South of England Championships
An intrepid team of Stubbies entered the ‘Southerns’ this year held at Parliament Hill in London. As usual the course still is the ultimate in cross country courses, hills, clingy mud, gloopy mud and muddy down hills. We arrived early for Ollie’s race at 11:00 and the course looked green and frozen in places! When the men went off it was sticky and horrible.
Ollie, running for Portsmouth, came to the top of the hill 8th from the back and when he came into the home straight he had managed to climb up to 198th and finished really well taking runners in the last 100, Mum, Sharon, was really proud!
Next off were the Stubbington ladies: Tina, Sally, Lucy, Andrea and Sharon.
This was Tina, Andrea and Sally's first Parliament Hill run and they all enjoyed the experience, although warming up took on a whole new meaning as it was bitterly cold! Tina incorporated her run with her marathon training and after her race went off for another circuit to get the hours and mileage in but still couldn’t get warm even with four layers on!! Andrea wasn’t too traumatised by the hill and had a good run and can be really proud of her run against the best in Southern England, considering she’s only been running for a year, and all the girls can equally feel proud of their efforts.
Tina led home the team followed shortly after by Sally, Lucy was only two minutes behind and then Andrea and Sharon, who continued her battle with Marilyn from Victory AC and managed to stay ahead again for this race! Also running was former Stubby Kirsty Gueran who ran for the Met Police and finished 312th.
The men’s race started with half the field still trying to get through the chip tent set up to check that all the athletes had their chips on before the race, so once the gun went off there was a stampede that Calgary would be proud of as 100 athletes rushed through the gap in the tent! We all climbed the hill without problems and then out into the countryside, Gordon and Phil ran together for the first lap but then lack of fitness took its toll on Phil who then dropped back and said afterwards the race was six miles too long! Gordon, in the meantime, managed to catch up close to John but neither could stay with Nick who finished well up the field. Phil May.
Tina Chantrey 223 40:03
Sally McGrath 239 40:51 (16th Vet 45)
Lucy May 278 42:24
Andrea Charleson 347 47:08
Sharon White 366 51:31
Stubbington was the 52nd ladies team
Nick Crane 651 72:30
John Gueran 763 77:41
Gordon Westley 768 78:18
Phil May 861 90:34