YJ Reports on the Fleet Half Marathon.

What a long way to go for a disappointing run. The Fleet Half Marathon, billed as a warm up for the London Marathon, drew an entry of over two thousand runners for a semi urban-semi rural course, always with a military flavour and a few nuts in fancy dress. Forecast rain eased off just before the start and pre-race comfort was helped by a friend of daughter Sally who had a convenient toilet in her bungalow, level with the starting marker for the 1 hour 40 aspirants.

With such a large entry inevitably the first mile plus the crawl to the start line was slow but thereafter the town centre route was good for running. The next six miles ticked by in 7.22, 7.19, 7.16, 7.28, 7.30, and 7.19. However the first seeds of concern were sown at the three mile feeding station when the niggling thigh strain that has been a recurrent problem on Saturday mornings manifested itself. Easing the pace to a survival level from the seventh mile on saw a frustrating procession of civilian runners and Ghurkas begin to stream past as the race began to wend its way through the Hampshire countryside.

The final miles were clocked at 7.42, 8.22, 8.33, 7.57, 8.19 and 8.33, giving a total time of 1.46.55. So it was a race of two halves (sorry if it sounds like a soccer game) the first half encouraging in that the pace was potentially there for a good time, yet a last six miles of discomfort and frustration.

Other times from the Swift team were son Eden in 1hr 57min, Sally three minutes better than last year in 2hr 10min and Milton's other grandfather in 2hr 25min.

YJ

John, Apologies for this late posting of your article. For some reason BT Yahoo! had assigned it to my spam folder, and I only found it when I was clearing it out. Any ideas as to why it should be so classified would be gratefully received.

Ed