On a overcast, muggy, warm day at Fleming Park (20th April 2022) it was our turn to host (with Southampton AC) an RR10. It was an unique race as it counted towards the final race of 2021 season and the first race of the 2022 season. Unfortunately this was due with the last minute cancellation of last years’ race with no fault to our own club. I felt the energy from everyone was enthusiastic and put their all into the event & felt as if we were making up for last year. I would like to thank everyone from Peter our director to the lead marshals, deputies, marshals , refreshment crew, start/finish line and tail runners. Without you all we could not host this awesome event. Please see below comment from Pete.
"Thank you all for the help marshalling, setting up, and taking down at Fleming park last Wednesday. It was a great success, feed-back from runners, and clubs was very positive pointing out that the marshalling and encouragement from the Marshalls was second to the none, We could not do this without you. Thanks for continuing to make our club one of the best." Peter Ellis
The course itself was a 2 lapper which is always better than a 3 lapper (believe this was the case in a recent CC6). Also there were a few changes to avoid less likelihood of slips, trips and falls. It’s essential to put on a course that is safe but have some cross country element to the event. It started off in the normal area by the park. The set up was pretty nice with our fancy equipment (start flags – great investment, gazebos). On the course itself we used plentiful marshals as the guide of where to run rather than using excessive flags. This was most appreciated from other runners with the comments we received. There seemed to be a marshal not far away providing fantastic cheering and guidance.
The distance totalled was approx. 4.5 miles (7.2km). The runner proceeded to go across the fields and hit the line of trees that are near the leisure centre. They went to the very top near end of tree line and then turned back on themselves into the old golf course over the bridge. There were a couple of zig zags until nearing the section where we went past the usual past ‘roots’ (*pun*sorry) and bottleneck and used a much more stream like area which was adjacent to old route & gave more opportunity to race. Once at top, went downhill and more zig zagging occurred to get to top and then into the wooded section which has to be carefully marshalled with sharp hill mounds in places. Once the runners got through this area back in the field along the tree/hedgerows and back down the hill and start a second lap nearer the café. Once second lap completed headed back towards the furthest bridge and back along the tree line towards the finish.
The finish was awaiting in same area as start line, with our lovely new finish flags and the long funnel (with expert guidance from Sean & Kev), the funnel leaded straight to the refreshments tent which was a good initiative. Myself and Tony Kendrick were giving out finish tokens (raffle tickets), which went without a hitch thankfully. The runners really appreciated the cakes at the end and so did all of us, luckily there was enough, fantastic effort from Kylie and her team. The winner was Adrian Faulty from Winchester who had a huge lead, believe he came 2 minutes ahead of the pack, there was certainly no fault in his performance. With Lucy Elliot (Winchester) coming in first for the ladies. Before the darkness took its toll our friendly chatty tail runners came in with a couple of Hardley runners to finish. Annie from Hardley even said its one of the best courses she has gone round at Fleming Park.
Total amount of runners in the race was 412. with a total of 246 men (66/V40, 64/V50, 41V60, 12/V70) and 166 women (39/V40, 46/V50, 22/V60, 1/V70).
Regards with the 2021 season we had 2 champions in our club with Nick Buis claiming the V40 title & coming second overall and Brian Frampton for the V60 title, massive congratulations! Really great effort put in last season from everyone = see stats below. The Women's team came an awesome joint 3rd tied with Stubbington with SAC taking 1st place. TRC men's team came in at a respectable 5th position overall with Winchester taking the honours. Would be great to get a similar placing or better this season. Go Team Totton!
Some individual results below from runners that completed 4 or more (or I like to call the hardcore lot) / and their overall positions. There were some proper in-house friendly competitiveness going on last season, love it!
Women: Alice Burch (4th, 97.74%), Lucy Buis (17th, 84.14%), Lizzy White (28th, 73.3%), Millie Webb (32nd, 65.64%), Patricia Spodzieja (33rd, 65.18%), Rachel McCulloch (41st, 55.7%), Kate Peel (48th, 45.05%), Caroline Orchard (49th, 44.69%), Claire Drainey (50th, 44.23%), Samantha Bowyer (53rd, 37.56%), Lyn Hatchett (55th, 35.17%), Donna Pike (59th, 30.74%), Dot Kennard (66th, 14.15%), Jane Forbes (67th, 11.95%), Tracey Nightingale (70th, 4.35%)
Men; Nick Buis (2nd, 99.32%), Adam Wilkinson (19th, (87.97%), Will Greenway (20th, 87.02%), Carl Shirley (21st, 86.65%), Alex Cooper (26th, 80.71%), Lee Trueman (28th, 80.33%), Neil White (38th, 74.29%), Paul Bullen (44th, 69.63%), Carl Drainey (46th, 68.62%), John Curry (56th, 63.76%), Rob Kendall (57th, 63.17%), Brian Frampton (61st, 60.59%), Adrian Hayes (67th, 56.61%), Andy Warren (68th, 54.93%), Geoffrey Willis (69th, 54.6%), Dean Lucas (72nd, 53.23%), Darren Martin (91st, 41.94%), Terry Greening (93rd, 40.61%), Tony Lees (97th, 39.35%), Robbie Barlow (105th, 36.72%), Eammon Rivers (112th, 32.1%), David Nightingale (114th, 30.49%), Pete Mills (118th, 23.18%), Neil Cameron (120th, 21.68%), Mark Whitlock (125th, 18.01%), Craig Taylor (127th, 15.9%)
Now on to the 2022 season. We welcome two new clubs in RR10 series from 2022, Hamwic and Netley, more clubs to compete against! There are no drop outs this year so free to go to any event, please make sure you wear a club vest/top. See below for all fixtures.
Next race is at Itchen Valley Country Park on Wednesday May 4th, starts at 7pm, please check out more details in FB events page. These our great events and is great to participate in, especially with the support from our team. Spirit of our runners cheering runners in is a spectacle to hold.
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