Monthly archives: April 2018

The spring marathons began with Brighton on the 13^th April. Three Romsey Road Runners took on the 26.2miles and each was delighted to achieve a new personal best. With near perfect weather conditions, first home was Dave Gardner in a time of 3hrs 33mins taking a big chunk off his previous pb time, hot on his heels was Becky Tovey finishing in 3hrs 34mins with Joanne McKenzie close behind in 4hrs 13mins.

The weather wasn’t so kind the following weekend on the 22^nd April when 30 Romsey Road Runners turned out to give their all in the scorching temperatures in both the London Marathon and the Southampton marathon, half marathon and 10km. The heat took its toll but everyone fought bravely on to the finish line. It was the 38^th London marathon and Matt Hammerton started behind the elite men having earnt a place on the championship start. Matt crossed the line in an amazing time of 2hrs 48mins with Mark Stileman following closely in a fantastic 3hrs 4mins. Alice Lane did a great job representing Romsey with the club place and finished in 4hrs 44mins and Brenda Topliss achieved 5hrs 23mins. Sadly, it wasn’t to be for Nigel Hemsted who was carrying a calf injury, he flew round the first 15km only to have to make the brave decision to pull out just before the 20km mark when his calf got worse.

Meanwhile, in Southampton there were a few personal bests in the marathon, Neil Jennings was the 11^th runner overall to cross the finish line in a fantastic time of 2hrs 56mins with Remi Francois completing his 2^nd marathon in a time of 4hrs 2mins. In the half marathon Alex Prinsep finished in 1hr 30mins, Jonny Williams 1.39, Penny Jennings 1.55, Keith Morris 1.56, Liz Prinsep 1.58, Cliff Reeves 2.01, Mark Winkworth 2.01, Annie Tomlinson 2.03, Liz Slade 2.06, Ian and Katy Winkworth 2.16, Anna Duignan 2.17, Dylan Needham 2.17 and Sarah Savage in 2.30. In the 10km race, Ray Webb won his age category finishing in 48.17, other runners included Franky Tripp 52.40, Trevor Bond 56.45, Colin Williams 56.54, Hannah Hunt 57.52, Lin Webb 1.04, Heidi Godfrey 1.06 and Wendy Couper also winning her age category in 1hr 21mins. Well done to all!

In recent weeks Romsey Road Runners competed in various races with some runners challenging themselves to new distances. On the 25th March Cranleigh 21 provided a good training run for several runners who are preparing for Spring marathons. Dave Gardner was very happy with his new personal best, finishing in a great time of 2hr 45mins closely followed by Jo McKenzie and Becky Tovey in 3hr

5mins. Meanwhile, over in Wickham, Mark Stileman came 2nd overall in the inaugural Hundred Acres half marathon in a time of 1hr 23mins whilst his wife Sue completed the 5km race in 25mins.

During the Easter weekend David Nixon showed he hadn’t lost his touch in an orienteering trail event at the Cannock Chase Festival, David finished 2nd place overall. Whilst the majority of us ate Easter eggs, Alice Lane, Julie Shanker and Becky Tovey made the journey to Devon for a 4-day Coast to Coast challenge covering 117miles over 4 days. Starting in South Dartmoor and finishing in Exmoor the girls braved every element and terrain possible to successfully complete what they had started together with much relief and a massive sense of achievement. Over in the Isle of Wight, Sue Sleath had a good run in the West Wight 3 hills race, a rather muddy 8 miler finishing in 1hr 4mins and 2nd lady overall.

Romsey’s Abigail Cooke had to wait a long time to achieve her goal of completing the SDW50 (South Downs Way 50) having pulled out last year due to injury. Abi was extremely happy to lay the ghost to rest this year, her patience and training paid off, when on the 8th April she flew round the tough “50mile” course from Worthing to Eastbourne in a fantastic time of 9hr 50mins. Keeping up the long-distance theme Francesca Hough completed her first Ultra, the Test Way Ultra, a 44mile route from Coombs Gibbet along the rather muddy Test Way to Totton. Francesca finished in a great time of 10hr 47mins.

Romsey wrapped the results up with some personal bests in the ever-popular Salisbury 10miler. First home for the club was Mark Stileman in 1hr 1min, closely followed by Alex Prinsep in 1hr 5mins and Ian Winkworth taking 5 minutes off his PB to finish in 1hr 7mins.  It was Keith Morris’ first attempt at this distance he was pleased with his time finishing in 1hr 19min. Liz Prinsep also gained a new personal best in 1hr 24mins, Katy Winkworth debuted at the distance finishing in 1hr 26mins, followed by Sue Stileman returning from injury in 1hr 33mins.

At the Bournemouth 10k, Mary Nixon made it round in a fantastic 1h 3mins.