Gosport Half Marathon, 20th November 2005
ZIPPY Grice was back to his running best at a sun-kissed Gosport Half Marathon. In perfect running conditions, the Zip-meister blazed around the two-lap course in a fleet-footed time of 1hr 14min 22sec for a ninth place finish.
He held just over a minute ahead of the next Stubbington finisher, Ross Lamport, who maintained his excellent form of late with 11th spot in 1:15.36.
The race was won by Tom Payne from City of Portsmouth AC is 1:09.42.
Racing conditions were excellent. Though there was ice on the ground and it was a little cold waiting for the start by Bay House School, there was barely a breath of wind, and with the sun soon burning off the chill, it made for pleasant conditions along the coast.
This is a two-lap course which starts and finishes at Bay House School, taking runners on a small one-mile loop around Browndown, and then a loop along the seafront past Stokes Bay and Haslar, through Gosport, and then returning to Bay House via the streets of Alverstoke.
This year's race wasn't part of the Hampshire Road Race League, but was an event which runners seemed to enjoy, helped by some excellent marshalls who kept runners moving despite some congested roads.
Stubbington had a good turn-out of runners, although some, such as the watching Mark Le Gassick, opted to rest up from the half marathon ahead of this weekend's Hayling 10, which is part of the road race league. Mark is currently leading the Hampshire Road Race League rankings after three events.
Mike Harper continues to run consistently and placed 30th in 1:21.20, while Dave King broke the 90 minute barrier for the first time clocking 1:28.54 for 105th.
Lauren Coates was the best placed Stubbington lady in 1:38.53 to finish in 255th. Zoe Tucker from Bitton Road Runners near Bristol was the fastest female runner with a time of 1:21.50 which earned her 36th place overall. The race attracted 788 competitors.
Other results: 139 Jon Leigh 1:31.19, 174 Nick Kimber 1:33.54, 288 Colin MacLeod 1:39.58, 329 Richard Roche 1:42.02, 331 Keith Carter 1:42.16, 349 Simon Bean 1:43.24, 350 Neil Jarvis 1:43.29, 447 Jane Thomson 1:49.26, 527 Amy Hopper 1:54.39, 539 Claire Borrowdale 1:55.54, 564 Chris Haskell 1:57.25, 623 Amanda Humphrey 2:01.53, 767 Paul Farrelly 2:30.34, 782 Michael Aimable 2:36.28.
Above photo courtesy of Gosport Road Runners.
For race photos see: http://www.prosportphotos.com/running/2005/gosport-half-marathon/index.htm