Bramley 20
THEY are the three amigos, the Stubbington marathon trio who, having left their ponchos at home, headed for the delights of North Hampshire and the Bramley 20.
This is one of the most popular of pre-London races, organised by Reading Road Runners and disappointingly no longer part of the Hampshire Road Race League programme.
Starting from the village primary school, the race consists of two laps along country lanes, with two testing climbs thrown in.
The three amigos in question, Jon Leigh, Nick Kimber and Marcus Lee have been training together regularly since the autumn - Wednesday night regulars and long runs at the weekend. This was the important benchmark race to judge just how well their training was going for the big date in April.
Jon continued his London Marathon build-up with 293rd place thanks to a comfortable chip time of 2hrs 35mins and 04ecs, and 76th Vet40. Team-mate Nick managed 300th place clocking 2:35.59, well inside eight minute mile pace and 79th Vet40, while Marcus was not too far behind the vets in 325th with a time of 2:38.39.
A total of 726 runners finished the race which was won by Dave Mitchinson from Newham & Essex Beagles in a time of 1:45.44. The women's race winner was Heather Foundling-Walker from Honiton Running Club in Devon who finished in an impressive time of 2:03.42 for 27th place overall.
Besides the 20-miler, there was also a one-lap 10 mile race which was won by Headington Road Runners' Julienne Lhomme in a time of 54min 53sec with Melissa Neal from Peterborough AC the leading lady with 1hr 2min 40sec.
Stubbington's Peter Moreton just missed out on the prizes in the Vet60 category by finishing fourth in the age group on the back of a time of 1:17.11 and 145th overall. A total of 483 runners finished.