The final race in the Yateley road race series saw a small team of Haslemere Border runners take on the 10km route and with some tremendous achievements. 

Sheelagh Jones continued her excellent form and won first place in her age category, completing a series win.

A delighted Sheelagh was all smiles as she collected the winning prize. 

Andrew Gregory continued his good form, achieving a personal best in each of the three races, which has seen him take a total of four minutes off his first race time of the series.  

Sarah Barnett returned for the final race and achieved a personal best of 1:02 – a sub one-hour time could be on for Sarah next year. 

Mr Consistent, aka Martin Wells, completed two of the three races and finished both in a time of 50.00.

Christine Archer took the opportunity to run in the third and final race, as her first race since recovering from an injury. Even though being very cautious, Christine finished in an excellent time of 47.17.

Always an excellent series of races, club members will look forward to returning again next year. 

On Sunday, August 6, the ever-popular Harting 10 took place, hosted by Liss Runners, and this year the route really did include the full ten miles after a little adjustment to the route! 

The race is a multi-terrain course taking in 1,004ft which, like all challenging races, starts on a hill and once off road, heads out into the pretty countryside towards Compton, along towards Chalton and along the South Downs Way before heading back to the finish. The weather was also kind after the wintry showers experienced throughout the week but I doubt many runners came back without muddy trainers! 

Haslemere Borders were represented by one athlete, and that was Dean Kellaway who ran a superb race finishing in 1:18.01 – and he and all the other competitors were treated to some delicious home-made bakes provided by the Liss ladies.

All aboard the Skylark – indeed, for both Steph Moss and Philomel Bennett this was indeed a rare treat as they had both entered the Big Pilgrimage 54km that included a ride on a ‘Pink’ ferry! 

The race itself follows the newly-discovered Pilgrim Trail, known as ‘The Old Way’ that goes from Southampton to Canterbury, retracing the steps of the Pilgrim Fathers on route to America. 

This section of the route began its journey at Mayflower Park in Southampton, taking runners along the Solent Way across the Itchen Bridge, travelling along the shoreline to Hamble where the ‘Pink’ ferries were waiting to carry the runners across to Warsash with specially-made packs of jelly babies to munch on the way!

Back on dry land, and getting the sea legs working again, the route continued along the shoreline to Hill Head harbour towards Titchfield, with an extra little challenge for those tired legs of climbing up Portsdown Hill with a view of Fort Nelson on the horizon where the race finished. 

The day was filled with glorious sunshine and blue skies and with an added little extra of creating memories of the runners’ venture by collecting stickers along the way to add to their bib number. 

Philomel and Steph, who had trained hard, were definitely put through their paces, tackling a multi-terrain route, which included 1,418ft of elevation – and both ladies finished in superb times.

Philomel completed her race in 5:29.45, and was third lady, finishing seventh overall, with Steph achieving her second-fastest 50km time of 6:27.02 and finished 35th overall, among a strong field of runners.

Sunday, August 27 provided another day of glorious sunshine and what better way to enhance the delayed summer than participating in a marathon, which is exactly what Haslemere Border athlete Rodger Morley did by running the Woldingham trail marathon. 

The race is a two-lap out-and-back route that starts at Woldingham School and takes runners along the Green Valley towards the North Downs Way, with glorious views of the south Kent and Surrey countryside, while travelling along some of the hilliest trails on the North Downs Way including Gangers Hill and Tandridge Hill, before heading into Chalk Pit Lane towards the Ridge where the runners then turn back to Woldingham to then do it all again! 

The full distance encompassed 3,550ft of elevation and Rodger ran a strong race to finish in an excellent time of 3:55.01 and in first place under a new age category, having clipped a new birthday of V40.

A few days later, the last of the summer pub runs took place, at the glorious setting of the Thursley Common Nature Reserve.  

With varying routes and distances, all abilities were catered for. In addition, the popular walking group enabled those who are not running at present to join in. 

Despite the threat of heavy rain, the final run was completed in perfect running conditions and more than 30 club members took part and the chance to have a friendly chat and refreshments afterwards was enjoyed by all at the Three Horseshoes. 

Ann Varnes and Philomel Bennett