Stubbington Green Runners & AC

With over 1,200 finishers the local Half Marathon is proving as popular as our own 10k!

The new course is a significant improvement on last years first attempt at a new route. The last two miles of any Half are going to be tough, so running along the fast flat promenade and cycle track with the wind behind you, is about as good as you are going to get. The start was better, but still very congested, our mid pack runners walked for 30 secs to reach the start line, so for those at the back it must have been nearer a minute. The finish was a massive improvement, no short turn into a field this year. It was a good straight sprinters finish.

In the airfield, there was an interesting lake to run through twice, but it wasn’t anywhere near as windy as we had feared after the gales of Saturday. The marshalls were very supportive, and the band was a popular brief distraction from your aches at 11 miles! Also it was great to see lots of friendly Stubbie faces and hear the much appreciated encouragement. Overall, really well done to Dave Little and the Gosport Race committee, superb effort.

Leading the Green charge, but unusually not the early race leader, was Andy. With Mark, Lewis and Zippy all unable to run, but all out in support, Andy was left as our only sub 80 min runner. He is now within a minute of my p.b (sorry Andy your 13.1 mile timing during the Bramley 20, doesn’t count!) after an excellent run that brought him home in 13th place, and 6th Hampshire athlete. After swapping places a few times Chris just managed to edge out Mike to be the next home, they were closely followed by Wayne, who is improving with every race, as our ‘A’ team finished in 4th place and are now 2nd in the league. We have an abundance of 6 min milers at present. Leading home the ‘B’ team was Graham and Dave, closely followed by Tony, who had moved away from me at about ten miles. I managed to drop Alastair along the promenade, and he, Chris, Tim and Kev scored so well that as our ‘C’ team they beat every other ‘B’ team too!
With 30 men running we must have had the largest contingent, except perhaps the Serpentine runners who brought down a coach load from London for their Championships! Many of our guys ran p.b’s, which with the December road break is excellent incentive to keep training hard through to the New Year for our 10k and Ryde 10.

The ladies were 5th team, just edging out Denmead by two points, so every lady that Susie, Tina and Georgie battled past was worth the effort! That result leaves us 3rd in Div 1, which hopefully we can consolidate with a strong showing at our 10k. Running 7 min miles Susie couldn’t quite stay with Phil May, but it’s only a matter of time Phil! That result leaves Susie 21st in the HRRL league, and the only lady in the top 40 to have run all 5 races. As we all need at least 7 to complete the season, Susie should finish top 10 as half the runners won’t manage 7 races, and the more we do our percentage goes up, as we then drop our poorer results! Tina and Georgie have both been unwell recently so their results were all the more impressive.

Just behind Georgie was Gill and Gerry, leading our ladies B team to 6th place in Div 1 and maintaining our 2nd overall position. Gill has been hampered by injury but still managed to knock a few seconds off her best run and Gerry looked so fresh at the end of her longest run for years! As at Lordshill, Jas completed the B team, in a fraction over 2hrs. It was good to see five more ladies taking on this distance and giving Robert some more Stubby company at just over 2 hours.

Well done to everyone, and if you haven’t got a place in our 10k then please offer to marshall and give everyone a cheer.

After our 10k, is the Ryde 10 mile, which is on Feb 7th. Last year it was so cold and windy, but I’m sure it will be perfect this year! If anyone runs a p.b there I’ll buy them a pint, and the Club will hopefully cover the ferry cost, as we usually travel over together. It is a really good day. Please let me know when you do enter, unless of course you are in p.b form! Mike Harper.

To check your individual placings and see that your team needs you, check it all out on Graham Coleman’s (Victory A.C.) excellent HRRL site www.hrrl.org.uk

Click here for photos.

Men						Women
13TH	ANDY	SIMPSON	01:14:46			243RD	SUSIE	MacGREGOR	01:31:12	5TH FV40
48TH	CHRIS	HALL	01:20:20	4TH V45		478TH	TINA	CHANTREY	01:40:32
49TH	MIKE	WHITE	01:20:37	2ND V50		579TH	GEORGIE	WALLIS	01:44:49
54TH	WAYNE	EWENS	01:21:21			608TH	GILL	ROSE	01:46:07
59TH	GRAHAM	BELL	01:21:35	11TH V40		630TH	GERRY	PERRIER	01:46:48
60TH	DAVE	JEFFREY	01:21:42	12TH V40		949TH	JAS	SMITH	02:00:19
63RD	TONY	SMITH	01:21:52			1097TH	KATHRYN	DAVIS	02:11:36
78TH	MIKE	HARPER	01:22:51	7TH V45		1112TH	SANDRA	ABRAMS	02:13:36
87TH	ALASTAIR	EWING	01:23:27	5TH V50		1127TH	KAREN	ROGERS	02:15:04
93RD	CHRIS	MUNRO	01:23:56			1143RD	SHARON	WHITE	02:17:03
109TH	TIM	SULLIVAN	01:24:46	12TH V45		1171ST	CLAIRE	MARTINELLI	02:22:39
134TH	KEV	WHEELER	01:26:09
216TH	PHIL	MAY	01:30:01	17TH V50
262ND	JOHN	WILLIAMS	01:31:52
327TH	PAUL	HAMMOND	01:34:31
353RD	MARCUS	LEE	01:35:35
409TH	PHIL	MARTIN	01:37:53
416TH	ROBERT	BLACKMORE	01:38:27
438TH	DAN	HORSCROFT	01:38:55
450TH	COLIN	ELDERFIELD	01:39:16
453RD	KEITH	CARTER	01:39:31
508TH	JOHN	BLAKE	01:42:12
559TH	DAVID	ABRAMS	01:44:25
600TH	RICHARD	SNELL	01:45:52
635TH	ZAC	CONATY	01:46:56
728TH	ERIC	BECK	01:51:00
791ST	PAUL	SOUTHON	01:53:59
815TH	AITKEN	HUNTER	01:54:48
822ND	ALAN	WHITE	01:55:05
1142ND	ROBERT	SPENCER	02:17:03
1211	FINISHERS