Stubbington Green Runners & AC

On a very sunny though crisp day 20 Stubbies made their way to Lord Wandsworth College, Long Sutton for the first ever Todays Runner event to take place on a Monday although conditions on the course were very wet and muddy which took its toll on a number of runners.

In the men's race Andy led the team home with a fine run to finish in 4th place with Chris only five places further back to give us two runners in the top ten. Tony (32nd) was our next runner home in his first appearance of the season whilst Graham was our fourth runner to cross the line in 48th place. Mike was one of those runners who fell foul of the course when he took a really bad fall and suffered a very bad gash to his right knee whilst landing on a rock. However he bravely carried on for the benefit of the team and it was a tremendous effort to make the final scoring position. The injury proved to be so bad it has led to a spell in hospital in order to clear it up so we all hope for a speedy recovery. 

In the ladies race Susie led the team home in 5th place whilst Lucy was the next Stubbie lady in with her best run to date to cross the line in 22nd place. It then came down to a battle between Linda and Jane for the third scoring place which resulted in Linda just edging it by three places to make the scoring team for the first time, the result of which led to the ladies finishing 8th on the day. Leanna was another to suffer injury through the course conditions but like Mike also managed to complete the race. With Donna still in recovery mode from the Portsmouth Coastal marathon she opted to run round with Sarah, a move which was to the benefit of Sarah as she was pulled through to her best finish by some margin.  
 
Despite considerably better finishing positions than at Farnham which consequently led to a much lower points total the men were only two places higher in fifth which indicates a much stronger men's field took part. As a result of the combined finishing positions we were sixth equal with Portsmouth Joggers on the day. After three races in the series Farnham Runners head the league with 2 points with Midhurst close behind with 4. Liss are currently lying third with 5 points while we currently find ourselves 5 points behind in seventh.
 
Results
Men                                                             Ladies
4 Andy Simpson                                            5 Susie MacGregor
9 Chris Hall                                                 22 Lucy May
32 Tony Smith                                             63 Linda Hunt
48 Graham Bell                                            66 Jane Butler
76 Mike Harper                                            68 Leanna Whaley
88 Jon Leigh                                                85 Sarah Martin
92 Sam Bell                                                 86 Donna Mitchell
93 Phil Martin
97 Nick Kimber
109 Paul Hammond
133 Phil May
136 Owen White
184 Kevin Ashman
 
Just a reminder that the next Todays Runner fixture is our own race being held at Manor Farm Country Park on Sunday 29th January at 11.00am. Whilst I have already had offers to marshal and help out from some club members I am still desperately short of numbers for the day so if you can spare a couple of hours and are able to assist in any way please contact me either by email - john_tussler@hotmail.com - or by phone (02392 347962/07887791670). Your help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Di McEwen and her ever-willing team of helpers will again be laying on food after the race and I am sure she would be very pleased to receive any contributions by way of cakes or any other food items. Please contact her on 01329 662091 if you can help in this respect.

Photos here.