Alresford 10k
If you needed to lose a few pounds then Alresford was the place to be on a warm June day, on a course that apart from the last 100mtrs, was either up or downhill!
As long as you don’t mind running for two minutes more than you should for a 10k then I can thoroughly recommend this friendly village race. It was well organized, well marshaled, and had welcome water stops.
Once through the picturesque village it was up and down on a traffic free country lane for a couple of kilometers until reaching the halfway 5k turning point. Then returning the same way meant a chance to realize that there were plenty of other runners working just as hard as you! It wasn’t totally out and back, as we then came into the village from the west, having left to the east. The finish was well supported, with quite a long lap of the field, still uphill, before a flat sprint in.
The four Stubby runners were led in by Andy Simpson, who had been outsprinted out of the field by a very keen local runner! I think I passed him flagging considerably around 2k, the local guy, not Andy, those days appear to have gone! I managed to sneak into the top ten, just getting past Tony - who was having his first run in the green colours – in the long sprint in. Rick was hoping for a sub 50 min run but a bad calf injury put pay to that and he made it round in under the hour. The race was won by Julian Manning from Denmead in 34.25 a new course record, and the only lady to get round in under 45 mins was Lynne Whitaker from Romsey in exactly 44 mins.
The children’s races were the usual stampede, but Chloe Simpson showed her Dad how to pace a race with a good start and then moved through her rivals to be the first girl in the 500mtr dash. Mike Harper.
5th Andy Simpson 36.36 mins
9th Mike Harper 39.16 mins
10th Tony Smith 39.24 mins
187th Rick Scott 56.58 mins
287 Finishers
500 mtr dash
1st Girl Chloe Simpson
Mid pack Ryan Simpson