Reading Half Marathon
GILL Rose, Annie Tomlinson and Richard Snell ran stride for stride at the popular Asics Reading Half Marathon to finish well under the two hour mark - and for Annie and Gill, they picked up new personal bests.
Annie finished in 1hr 49min 11sec for 3,917th, followed by Gill and Richard who clocked a very respectable chip time of 1hr 49min 12sec, to place 3,918th and 3,919th respectively. For Annie, this was a new personal best by two minutes.
They were among a sizzling squad of Stubbies who took part in the Berkshire event which is used by many runners as a strong speed training session ahead of the Spring marathons.
One of the best runs of the day came from Darrell Millner who slashed an amazing nine minutes off his personal best. He finished 450th in a cracking time of 1:27.02. That was a huge improvement on the only previous half marathon which Darrell has run, which was at Gosport last November.
Darrell's is an amazing running story. He only started running last October to fill in for his girlfriend who was due to take part in the Great South Run. "She dropped out after becoming pregnant," explained Darrell. "This meant I wasn't exactly in the best shape for the Gosport Half Marathon, and so that made the improvement at Reading quite easy. Running as fast as you can for 13 miles is never going to be easy, unless you're Kenyan.
"It was a good race to run, with lots of support along the way and loads of drink stations. There were a few hills at the start, though, which took me by surprise.
"The finish was amazing, running in through the stadium and a great roar of cheering pushing me onto the line, which by this point I really needed."
In fact, it was a good day for the club with a number of excellent performances in Berkshire.
Fellow Stubbie Verity Wright finished strongly in 1:55.51 for 5,461th - after taking almost 10 minutes to cross the start line. Next up was Karen Rogers, who was a couple of minutes behind Verity in 1:58.03 for 5,993rd, to lead home a flock of green-vested runners. Paul Hailwood clocked 1:58.20 for 6,049th, Tom Mellor ran 1:58.38 for 6,120th and Philip Owen placed 6,229th and 1:59.04.
Also completing the 13.1 miles were Holly and Kay Bayliss who recorded times of 2:11.28 and 8,465th for Holly and Kay was 8,471st with 2:11.29.
Sarah Boddy and Sue Robinson also ran together, finishing in a time of 2:19.46 for 9,456th and 9,457th positions in a race which featured 11,181 runners.
The race attracted a top quality field who started off in Green Park and finished at the Madejski Stadium, the home of Reading Football Club.
Kenyan Patrick Makau won the race in a staggering time of 1:01.19, three minutes ahead of the nearest challenger. Great Britain international, Liz Yelling, was the first woman home in 20th place overall with 1:09.34.