The sunny spell continued for the eighth of this season’s Hampshire Road Race League races, the scenic Salisbury ten-miler.

Twenty-three Farnham Runners took on the challenge to consolidate the teams’ positions in the league.

There were 12 men in Farnham Runners vests to secure full A, B and C teams, while the ladies fielded 11 runners so the C team just lacked one runner but the team still did well.

The ladies consolidated high positions in the leagues. Their A team came fifth in the top flight and they lie fifth of ten clubs. Their B1 team came fourth and they lie fifth. The C team was also fourth, raising the overall C table position to seventh.

The men’s A1 team was seventh and lie eighth out of ten, the B1 team was fifth and lie tenth and the C team was seventh and lie ninth.

The first two men back both achieved personal best times. Joe Collins ran a splendid time of 58.49 and placed 16th overall over the undulating course and amazingly, as part of his training for the London marathon, continued to run another ten miles, following the first half of the race route and back the same way. Joe Lee, after a long time off with injury was delighted to be back, with a time of 1:02.10.

New member Alex Elsey impressed with 1:02.07 (chip time), clocking the same gun time as Lee. Nick Grist in 1:08.48 put in a strong performance as the fourth member of the A team.

Ivan Chunnett led the B team (1:09.11) followed by fifth M60 Keith Marshall (1:09.30), Colin Addison (1:13.10) and Charles Ashby (1:13.45).

The C team consisted of Richard Denby (1:23.47), Chris Allen (1:27.07), Craig Tate-Grimes (1:38.49) and Howard Inns (1:40.29).

Linda Tyler, first F60 in a new personal best time of 1:13.24, led in the ladies. Next in, Candy Waller (1:14.46), Gemma Whitehouse (1:23.31) and Gill Iffland (1:23.48) also recorded new personal bests.

Tori Shaw (1:27.55), Jane Georghiou (1:29.13, second F70), Kelly Lincoln (1:32.38) and Colette Grist (1:32.39) made up the B team, while Lizzie Collins (1:35.15), Sandra Hickey (1:36.52) and Alison Lamb in her first ten miler (1:47.35) ran for the C team.

In training for forthcoming ultra-distance races four Farnham Runners tackled the Big Feat Winter’s End off road marathon over the South Downs. Ivan Chunnett finished in second place in a remarkable time of 4:24.08 over the challenging course, while Colette Grist, Kate Townsend and Kelly Lincoln clocked six hours 15 minutes.

Three Farnham Runners ran the hilly Brighton marathon. Mike Taylor recorded a time of 4:11.33, while Steve Bailey, after an injury curtailed his training, finished in 4:13.30. After also sustaining an injury in training, Georgie Abrook had to settle for 4:39.35 this time.

Phoebe Thomas showed her potential in Vienna. Her time of 3:04.00 placed her 29th lady and ninth in the senior ladies’ category. Not only that, she was the first British lady home.

By Jane Georghiou