The ABP Southampton series of races for 2022 was regarded as one of the best organised and, perhaps, the best in terms of support and atmosphere from the marshals and crowds. The event drew big crowds who were happy to show their encouragement and appreciation of all the runners.
The weather was clear and bright with a bit of a breeze to chill the runners nicely. The organisation of the event was top class, with a group warm up to prepare everyone for the rigours ahead. The races started bang on schedule and there were plenty of water stations to keep the runners hydrated. To keep the runners, marshals and supporters entertained there were several fab singing and dancing groups. The hardest section of the routes were the hills, with the Itchen Bridge in particular making the runners twice dig deep for the long haul up, and then back over it again the other way. Many runners were very happy to see a local householder in her front garden with a garden hose spraying any runner that wanted a quick cold shower as they ran past ! There were amazing scenes in the finishing stretch with crowds of people banging on the barriers as the runners sprinted for the line. Many were running for deserving charities like the amusingly named ‘Pooperman’, Crohn’s and Colitis UK. There were many fine performances from CoSARC participants.
In the Marathon CoSARC finishers were Jenny Hartley 3:20:27, Catherine Morgan-Smith 3:37:58 and Jason Bennett 3:44:08.
Link to Marathon results : https://dbmaxresults.co.uk/results.aspx?CId=16421&RId=2325
In the half marathon Jane Rebecca bagged herself a PB with a fabulous time of 2:02:30.
Despite his tender age Kieran McCullam wasn’t unnerved by the crowds and numbers of runners in his maiden 10K. He was very pleased with his result, especially as he used this event to fundraise for Dementia UK.
James Mills ran his second marathon in three weeks at the Dorney Lakes Marathon in great time of 2:55:55.
In the Regents Park 10K Helen Carlton made a slow return from injury in a thoroughly decent time of 53:19.
A field of 70 runners took on the Wrexham Elite Marathon, including CoSARC’s Rob Drag. The small group meant they were more performance focussed, which was important as the course consisted of seven tedious laps of an industrial estate. Rob had to drop out of last year’s event due to injury, and so was pleased to make a comeback after spending the year building his fitness back up to marathon standard. He finished in a very respectable 2:53:23.
A trio of CoSARC’s finest juniors travelled to Hillingdon to take part in round one of the Youth Development League, Upper age group (U17/U20), as part of a composite team with Bournemouth AC and New Forest Juniors.
In the U20s 3000m Lizzie Norton pushed the pace right from the gun, doing all the work at the head of the race, and finished a highly creditable 2nd in a very tight finish.
Dominic Stapleton, U20, ran the “lactic double” 400m and 800m as an A-string athlete, performing very well against strong competition in the windy conditions. He also anchored the 4x100m relay team.
Thomas Holme, U17, competed in the Long Jump & Javelin, and also finished 2nd as an A-string athlete in the U17 1500m steeplechase. He closed out running a leg of the 4x400m.
