HRRL Salisbury Ten Miles and other races

Salisbury Ten Miles

Fifteen Farnham Runners chose to support the club in the eighth round of the Hampshire Road League, the scenic Salisbury Ten miler. Billed by a national magazine as one of the best 10 mile races in the country, a few club members were disappointed as this year all available entries were taken earlier than usual.

There are four more races in the series and the Farnham men are battling to stay in the top flight. Their four “A” team scorers all finished the undulating course in under 65 minutes, but such is the fierce competition in this division that this gave them ninth of the ten slots and brought them down to ninth on aggregate. The ladies “A” team in Division Two kept their promotional prospects alive as their fifth on the day raised them to second on aggregate.

James Clarke just missed a sub one hour time in 1:00:21 as 32nd finisher of 696. Next, Stuart Morel (1:03:33, 65th) incorporated the distance into his rigorous training for a spring marathon but still came out with a personal best. James Warren on minimal training managed an impressive 1:03:52 (71st), while Mike Walberton was pleased with his 1:04:37 (83rd) and sixth in the M50 category.

Stephen Elliot-Nicholls led in the B string in 1:07:29, while Stuart Haig and Gerald Wyatt stormed round in their first ten mile race for 1:07:41 and 1:08:52 respectively, followed by John Phillips who recorded yet another personal best of 1:11:35. Richard Frost (1:14:56) and Peter Chapman (1:20:14) also both clocked new bests but were not supported by others to make a “C” team.

A beaming Lindsay Bamford led in the Farnham ladies in 1:19:33, with Vicki Clarke not far back in 1:21:05 and a delighted Mary Denise Fitzgerald (1:27:37) taking over 8 mins from her previous best and making a valuable contribution to the “A” team result. Although without a third runner, Catrin Petty’s PB of 1:34:04 and Rebecca Ashcroft’s 1:36:30 gave the “B” team 6th of 14 clubs in B division two and an aggregate of 5th to maintain the possibility of promotion.

Other races

On the same day six from the club took part in the Surrey Half Marathon: Rupert Kemp 1:31:16, Emma Pearson 1:38:25, Geoff Brown 1:46:13, Sara McCulloch 1:46:55, Susie Chan 1:48:04 (carrying a pack in preparation for the Marathon des Sables) and Tara Hunt 1:49:04.

Three travelled to Finchley for the 20 mile race as part of marathon training: Rob Gilchrist 2:11:38, Jason East 2:16:19 and Stuart Williamson 2:20:26.

On 7th March veteran Mike Anderson’s age graded % of 88.08 was listed as 8th on the day for all Parkruns in the UK. His time was 17:54 for the 5km Bushy Park course.