Fleet Half Marathon - 24th March 2024
This race report is sponsored by Howden Group.
I am sure that there are corny expressions about speed/pace not mattering so long as you complete the distance or enjoy the journey. Was it Confucius or some cheesy motivational quote I saw on Pinterest? Either way try telling this to the 11 members of the Farnham Town Running Club who achieved a PB at the Fleet Half Marathon. Quite an achievement bearing in mind that this number is almost half of the 23 members who started the race. But more of this below.
The Fleet Half Marathon was born in 1982, the year after the first London Marathon in 1981. A group of runners of Fleet & Crookham had the idea to start a pre-London training run and the Fleet Half was born. For me, and hundreds of other amateur runners, it is one of the first events I look for in my race calendar, so well is it organised and executed on the day itself. The fact that it's local, takes place in Spring (so is often not miserably cold/wet) and I grew up in Fleet of course helps and makes me slightly biased.
To the day itself. In the short history of our club there are days and events that we point to as being milestones of our (still) fledgling club e.g. Endure24, the recent 2024 Annual Awards, the Great South Run and other events (Yateley 10km etc) but today, 24th March, will also go down as a high watermark for our club. To have over 25% of our membership either participating or spectating was quite remarkable.
The day itself was, at times, a beautiful Spring day in Fleet but standing at the start in short sleeves in cold, windy conditions made me wish for the starting gun to sound sooner than the official staring time of 9:30am. However, the weather was perfect for running, once we got going, so no complaints on that front nor excuses for poor performance.
The route had been changed again (grumble alert - why do they feel the need to tinker with the route so frequently?) - so whilst there was no Pale Lane switchback, we didn't actually go anywhere near Winchfield or Crookham Village, which I find a shame as these are pretty villages and add to the race experience. Instead we had 2 tedious switchbacks, both frustrating for different reasons (one was too congested and the other too long!). However, they do serve a purpose in helping me to see the exhaustion and pain in fellow runners when they're running towards you. And, of course, saying Hi to fellow club members is always nice as well as acting as a spur when you do the calculation of how far they are behind you,
Speaking of the switchbacks I saw the first 3 FTRC members to finish ahead of me in the 2nd switchback (on the road to Hartley Wintney). The first FTRC member to finish was Seb Bodily with a highly credible time of 1:27:59, followed by Charlie Boffin (1:32:00) and then Harvey Wickham (1:38:38). The remaining 19/20 members came home in very respectable times and in short intervals after each other.
However, the roll call of honour belongs to all of the following members who either ran the Fleet Half for the first time or ran a PB:
Jack Jeffrey - PB (of course)/Fleet debut
Emma Heath - PB
Emma Roberts - PB
Jordan Hales - PB/Fleet debut
Debbie Hardman - PB/first half marathon
Zoe Davies - PB
Melissa Carr - PB/first half marathon
Ian Powell - PB
Jonathan Craig - PB
Charlie Dale - PB
Lindsay Hardman – PB
Sam Wake - PB
Owen Hardy - Fleet debut
Sophie Deadman-Nicholls - Fleet debut
Also running in the pink and black Farnham Town RC colours on the day (and not mentioned above) were:
Laura Bartlett
Pete Mulley
Kyla Whitefoot
Charlotte Bradford
Stuart Williamson
Well done all! With obvious apologies to anyone that I've missed & the factual inaccuracies!
A special mention to the supporters who came out to support, again too many to mention individually but we were all really grateful for your motivational words of encouragement at the start, your shouting us support on the route and coming down to see us at the finish. We are all truly appreciative. However, the brandishing/taunting of the bacon roll by our esteemed Chair was a bit mean!!
Also, a special mention to Owen who paced for Debbie Hardman to a highly impressive 1:52 on debut. However, Owen has now recently offered his pacing services for other runners in 2 recent races (I think the London Vitality 10km was the other?) - thereby unselfishly giving up his own race ambitions to help others. Bravo my friend.
Also, a mention to Ian Powell who, after completing the race 12-minutes quicker than his pre-race estimate, then ran home (from Fleet to Farnham!). Wow, that took some doing, I ran a very slow 1-mile cool down!!
This race report was kindly written by FTRC club member Stuart Williamson.