December Stag

It was another excellent turn-out of 23 runners on a cold and slightly breezy night in Parson's Close and it resulted in some close competition. Overall leader Mandy Clay was given a "challenging" handicap by Dave with a target of beating her PB by a distance in order to give the rest of us a chance as she set off first.

As it turned out though, it was Chris Large, fresh from his trip to Lanzarote that returned to his form of two seasons ago to win the race by 18 seconds from James Bell who was unbelievably making his debut and had blagged a good handicap. the genuine PB'ers then streamed over the finish line behind James, with Liz Peters, Adam Haylock, Sam Dear and Lorraine Holloway-McLean all recording best times. Sam notably ducked under 15 minutes for the first time. read more

Wolverton 5

By Pat Neilan

November 29th, a sunny cloudless sky and temperature of 11 to 12 deg C. Sounds like running weather? Well it was just perfect for the 50th running of the Wolverton 5.

Only thing though, it's not in Wolverton now, but around Willen Lake in Milton Keynes. A flat scenic course, inviting enough to get me interested. The race was first held in 1965 and has been run every year since on the last Saturday in November. The original course was two laps round the Wolverton Railway Works, but for reasons of traffic congestion it was moved to Willen Lakeside in 1991. The first and last times I ran it were in 1986 (29:27)and 1988 (30:04) so time to give it another go? read more

Half Marathon PB by the Sea

I hadn’t even thought about running the Gosport Half Marathon a few weeks ago. I’d got my PB at the Great Eastern Run in Peterborough at the start of October (76.56) and was delighted by beating my previous PB by 5 minutes and my previous best of 2014 by 8 minutes. 

 

It all changed when my fiancé Sarah (who was due for her half debut at the Blenheim Palace Half also at the start of October, but got ill so couldn’t do enough training) decided she wanted to go for another half before we went on holiday. I looked around for halves nearby that would be good for a beginner and the Gosport half popped out at me. The course was flat and promised great views over the Solent and it was only 20 minutes drive from my granny’s flat in Portsmouth! It was less than £20 to run so Sarah signed up.  read more

The Dirt Half

By Adam Haylock

 

Many months ago when the sun was shining and the days were long, Glen sent out a message to see who fancied running the Dirt Half this year. Apparently it fills up early so I thought “why not?”, and entered.  Throughout the summer I have continued to avoid hills and any kind of long runs until a couple of weeks ago when I stepped up my training and put in one 10 miler and a single 13.1 mile test run. What gets me about half marathons is that all of a sudden you have to start taking it seriously – proper training, fuelling, hydration and improved race tactics, so the preparation started the night before by only drinking 4 cans of Stella. read more

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