-28-09) supported the club.

These two sets of results mean the men improved their A team aggregate score to 8th of 10 in Division One while the ladies increased their lead at the top of Division Two.

Frimley Lodge Parkrun

Farnham Runners’ Mike Anderson has won the mens’ points inaugural championship at the Frimley Lodge Parkrun for 2010-11.

(Park Runs are free 5km time trials for runners now taking place all over the country and held every Saturday morning.)

This is a ‘Historic double’ as he became the first ever “parkrunner” in the country to win 2 different leagues on the back of his Bushy Park win 2 years ago.

Mike won the race 5 times during the season with a fastest time of 17.38 which is the M50 course record and 12th fastest ever time.

He competed 34 times during the season out of a total of 52 races to win by about 150 points.

On the multi surface circuit he managed to win wearing racing flats, cross-country spikes and multi terrain shoes as the weather threw up a variety of challenges from rain, snow and ice in temperatures ranging from -10 to + 28.

He has now competed in 165 park runs winning 6 outright and securing 163 age category victories.

Says Mike,

“I felt honored to be presented the trophy by former commonwealth champion and womens’ world record holder Paula Fudge, who won the womens’ title. It was great to share the podium with her after all the support she had given me throughout the year.”

He adds,

“Winning at Frimley this year gave me a Sir Steve Redgrave like emotion…….If you ever catch me leading a parkrun league again you have my permission to shoot me ! “

TRXCL Staunton Country Park

Although not able to snap up the winner’s shield this year Farnham Runners kept up an excellent record by their second place in the Today’s Runner Winter League 2010-11 series. After winning for the last two years they were runners up and so completed six consecutive years of finishing in the top two out of the seventeen clubs.

The final round was held at Staunton Country Park and organised by Denmead Striders. Running over squelchy mud for most of the five miles, the Farnham ladies came third and the men fourth to give an overall score on the day of second to series winners Basingstoke and Midhants A.C.

A fine run from Ian Carley gave him 5th spot, close to his best result. Charles Ashby proved a strong second in 16th with Steve Kitney 38th, Nick Hitchcock 41st and Tim Cummins 46th counting for the team. Steve Murphy was just denied in 47th. Neil Powers (69th), Les Boxall (83rd) and Tim Withers (87th) were all pleased to be building on recent improvement.

For the ladies Jane Georghiou gained a season’s best of 8th. Lindsay Bamford gave her all (20th), closely followed by the impressive Renee Ayache, 22nd in only her second race in club colours. Sue Boxall looked stylish in 27th while Emma Doven ran well for 41st to lead in new member Christy Roxburgh in 43rd.