Guernsey
GUERNSEY at Easter has become a familiar haunt for legions of Stubbies.
The four-day Easter Running Festival hosted by the Guernsey Island Amateur Athletic Club is a popular, top drawer event which attracts a number of leading runners from across the UK lining up against some of the most competitive athletes from the Channel Islands.
Caroline and Glen Street have been leading the green-vested hordes for a number of years and both were in action on an overcast weekend in Guernsey.
Glen is running extremely well. He capped a great weekend of running on Easter Monday with a strong performance in the Healthspan Half Marathon by finishing 77th overall in a time of 1hr 39min 50sec to lead home the Stubby contingent in St Peter Port.
Mags Smith was next across the finish line in 87th place with 1:43.54, just ahead of Richard Simms who clocked 1:43.54 for 94th. Sian Mundy, back in Guernsey after a year’s absence, came home in 145th place in 2:02.18.
A total of 152 runners competed in the festival finale, as the half marathon was won by Jonathan Thewlis from Nottingham University in 1:08.02. He beat into second place Guernsey favourite, Lee Merrien, who won the overall Easter title.
Aldershot, Farnham & District AC once again sent out a strong squad of athletes, and it was Andrea Woodvine from the Hampshire club who won the half marathon in 1:16.23 for 16th overall to capture the Easter Festival title for her performance over the four races.
Richard just pipped Glen on the overall count, with Richard 49th and Glen 50th. Mags Smith ran all four races for 55th overall, and Sian was 68th.
Earlier on Good Friday, five Stubbies took part in the Healthspan 10km at Port Soif in the face of gale force winds. Lee Merrien won the race in 31min 13sec, and Vicky Gill from Aldershot, Farnham & District was the top lady in 35.33 for 15th overall. Richard was 85th in 45.40, with Glen 89th in 46.22, Mags came 98th in 47.30 and Sian was 143rd with 54.29.
Caroline Street, who is nursing an injury ahead of her Paris Marathon bid early next month, chose to just run the 10km race over the weekend where she finished 158th in 59.20.
Twenty four hours later, it was the turn of the Keith Falla Memorial Cross Country races over 4.75 miles at L’Ancresse. Conditions were harsh with a cold, gale force winds blowing from the north making running difficult.
Merrien was once again the winner in 24min 50sec, and 15th-placed Andrea Woodvine (AFD) led home the ladies with 27.37. Richard was 67th in 35.42, Glen 69th in 36.15, Mags clocked 38.22 for 79th and Sian was 100th with 43.51.
Then on Easter Sunday, the four Stubbies were at L’Amarreurs to the north of Guernsey for the 4x2 mile cross country relay. Whilst the wind had moderated, temperatures were decidedly chilly and increasingly damp conditions made the technical sections of the course slippery.
Richard, Sian and Glen joined forces with Helen Embling to form the Half Baked quartet who finished 35th from the 36 teams. Richard led off with a split of 13min 48sec, followed by Sian’s 17.00, Helen’s 19.35 and Glen anchored the squad with 14.33.
Mags joined forces with the Tasmanian Devils quartet which included Zara Hyde-Peters, Mike Peters and Amanda Purser. Running the third leg, Mags’ time of 15.10 helped the Devils to 14th in a race won by Lee Merrien’s GIACC ‘A’.