STAFFORD HALF MARATHON
A huge field of over 1300 runners descended on Stafford last Sunday for
the Stafford Half Marathon on a bright morning, but with a cool wind to
keep the runners from overheating.
Newport and District Running Club put in a strong team of 15 athletes who
performed well on the day with Ed Jopling leading home the Newport team
with a time of 1h 22m 59s to take 59th place. A tremendous achievement in
a field of this size and a tribute to Ed's hard work to improve his speed
and stamina over the winter.
In 94th place was John Garmson who is still coming back from a knee
problem. His time of 1.26.02 was still very good considering his recent
problems.
Pete Johnstone has been single minded in his recent preparations for the
London Marathon next month and this helped him to a personal best of
1.28.05 and 112th place. Steve Tudor continues to do well, posting a time
of 1.29.06 in 128th place.
A little slower than his time in Ironbridge, Sandy Mackenzie's 1.33.30 was
still good enough to give him 203rd position. 375th in a time of 1.39.48
was Kevin Bright and he was follwed shortly after by Steve Wootton in
1.40.29 to take 393rd.
Pauline Newton was 498th in 1.43.57 and Roger Kerr 577th in 1.46.28. Susan
Marshall kept up a steady pace to claim 624th in 1.48.15 with Judi Clayton
not far behind her in 690th in 1.50.30.
There was a bit of a gap to Beverly Stoddart in 968th position who posted
2.03.04 and Graham Kenyon kept going to the finish to cross the line in
2.03.50 and achieve 990th position. Paula Holloway chased him to the
finish and was only six seconds behind him in 995th and Edward Roper was
1322nd in 3.22.24.
 
MARCH HAIR RAISER
At the same time, Mark Deighton was running in a new race on the calendar,
the March Hair Raiser, at Kingswood near Albrighton. This was a fairly
flat and mainly off road race and attracted nearly 140 to the first
running of the event.
Still suffering from a recent bout of flu, Mark had a steady run over the
six miles, even managing a little push on the last few hundred uphill
yards to gain 28th place in 42m 32s.