Meon Valley Plod
TONY ALLEN was only a late entry for the Meon Valley Plod, but the hard-as-nails Stubby made mincemeat of the 21-mile course with second place.
Tony finished a good five minutes behind convincing winner Nick Baker from Denmead Striders, who triumphed in an impressive time of 2hrs 23mins 4secs over the challenging course. Our man clocked 2:28.30 for a superb runner-up spot over the tough undulating course which borders the South Downs and takes in the notorious Butser Hill.
It was a good day for Stubbies with Zippy Grice taking 10th place in 2:39.26 and Chris Hall was 16th in 2:40.55. Congratulations to Tony, Zippy and Chris on winning the team prize.
Ray Gunner battled his way round the course on a cold day which made some of the ground hard underfoot for 78th spot in 3:07.44, and the hardy Graham James, more used to climbing mountains in Snowdon, bagged 105th place in 3hrs 16mins on the nail.
Other results:
114th John Gueran 3:18.14.
121st John Exley 3:20.00
128th Nick Kimber 3:21.15
272nd Amanda Jones 4:09.44
295th Aaron Kingston 4:15.42
A total of 352 runners took part with Lucy Brooks from Serpentine Running Club the leading lady in a time of 2:48.19 and 27th place overall.