Fleet Half Marathon, Great Birmingham 10km and Three Forts Marathon

Fleet Half Marathon

Twenty-two Farnham Runners completed the Fleet Half Marathon, some of them having run the London marathon just one week before or the Brighton marathon three weeks previously. The race had been postponed from March due to the heavy snowfall the previous night. Fleet and Crookham AC had worked hard to reschedule the event and numbers were down but there were still almost 2,000 finishers.

The Farnham contingent ran well, some with personal best times, and five achieved top ten category places with three of the men among the prize-winners.

First back was ultra-runner Stuart Haig in an excellent 1 hour 25mins 51 seconds, a new personal best by two minutes. He placed ninth in the very competitive M45 category. Next came Stuart Taylor in a fine 1:27:26. First M60 was Mike Anderson, close to his Farnham Runners M60 club record that he set last year, in 1:29:16.

Colin Addison just missed the prizes, fourth M50 in his best time in recent years by two minutes (1:29:30). Charlie Hill-Venning just missed a sub 1:30 target in 1:30:39 with Mike Taylor (1:31:24) and Ali Hardaway (1:33:15) not far behind. Emma Pearson was delighted with a new PB of 1:34:14, fifth F40 and 20th lady of 600, just a week after she ran the London marathon.

Keith Marshall, third M60 in 1:41:43 and Chris Jackson, second M65 in 1:44:43 were pleased to be among the prize-winners, while Philip Masters was 6th M70 in 2:00.55.

New member Stephen Tarrant (1:41: 47) took a massive 26 minutes from his PB, while Craig Tate-Grimes deducted 10 minutes (1:45:39). David Boakes, a Beginner in the class of 2017 completed his debut in1:50:51. Kayleigh Copeland (1:41: 49, 43rd lady), Hallam Foster (1:42:58) and Tara Hunt (1:49:56) had also run in London the previous week.
Other results: Jason East 1:34:30, Paul Mackie 1:36:40, John Hill-Venning 1:39:54, Stuart Williamson 1:40:25, Spencer Barfield 1:50:32.

Other races

Linda Tyler was over the moon to be selected to run for Wales in the Great Birmingham 10km, setting off with the elite ladies. She came a splendid fifth in her category, clocking 46:39 in very warm conditions.

Three members ran the “Three Forts Marathon” on the South Downs. With ascents to Cissbury and Chanctonbury Rings and totalling 3,450ft, and a distance of 27.2 miles on rough tracks with stiles, this proved a tougher than normal challenge with no shade on a hot day with no wind. Out of the 253 finishers they placed highly: Stuart Haig 10th in 3:56:25, Charlie Hill-Venning 26th in 4:17:10 and John Hill-Venning 27th in 4:17:31.