Ultra Marathon

August has been notable for two things: heat and drought. Running in hot weather brings its own challenges, mainly trying to keep hydrated while avoiding heat stroke. Ryan Snell navigated both during the Tadley 10k on August 14th. Running in temperatures exceeding 30 degrees, Ryan completed the course in an impressive time of 36:17 to take second place. Ryan said of the event “the Tadley 10k is a pretty route and was well organised by Tadley runners. It was very hot (unsurprising for August) and there was some climbing in the second half.”

The same day, Jonny Stevens was competing in the Newark half marathon, where he set himself an impressive new PB of 1:38. Jonny noted that “the course was fast and flat and it was a proper warm day, over 30 degrees by the time I finished! I got a PB so it was all worth it. It’s definitely a race I would go back to.”

The following weekend things had cooled down a bit, which was just as well as Alice Lane was taking on the very challenging LDWA event the Dorset Doddle. This involved running from Weymouth to Swanage, a distance of over 32 miles with 1800m elevation. Alice, a seasoned long-distance runner, completed the course in 7:37 hours.

On the same day, Romsey’s Lottie Budd took part in the Big Pilgrimage, a 15-mile run that follows a Pilgrim Way recently rediscovered on the 13th century Gough Map. Lottie, who completed the run in a time of 2:50 hours, said of the experience: “the Big Pilgrimage has to be my favourite race so far. It’s very varied trail but predominantly follows the coast from Southampton to Titchfield with a short ferry ride en route. Despite talking a wrong turn and joining the marathon runners for a short bit, I came 7th in my age group.”

Also competing on August 21st were Louise Holliday and Megan Batchelor who crossed the water to the Isle of Wight to take part in the Ryde half marathon. Louise finished in an excellent time of 2:18 hours, while Megan netted herself a fantastic new PB of 1:55.

Louise said of the race “the Ryde half marathon is an undulating course through Ryde, Nettlestone and St Helens. Some of it was off-road on gravel tracks but otherwise it was mostly on quiet lanes. It was a small, low-key event with only around 200 runners but it was very friendly and I would definitely do it again. I had some trepidation as the race was in the middle of the day in August, but luckily it was a lovely cool morning with glimpses of the sea over the fields every so often to make us think refreshing thoughts!”

Finally, Romsey were in action in the inter-club competition The Mile of Miles at the end of the month. The club fielded two teams for this popular event which this year was held at the athletics track at Mountbatten School. Each team consisted of ten members, with each member running a mile over four laps of the track. Romsey’s teams posted times of 1:06:03 and 1:08:59 respectively, with the faster team taking 8th place overall.