Todays Runner, Lord Wandsworth College
When 23 members of the club arrived at Lord Wandsworth College near Long Sutton for the fourth round of the Todays Runner series they discovered a course which was very frozen and rutted with the occasional patches of deep icy mud and water. However the race went ahead and all were hardy enough to tackle the tricky conditions although many were taking it carefully with the upcoming 10k in mind.
Andy Simpson has consistently had top three finishes and this race was no exception as he crossed the line a close second only 20 metres or so behind a runner from Basingstoke and District. He was very well supported by Dave Jeffery (4th) and Mike White (7th) to give us three runners in the top ten. Alistair Ewing and Chris Munro were the next Green vests home in 27th and 35th respectively to complete the scoring positions which culminated in the men finishing in third place behind Farnham and Basingstoke.
Other men's finishers: Kevin Wheeler (53rd), Tim Sullivan (60th), Nick Crane (77th), John Leigh (88th), Paul Hammond (106th), Nick Kimber (110th), Paul Hailwood (118th), Neil Jarvis (122nd), Mike Harper (134th), Mike Clarke (135th), Alan White (137th), Andy Tomlinson (162nd), Peter Hutchison (179th) [193 runners].
For the ladies Susie MacGregor was one of those treating the course with caution and as a consequence her finishing position of 14th was down on her previous results. Susie was very closely followed by Tina Chantrey in 16th whilst Georgie Wallis completed the scoring positions coming in 29th a result which placed the ladies 6th. The combined result gave us an equal fourth position overall on the day with Farnham Tri behind Farnham (1st), Basingstoke (2nd) and Hart (3rd). Two other ladies braving the conditions were Ann Blake (63rd) and Jaz Smith who, despite taking a heavy fall early on in the race and injuring her arm and shoulder, was determined to carry on and finish the race doing well to come in ahead of 12 other ladies to cross the line in 66th place.
All in all a commendable effort by everybody and let's hope for better conditions for the next race which takes place at Liss on 24th January (details to follow).
John Tussler.