It’s been a fantastic month for the Romsey Road Runners. We’ve had great results in ultramarathons to 10ks and everything in between!
The start of the month saw the last race of the CC6 Cross Country season at Itchen Valley Country park. For a club of our size we ranked very well in the final championship standings. With Jonathan Pillinger-Cork winning his age category and coming 4th overall, Hannah Shutt 4th in the women’s results, Ray Webb 2nd in his age category and Penny Jennings, Lin Windsor and Elizabeth Prinsep 4th, 5th and 6th in theirs. As always it was a great season and a fantastic free way for members of the club to get into cross country racing. We look forward to the next season in the autumn.
Sunday 17th March was an extremely busy day for members of the club. Four members participated in the Hundred Hills 50k Ultra Marathon in the Chilterns. Hannah Shutt finished in just 5:01:22 and was 4th lady, Ian Ralph in 5:20:16, Steven Melligan-Hart in 5:28:27 (his first ultra!) and Susie Parker in 6:36:25.
As a bit of a club staple it was no surprise that we had a great turn out at the Salisbury 10 with seven club members taking part. Matt Bennett was 7th with another strong performance, finishing in just 57:20. Other great club results were Mark Stileman (1:01:26), Neil Jennings (1:08:19), Elizabeth Prinsep (1:12:03 – a 10 mile PB!), Duncan MacDonald (1:16:07), Keith Morris (1:19:33) and Penny Jennings (1:27:25).
Hayley Weston ran the Great Welsh Marathon in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire and won the women’s race in a massive PB time of 3:07:24. We look forward to seeing how she does at the Boston Marathon in a few weeks!
We also had results from Lottie Budd who did the Bath Half in 2:23:28, Nikkie Baptista who ran the Milton Keynes Festival of Running 20 miler in 3:21:24 and John Wheatley and Nigel Hemsted who ran the Ox ‘N’ Wood Trail 20 miler in 2:50:38 and 3:32:15.
The next weekend on the 24th March saw another huge race for the club at the Eastleigh 10k with a huge 27 finishes from the club. Alex Prinsep who has been going from strength to strength over the past year got a 10km PB of 33:43, Alex Young wasn’t far behind with 33:56 and we had some amazing age category results with Amanda Hull, Elizabeth Prinsep and Nigel Hemsted all getting 4th in their age categories and Ray Webb coming 5th in his.
The Eastleigh 10k is my 7th and shortest race to date this year – mainly running Halves, my first was in Tromsø- northern Norway in January. My running calendar is pretty full the next few months including 5 different countries. Eastleigh is special and always so well attended by the Romsey Road Runners!
Lottie Budd
Cracking day for running the Eastleigh 10k. Felt good, but just missed my PB by 1 minute.
Mark Judkins
On the same day believe it or not, we also had Em Gordon run the LDWA Cerne Giant Challenge 20 miler in 4:19:09, Tam Ryan run the 30 version in 7:16:01.
“I did the Cerne Giant Challenge on Sunday, it’s an LDWA event starting & finishing in the picturesque village of Cerne Abbas, gorgeous day rather muddy & hilly with almost 4,500ft elevation but over 31miles of beautiful Dorset countryside.” Tam Ryan
Jack Wood ran the Thames Riverside 20 miler in 2:47:57, David Morrison ran the Fleet Half Marathon in 1:21:00 and Penny Overy run the Queen Elizabeth Country Park Trail Half Marathon in 2:32:00.
