Jon Brooker produced his best form, with a 1:31:53 PB in the prestigious Asics Fleet Half Marathon on Sunday in Hampshire. He beat his previous best time at this distance by over a minute, finishing 45th of 205 in his MV50 age group in a very high class field of over 2600 runners. Jon picks and chooses his races carefully; it was his first race of the year and his first half marathon since 2017.
Meanwhile, on distant sunny shores, Henry Hamilton-Gould (1:37:38) competed in the Logicom Cyprus Half Marathon and did very well in his 4th half marathon race in as many weeks, finishing 64th of 778 runners.
Henry Hamilton-Gould, pictured with Adam Holland, the UK winner of the Cyprus Marathon in 2:35:03. Two years ago, Adam won all 10 Barrow Summer Marathons in 10 days in under 3 hours each (Photo credit to Henry Hamilton-Gould).
Back at home in London, Iain Perry (2:05:24) put in a good effort in the Hampton Court Palace Half Marathon, where conditions were windy.
Clive Purbrook (52:01) and Belinda Schofield (1:02:28) went for a smaller event in the Mud & Mayhem Thetford Forest Trail 10K, with Clive finishing 12th of 44 overall and Belinda 11th female of 21. Andrew Taylor (46:08) joined 459 others in the Lincolnshire Fens, to take on the Sublime Long Sutton 10K, where the wind made the going tough, particularly over the exposed terrain.
Four Joggers tested themselves over the 20 mile distance on Sunday, no doubt with marathons planned for the near future. Nik Chapman (2:53:14) ran a good race in the Oundle 20 near Peterborough, where there were 430 competitors, while Tom McCusker (2:56:54) and Chris Aylmer (3:36:38) both opted for the Milton Keynes 20 in a field of 933. Again, the blustery wind made for difficult conditions despite the otherwise ideal, cool, sunny weather. Also getting in on the 20 mile action was Caroline McIntosh, who is spending a week at a training camp for runners on the southern Portuguese coast, near Quarteira in the Algarve. She covered the 20 mile time trial on Sunday morning in 4h:12m, along what must have been an attractive route, meandering through orange groves in the spring sunshine.