HRRL New Forest 10 and SXCL Silchester and a couple of marathons

HRRL New Forest 10

Farnham Runners group before the start of the 2025 New Forest 10

Twenty-two Farnham Runners enjoyed the New Forest at its best during a 10-mile race on a beautifully sunny autumn day. Though classified as a multi-terrain event, it was voted into the Hampshire Road Race League and proved to be a popular choice. Two thirds of the route was on firm forest tracks, with the rest on closed roads.

The club fielded full A, B and C men’s teams. Leading them in was Joe Collins in a splendid time of 1:02:02 over the undulating course, with Matt Saker, 6th M50, not far back in 1:03:38 and Alex Elsey in 1:04:56. Completing the A team was Tony Jones, 6th M60 in 1:09:52.

The B team consisted of Keith Marshall (9th M60), Charles Ashby, Richard Denby and Paul Keogh while Ronan O’Carroll, Richard Steedman, Charles Walters and Howard Inns (4th M70) made up the C team.

Gabi Hitchcock pushed on strongly to head the ladies in 1:12:14 as 4th F45 and Gemma Whitehouse and Georgie Abrook (6th F55) both clocked 10-mile personal bests in 1:20:44 and 1:21:37 respectively. New member Rebecca Holburn was the final A team scorer in 1:25:40.
Running for the club in the B team were Lindsay Bamford, Bridget Naylor, Jane Georghiou (2nd F70) and Sandra Hickey, supported by Jess Lira and Julia Tagg (9th F65).

SXCL Silchester

Farnham Runners group before the start of the 2025 SXCL Silchester cross-country race

A week later on another sunny day, the first of the Southern League cross-country series took place in the forest near Silchester, organised by Basingstoke and Mid Hants AC. Though there had been overnight rain, most of the course was on gravel trails and so not too muddy. There were some inevitable hills, some single track and even a stream crossing.

Farnham Runners made a sound start with an overall position of 7th out of 21 clubs, the men finishing 6th and the ladies 8th. There was a great turn-out of 44 runners from the club.

Just the first four men and ladies back score for the teams. Matt Saker (11th) was first from the club to cross the line after Joe Collins (24th) and Chris Carey, (38th) had followed the leaders who missed a sign, had to turn round and then couldn’t overtake on a narrow track. Rodger Morley (26th) in his first run in club colours finished in between the two.

Gabi Hitchcock was first back for the ladies (12th) with Linda Tyler 36th, Gemma Whitehouse 53rd and Sue Taylor 59th.

After the race, the host club provided a very welcome lunch of a hot dog, cake and a drink, proceeds from this and the parking fee going to the Silchester Association.

Two marathons

On the podium, Linda Tyler (centre) 1st 65 at the 2025 Abingdon Marathon

Farnham Runners ladies’ captain Linda Tyler ran a new personal best in a time of 3:31:40 in the recent Abingdon Marathon, a Masters International of England versus Wales. She was first 1st overall W65 and 1st W65 for Wales as well as taking nearly two hours from the previous club marathon F65 record!

The men’s captain, Matt Saker, clocked 3:04:16 in the Chicago Marathon.

Some recent social events

Farnham Runners social events have included a bar talk by member Tony Jones about the GR10 in Corsica and a Halloween Scavenger Hunt that was well attended despite a very wet evening.

See the Photo Gallery 2025 for further photos from these events.