Twelve Farnham Runners travelled to the south coast for the Solent Half Marathon, the second race in this season’s Hampshire Road Race League.

Starting and finishing on the field at Gang Warily, the course mainly follows country roads and includes the New Forest around Exbury and the Solent shore at Lepe.

Runners sometimes need to give way to the New Forest wild ponies and had to look out for the water buffalo around mile ten. More than 400 runners took part.

First to finish for Farnham was James Clarke, who was seventh overall and second M40. He was followed by James Lyons in 1:30.25 and Nick Grist in 1:35.06. Ivan Chunnett completed the men’s A team in 1:36.31.

Chris Raby headed the B team in 1:38.25 to finish second M60, followed by Paul Keogh in 1:42.08, Justin Clarke in 1:44.11 and James Goodwin in 1:46.41. Nick Haire completed the course in 1:59.48.

The ladies were depleted in numbers and there weren’t enough for a complete team.

Linda Tyler was the first Farnham lady to cross the finish line in 1:45.09 and collected the first F60 prize. Ali Mitchell was next in 1:56.10, and Gemma Whitehouse completed the course in 2:05.49.

Jane Georghiou completed a half marathon representing Great Britain and Northern Ireland. She was taking part in the European Masters (outdoor) Championships in Pescara in Italy. She was the third F70 finisher in the race and received a bronze medal.

The GB team managers selected her as part of the F65 team, which was awarded the silver team medal. Three days earlier Georghiou was the second member of the GB F70 team in the 10km and the team won the silver medal.

Chris Matthews represented the club in the Age Group Marathon World Championships in Chicago.

Chris set off just a few metres behind the elite men’s field. Setting a new personal best of just over two hours and 46 minutes, Chris placed 61st in his age group and 164th overall. He broke the Farnham Runners M45 club marathon record by three minutes and 40 seconds.

Matt Saker ran the Berlin marathon. His time of 3:59.29 was his seventh under three hours since 2017.

Two ladies from Farnham Runners crossed the border into Wales for the Gower Coastal Trail Races – a long distance event following the Wales Coast Path around the beautiful Gower Peninsula organised by the aptly-named Run, Walk, Crawl company.

Linda Tyler opted for the 34-mile Gower Ultra Bach (Little), starting at Weobley Castle on the north Gower Coast and following several miles of muddy trails leading to the stretch of sand at Rhossilli Bay. This is where Sue Taylor was waiting to start the 23-mile Trail Race.

Both distances followed the coastal path along the cliff tops, down into beach side coves and across farmland to Port Eynon, before crossing the beach at Oxwich Bay, negotiating the sand dunes around Three Cliffs Bay, passing through Langland and Caswell Bay and finishing at Mumbles Cricket Club.

Sue was delighted to finish tenth female in the Trail Race with a time of 5:22.58. Linda completed the Ultra Bach in 8:22.55 and was 20th female.

The regular club post-run talks continued with an inspirational presentation by former member Susie Chan, who has completed the Marathon des Sables race three times.

Linda Tyler & Jane Georghiou