Rotary Easter 10km, 15th April 2006
BEN WHITTAKER was Stubbington's lone runner on the seafront at Bournemouth over the Easter weekend.
Ben joined a top-notch field for the Rotary Easter Quarter Marathon, which was held on Easter Saturday. Run over the unusual distance of 6.9 miles, starting and finishing at Boscombe Pier.
This was the old David Lloyd quarter marathon, which is quite fast in places, with a gradual uphill at half way to just before the finish, with a steep descent into the finish.
This year's race was organised by the Rotary Club of Bournemouth East Cliff, with all monies going to the Rotary charities. Ben finished in 43rd place in a time of 42min 5sec.
A measure of the quality of the field was that the race was won by talented Poole-based Kenyan, Willard Chinhanhu in 34:01, with the likes of Bournemouth AC's Mark Hargreaves and Winchester AC's Matt King, two of the top south coast runners, in fourth and fifth place.
The leading lady was Anna Loveless, who had travelled up from Cornwell with Truro Running Club, to finish in 40:18 and 24th overall.