Milland Valley Trail Race
ORGANISERS of the Milland Valley Trail Race were forced to make some last minute amendments to the course because of the weekend’s foot and mouth outbreak in Surrey.
A half-mile section of the course in the scenic Sussex valley had to be re-routed to miss crossing a cattle grazing area.
Stubbies Marcus Lee, Nick Kimber, Lauren Coates and John Vose were not “cowed” or, for that matter, distinctly “mooooved” to miss the race which was held on a blazing hot day with 97 finishers in the six-mile race and 295 for the 21km outing.
City of Portsmouth AC’s Paul Bleach won the 21km race. He made short work of the numerous hills to complete the course in 1 hour 21min 49sec and he also took the men’s veterans’ category prize. In the ladies category, Kate Brown of the Army’s Athletic Association won with a time of 1:35.16.
Marcus and Nick ran together along a tricky and testing course, with Marcus 92nd in 1:49.10 and Nick 93rd in 1:49.11. Lauren placed 265th with a time of 2:27.01 for 22nd senior lady.
The six-mile race offered a less strenuous route but still included the high Older Hill. This race started half an hour behind the 21km saunter and ran over the route of the later part of the longer race. The clear winner was Robert Watts from Highgate Harriers who finished well ahead in a time of 32min 3sec.
In the ladies section there was a tight finish with Highgate Harriers’ Marguerite Lazell just getting the best of Portsmouth Triathlon club member and winning veteran Anne Buckley by five seconds. Lazell’s time was 40.28.
Stubbington was represented by veteran John Vose who finished 67th in a time of 53.35 and he was 11th vet.