Thanks to Tom from Ryde Harriers for this report, Ed
This latest Hampshire Road Race League fixture has featured on-course flooding in most of the proceeding years and Sunday’s pre-race deluge helped to maintain this record.
However, there will still many pleased Island runners crossing the line with new personal bests, as the excellent route is mainly flat on very quiet country roads with cheerful, if soggy, marshals to keep the tired athlete encouraged.
A plethora of personal bests
Ryde Harriers men’s team maintained their good showing so far in this season’s events with another notable team performance.
First home was Tom Blackwell setting a new pb by over two minutes as he finished in 61:14. He was followed by Pete Young, fresh from his victory in the vet 65 category at the British Masters half-marathon. Pete’s time of 68:10 gave him second place in the vet 60 category.
Team captain Pete Still came next, also setting a pb in his first run since the IW marathon in 70:36. Final pb came from Brian Warren whose time of 77:45 was forty seconds quicker than his Great South time of a week before. Final Harrier home was John Randles in 1:35:46.
Maximum points for Sillito and Fancourt
Tuesday night’s club meet was the first time round the older 10km course for this winter series with two Harriers managing the feat of being perfect nominators.
Rowland Sillito and Samantha Fancourt both took maximum points as they paced their runs exactly to the second, Rowland in 47 minutes and Samantha in 54 minutes. Fastest on the night was Adam Tuck in 38:41 and Julie King was fastest woman in 45:52.
