Warming up at the winter races

The first weekend of February 2023 saw the always popular Chichester 10k on the calendar. In previous years this race has always attracted a whole host of Bognor Regis Tone Zone Runners and with the weather conditions perfect for racing the day ahead looked promising!

18 runners from the Bognor based club showed up in their blue and orange vests to the historic Goodwood Motor Circuit on a crisp sunny winter’s morning. The race has a new route for 2023 and begun at 9:30am, a lap of the circuit before heading out and running 4km on the roads surrounding the track, the final 2kms were back on the circuit and finished outside the pit lane.

Jack Penfold was first home for the club and recorded a new personal best by 42 seconds in 34:29, a few minutes later Christo Oosthuizen flew across the line in 36:50 finishing 3rd in his age category and showing that he’s still improving. The running plumber Byron Kearns topped off the top 3 for the club in 38:07, just 1 second quicker than his time in 2022. Guy Robson was paced by Jason Abell and finished strongly in 42 minutes. Drew Kelly was running his first race for the club and smashed his PB to finish in 42:37 just 9 seconds ahead of Nathan Bilham who also ran a huge PB shaving almost 2 minutes off his previous best to record a 42:46. Mark Green battled his way to a 43:15 despite being a bit under the weather and was closely followed by John Williams in 45:21 another PB and debut for Bognor Regis Tone Zone Runners. Marcus Reid was hoping to go sub 50 before the race but didn’t know if it was possible, however on his debut for the club he went 48:56 as he pulled away from the 50 minute pacer in the last 2km. Lisa Broad set a new personal best and snuck just under the 55 minute mark with a speedy sprint finish to clock 54:55. Also breaking the hour mark was Emma Strange (58:06) and Mick James (59:45) John Abell (1:05:39) and Carrie Oakley (1:06:59) finished strong and just ahead of Jessica Dyer in 1:08. Nicky Ramsey was pushed all the way to the line by a runner from Chichester AC and dipped under 1:15 by 11 seconds and rounding off a top day at Goodwood was Nic Baglee who finished in 1:41:59.

Across the coast in Portsmouth was the Portsmouth Coastal Half Marathon. Sarah Zacal set the pace for the club and finished in 1 hour 43 minutes and 58 seconds as she continues training for the Brighton Marathon. Stuart Thomson finished 4th in his age category in 1:57:50 and not too far back was Paul Stevenson and James Savage who both finished in 2:23.

Over in Arundel were another 4 Bognor Regis Tone Zone Runners. Sarah Curl, Deb Jane, Dan Hughes and Catherine Helmsley took on the 4 mile course, starting just outside Arundel Castle and running on and off road up to South Stoke and back down again. Dan Hughes completed the course in 41 minutes just ahead of Sarah Curl who crossed the line in 43 minutes. Deb Jane was the third runner from the club to complete the hilly course ahead of Catherine Helmsley who ran with smiles after completing her 100th parkrun the day before and finished in 1 hour 15 minutes.