Four intrepid Romsey road runners, Matt Hammerton, Steve Reed, Jimmy Hunt and Toby Burrow made the long trip to the small Welsh village of Talybont on Usk in the Brecon Beacons National Park for the Sleepwalker night race, a 20 mile off-road self-navigation trail race with a mixture of tram paths, fire tracks, marsh and moorland based around the Talybont reservoir with the added challenge of it being at night, starting at 6pm. The weather was far from ideal having been raining for the whole day making the course more of a challenge! Continue reading
Daniel
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A dry crisp Sunday morning set the scene for the Gosport Half marathon. There was a good turn out of Romsey Runners with 8 taking part. Conditions for runners were near perfect, little wind, cool and dry. The course is flat and provided a number of runners with personal bests. First Romsey man home was Jimmy Hunt in 1:19:38; first Romsey lady was Lynda Brown in 1:37:31, both PBs. Continue reading
Romsey Road Runners held their annual awards evening at the White Horse Hotel in Romsey. After an excellent meal, and before the disco, the awards were presented. Winners this year are Winter Cross Country – Anni Dawes and Mark Adams, RR10 – Amanda Hull and Matt Hammerton, Pentathlon – Amanda Hull and Ali Longworth, a new veterans pentathlon trophy was kindly donated by Greg Roulston and was won by Liz Slade, the Sally Sillence trophy for performance – Tamatha Ryan, club 5k Time Trial –David Nixon and the Chairman’s award went to David Page.
The prestigious Romsey Road Runner of the Year went to Heidi Godfrey. Heidi won by a landslide and accumulated more votes than all the other nominees put together, recognising the hard work that she puts into the club.
Tidworth 10K in which Romsey Runners Gill Callus and Wendy Couper took part, was a muddy slippery affair. The run took place over a challenging course on varied terrain through the Army camp at Tidworth, including Salisbury Plain and Sidbury Hill. The event was a sponsored run to raise funds for the Salisbury District Hospital Stars Appeal. It did, however, stop raining by the time the runners started. Gill Callus finished in 77 minutes with Wendy just behind her in 79 minutes. Continue reading
The 30th Abingdon Marathon took place on Sunday and a team of 5 Romsey Road Runners entered the event. The autumnal morning gave chilly and foggy conditions but this did not deter the 732 runners from lining up and completing the flat course, which included a two lap section around the villages of Drayton, Milton, and Sutton Courtenay, before becoming back through the town and into Tilsley Park for a finish in front of the grandstand. The well-organised event received excellent support from local residents.
Sunday 14th October saw both the Liverpool Marathon and Oxford Half Marathon take place. Romsey runner, Lynda Brown took part in the Oxford event with her brother, Michael Todd. The race was started by Oxford resident Sir Roger Bannister, from the Kassam Stadium. Over 4,000 participants raced through Oxford’s streets, taking in the sights of the Thames towpath and the Cowley car factory, whilst being cheered on by supporters. Both siblings ran the event together, finishing in an impressive 1 hour 41 minutes – a good sub 8 minute mile pace. This was a 4 minute improvement for Lynda, 1:41:24, and marked the first ever half marathon for her brother,1:41:37, – PB’s all round! Continue reading
Five Romsey runners took part in the Clarendon Half Marathon on Sunday 8th October, an annual event now organised by the Rotary Clubs of Winchester and Salisbury. The day includes a cross-country marathon from Salisbury to Winchester along the Clarendon Way, with the half marathon joining from Broughton to Winchester. The route was undulating with the ground underfoot quite wet from a lot of rain over the week leading up to the event. On the day, it was dry and the sun shone for most of it; excellent conditions for Amanda Hull to claim 1st female club position and 3rd senior female. Finishers: Amanda Hull 01:36:56, Candice Snelling 01:49:37, Fiona Crowther 01:53:57, Penny Jennings 01:59:28 and Charlotte Maslen 02:21:15. Continue reading
Wet and blustery conditions did not deter Amanda Hull from Romsey Road Runners from achieving an outstanding performance in the recent New Forest Half Marathon. Amanda completed the undulating course in 1:28:05 – gaining automatic entry to next year’s London Marathon. Amanda finished 3rd female and was presented with her prize by local well known athlete, Liz Yelling. Wendy Yelland and Elaine Armstrong also completed with times of 1:44:23 and 2:11:15 respectively. Continue reading
On Sunday 16th September local event The Bounder proved to a winning race for Romsey runners. Tam Ryan was first lady to finish in 1:13:26 and Matt Hammerton first man. Matt was the overall winner of the event, completing the 9 mile route and setting a new course record in just 53:54.
The Bounder is organised by the Broughton Bounders Running Club and involves 1,000ft of ascent, starting in Broughton village with a steep climb followed by rolling chalk down lands of the Test Valley, with a few more challenging hills thrown in for good measure. Also finishing were Duncan Dickinson in 1:05:48 and Alice Lane in 1:37:05. Continue reading
It was a busy weekend for Romsey Road Runners, with runners competing in the Test Way Relay, the London Duathlon, the VLT Triathlon and the Stockbridge 10k. Saturday 8th September saw the annual Test Way Relay take place with a number of local running clubs making their way along the Test Way, starting at Inkpen Beacon and finishing in Totton. Runners complete the route as a relay consisting of 8 runners, each running a leg between 4.5 and 6 miles in distance. Teams can comprise of male or female runners or a mix of both. RRR had both a men’s and a ladies team, with the ladies finishing 3rd in a time of 6:14:13 and the men finishing some half an hour behind them, in 6:49:58 in 9th place. Continue reading