Fleet ½ Marathon, 19th March 2006
STUBBINGTON'S Jon Leigh ran close to a personal best half marathon time at the Fleet Half Marathon.
Despite being in heavy training, Jon's race performances this year have been nothing short of exceptional - from 10km up to half marathon.
Coming hard on the heels of an excellent run at the Dublin Marathon last autumn, Jon is hoping for a good London Marathon time next month, somewhere close to 3hrs 30mins, if not better.
He prepared for the big race around the streets of the capital in perfect fashion with a scorching run in North Hampshire against a top-notch field.
Jon clocked a very useful time of 1hr 32min 38sec according to the chip timing, which earned him 361st place.
Fellow London Marathon runners, Nick Kimber and Jane Buter also ran well.
Nick was not far behind Jon with a time of 1:34.57 for 452nd place, while Jane, who has certainly been putting in the mileage and the races in the build-up to April 23rd, just ducked in under the two-hour mark. The clock may have read 2:02.13, but the long time Jane took to cross the start line gave her a finish time, according to the champion-chip, of 1:59.50 for 1697th in the field.
A total of 2466 runners took part in the race which was won by Alton Runners' Toby Lambert. Toby won the Stubbington Green 10km in convincing style in January, has also competed in a marathon in India for Great Britain and is himself preparing for the London Marathon.
He led home the field in a time of 1:09.09, with Debbie Coslett, who serves with the 17 P&M Regt as part of the Royal Logistical Corps, the first woman runner in 1:18.39 for 47th place.
Based at Calthorpe Park and organised by the Fleet & Crookham Athletic Club, the Fleet Half Marathon this year celebrated is 25th anniversary and has raised over £118,000 for Leukaemia Research.