HRRL Gosport Half Marathon

Farnham Runners just keep getting faster! Half the members who ran the Gosport Half Marathon gained new personal best times for the distance. On a new course this year, close to the coast, there was fortunately no wind and only a light rain shower.

After the race the first four Farnham men were a happy bunch, all exceeding previous bests and helping to secure the club’s status in the top Division of the competitive Hampshire Road League.

However, Sarah Hill was the first home from the club, in a splendid time of one hour 19 minutes 51 seconds. As in 2013, she was second lady and first in the F40 category, 64h overall of 1600 finishers. Her run gave a boost to the ladies’ team’s hopes of promotion as their third place on the day gives them second slot on aggregate in Division Two.

Leading in the Farnham men was James Clarke (68th) in 1:20:16, a personal best by over 4 minutes, followed by a close packed group of Rob Gilchrist (84th, 1:21:37, PB by over 3 mins), James Warren (98th, 1:22:37, PB) and Richard Lovejoy 101st, (1:22:55, PB). Not far behind Jason East wasn’t far off his best in1:23:53.

Mark Maxwell (1:29:02) stayed ahead of Stuart Haig (1:29:04), who was delighted to achieve a significant personal goal of sub 1:30 for the first time. Mike Ashworth rued the loss of a second (1:30:01, PB). The C team comprised John Phillips (1:35:27, PB by 4.5 minutes), Jeremy Skedge (1:35:46, PB), Tim Cummins (1:37:19), and Steve Murphy (1:37:52).

In the Hampshire Road League tables the mens’s A squad came 7th (aggregate 7th) the “B”s 7th (agg 7th), both in Division One and the “C”s 4th in Division Two (agg 7th).

Backing up these teams were Matt Dellar (1:38:25), Neil Ambrose (1:38:19, PB by 5 mins), Chris Cramp (1:39:12), Chris Beattie (1:44:17, a PB by 12 mins) and Peter Chapman (1:50:34).

Jane Georghiou was second Farnham lady in 1:38:08 for first in category and 9th place in the UK W60 Half Marathon 2014 table.

Proud to count for the teams were Mary. D. Fitzgerald and Shirley Perrett, who ran together and clocked the same time (2:00:57), with Mary officially the final scorer for the “A”s and gaining a 2 minute PB. Catrin Petty’s 2:09:08 helped the “B”s to 6th (agg 5th).