HRRL Stubbington Green 10k, SXCL at Chawton House and a couple of trail races
HRRL Stubbington Green 10km
Twenty-one Farnham Runners were among the 1800 finishers at the popular Stubbington Green 10km. Though dull, conditions were good, cool but not windy. Seven from the club gained new personal best times for the distance over the flat course.
Again Joe Collins was first back for the club in a splendid PB of 35:15 in 50th place overall. Next came Colin Addison, 5th M60 in 40:42, followed by Ivan Chunnett in a PB of 41:18 and Chris Allen in 49:49. These four made the men’s team that placed 9th in the very competitive top division of the A league.
Gabriella Hitchcock led in the Farnham ladies in a fine time of 42:46, while Linda Tyler 2nd F60 came next in 44:34, another PB. Candy Waller also recorded a new best time of 44:44 and Bridget Naylor in 48:45 completed the A team score. Gemma Whitehouse (50:49) headed the B team followed by Vicky Goodluck (PB 52:26), Colette Grist (PB 52:55) and Lizzie Collins (PB 53:07). The C team was made up of Tori Shaw (53:08), Sarah Franklin (53:31) Jane Georghiou (54:17, 3rd F70) and Penny Schnabel (58:39).
The ladies’ A team placed 6th, the B team 8th and C team 5th in their respective divisions, consolidating high team placings for the season after the 6th of the 12 events. There were more Farnham Runners ladies to back up the teams in this race, Tina Longman (1:02:19), Sally Kerr (1:05:20) Sue MacKenzie (1:09:59), Jackie Wilkinson 1:14:03) and Tracy Holmes (1:15:14).
SXCL Chawton House
On a very chilly, dull wintry day thirty-nine Farnham Runners enjoyed the first cross country of 2025 in the grounds of Chawton House, organised by Alton Runners. The course is mostly over undulating fields with some testing sections through woodland but the roots had been clearly marked to reduce the risk of accidents. This year the muddy sections were less challenging than some previous years.
Farnham Runners ladies team came 4th of the 22 clubs in the league and the men’s team came 8th, leading to an overall position of 5th and the club lies in 6th place with one more race to go this season.
As in this race last year, first back for Farnham was Joe Collins in a splendid 6th place. Chris Carey ran strongly for 17th place, while Colin Addison in 82nd and Ivan Chunnett in 90th completed the team score. In the top 100 were Charles Ashby in 96th and newcomer Richard Steadman in 97th.
For the ladies Emma Pearson was first back in 11th place, with Gabriela Hitchcock 19th, Linda Tyler 41st and Candy Waller 45th. Within the first 100 were Sue Taylor in 51st, Lindsay Bamford in 58th, Gemma Whitehouse in 68th and Sarah Franklin in 81st.
More keen club runners placings were:
(Men) Harvey Wickham 107, Mike Carter 120, Richard Denby 138, Ronan O’Carroll142, James Fabian 164, Craig Tate-Grimes 201, Chris Gill 214, Joe Napier 228.
(Ladies) Jane Georghiou 109, Tori Shaw 111, Lizzie Collins 129, Sally Lawrence 130, Colette Grist 132, Kate Townsend 133, Sandra Hickey 134, Clair Bailey 136, Jess Lira 138, Lizzie Morgan 139, Laylan Pointon-Berkowitz 147, Alison Lamb 154, Penny Schnabel 168, Natalie Groome 175, Shirley Perrett 180, Jackie Wilkinson 191 and Sue MacKenzie 199.
Trail races
In addition to running in these league races some took part in recent trail races, organised by BigFeat events, on a horrendously wet, windy and cold day, often through deep and slippery mud. Their determination saw them line up in time at the start line and continue till the finish.
Colette Grist, Kate Townsend and Ivan Chunnett completed the 27.6 mile (over the 26.2 marathon distance) South Downs Trail ultra while Linda and Jonathan Tyler ran the Arundel Winter trail 15 miler. They thoroughly deserved their medals at the end!
See the Photo Gallery 2025 for further photos from these events.