Gosport Half, 19th November 2006
PAUL HAMMOND shed a new light on the phrase pee-bee on his way to a personal best at the Gosport Half Marathon.
The painter and decorator from Locks Heath found himself caught short within a mile of the start from Bay House School, and was forced to seek refuge in toilets along Stokes Bay.
Despite the impromptu pit stop, the Stubby runner was quickly into his stride once he had answered his call of nature, and stormed his way round the two-lap course in a best time of 1hr 31min 2sec for 162nd place.
Paul wasn't the only person to break new ground. Mark Le Gassick also set a new pb in finishing second on a day of sunshine performances for Stubbington Green. Mark clocked a superb time of 1hr 11min 42sec to secure the runners-up spot behind Chichester Runners' James Baker who won in an outstanding time of 1:08.50.
"I was pleased with the PB, but James was well out in front," said Mark. "He was running six minute miles right from the off." Stubbington fielded one of their strongest men's and veteran's teams for some while with seven runners in the top 50. With Mark in second, he was closely followed by Ross Lamport, who despite picking up an ankle injury at the Hampshire League Cross Country event at Goodwood a week earlier, had sufficiently recovered for 12th in 1:14.57.
Zippy Grice followed in 16th in 1:15.36, and Alasdair Ewing took 34th in 1:19.34. Richard Thomas completed the men's senior team scoring in 47th in 1:21.19, with Gordon Reid 48th 1:21.26 and Mike Harper 50th in 1:21.48. Stubbington's ladies team was somewhat depleted.
Lauren Coates started the race, but failed to finish. Tracie Jarvis was the first Stubby lady to finish in 841st in 2:08.46, followed by Bernie Smallshaw, making a return to racing after a little lay-off coming home in 870th overall in a time of 2:11.53, and Liz Hall was the third scorer in 2:12.27 for 873rd.
A total of 984 runners took part, with Nicola Clark from Overton Harriers the first female finisher in a time of 1:22.08 for 55th.
Other Stubbington results:
58th Andy Simpson 1:22.37
70th Ray Gunner 1:23.43
178th Phil May 1:31.53
231st Marcus Lee 1:35.45 (pb)
232nd Dave King 1:35.45
277th Neil Jarvis 1:38.20
300th Keith Whittaker 1:39.29
452nd John Tussler 1:46.19
565th Aitken Hunter 1:50.46
583rd Simon Holford 1:51.38
588th Sean Jones 1:51.54
636th Terry French 1:54.29
798th Terry Harper 2:05.27
936th Sue Simister 2:19.40
981st Michael Aimable 2:54.54.