London Marathon - Inter-Service Championships

Athletes from the Royal Air Force, Army and Royal Navy joined over 33,000 other runners in the 2006 London Marathon. The race was held in cool damp conditions, ideal for marathon running. The race has also held the Royal Air Force and the Inter-Service Championships for a number of years. Unfortunately, due to illness and injuries the team was depleted to 14 out of the potential 21 starters. With hopes of the success in the Inter-Service Championships seeming unlikely the focus for the RAF runners was on the RAF Championships. Favourite was Flt Lt Simon Bell, who earlier in the year had recently finished first of the Royal Air Force contingent in the Fleet half marathon.

Up front the elite athletes set off at world record pace for a large portion of the race before it then became a more tactical affair at about 25 km. Felix Limo of Kenya recorded 2:06:39 after a sprint finish with Martin Lel (Kenya) 2:06:41. The great Haile Gebrselassie did not find the cool conditions to his liking and “only” recorded 2:09:05 in 9th place.

About 200 places behind Simon Bell wasted no time in setting his stall out and was first Royal Force athlete throughout the race, going through the 10K marker in 35 min 57 sec, half way in 77 min 13 sec he completed the course in 217 th place in 2 hr 40 min 33 sec.

Accomplished Triathlete Flt Lt Martin Ball (RAF Wyton) was the second RAF finisher in 2 hrs 48 min 51 sec and Cpl Greg McDonald (RAF Brize Norton) secured third place in the RAF Championship 2 hrs 51 min 18 sec. The ever improving Sgt Paul Flavell ( RAF Waddington) consolidated his Henlow 10 and Fleet half marathon performances to record 2hrs 57 min 10 sec. The Royal Air Force veterans title was secured by Sgt Paul Gittins in 3 hrs 04 mins 01 sec. Also just over the three hour mark were Cpl Ken Ivory 3 hr04 min 01 sec, Cpl Al Cook 3 hrs 05 min 48 sec, and evergreen Sqn Ldr Ted Hamilton in 3 hrs 09 min 09 sec.

In the Inter-Service event the Royal Navy took the team title and also a clean sweep of the individual medals, with Lt Cdr Dai Roberts taking both the Inter-Service Senior Men’s and Veterans titles in an impressive time of 2.28.59

Full results are available from www.london-marathon.co.uk website.

Fleet Half Marathon - Inter-Service Championships

Athletes from the Royal Air Force, Army and Royal Navy joined over 2700 other runners in the 25th anniversary of the Fleet Half Marathon. The race which serves as a warm up for the London Marathon has also held the Inter-Service Championships for a number of years. On their home turf the Army are always strong, and the task for the RAF in the Senior Men's Championship was not made any easier by a very strong Navy squad. The RAF Veterans Team were out in force still producing the goods. The majority of the RAF squad were using the race in their build up to the 2006 London marathon in April.

The race was held in cold, sunny but windy conditions. Race winner Toby Lambert (Alton Runners) was soon to the fore, forcing pace from the off. He broke clear of eventual second finisher Tim Crossland (Army) to record 69 min 09 sec. Mark Goodridge (Royal Navy) was the next service athlete to finish in 7th place – 71 Min 43 secs, closely followed in 8th by veteran Dai Roberts (Royal Navy) -71 min 55 secs.

Flt Lt Simon Bell soon established himself as the lead RAF runner and he completed the course in 25th place overall in 75 min 09 secs to secure the RAF half marathon championship. Simon is well on the way to rediscovering his historic form- he improved on last years time by nearly 5 mins. Accomplished Triathlete Flt Lt Martin Ball (RAF Wyton) was the second RAF finisher in 78 min 11 sec (a personal best) and the ever improving Sgt Andy Dixon secured third place in the RAF Championship – 78 min 55 sec (a personal best).

WO Rob Payne used all his considerable expertise and experience to record 79 min 59 sec to lead the RAF veterans to victory in the Inter Service Veteran Championship, with Sgt Paul Gittins 81 min 40 sec and FS Gary Heath 82 min 56 sec completing the team.

Full results are available from www.fleethalfmarathon.com website.

Teddy Hall Relays

This year the Royal Air Force Road Racing Team made their debut in the Teddy Hall Relays. This prestigious road relay event is organised by the Oxford University Cross Country Club and is held at the Roger Bannister track, Iffley Road, Oxford. This year the Teddy Hall Relays were the fifth fixture in the University road Relay series. The starting list included over 150 teams - mens, ladies and mixed teams and a total of over 600 runners. The race consists of 4 x 3.6 mile legs, each starting and finishing on the Bannister track, taking in Magdalen Bridge, a stretch along the Thames towpath past the boathouses, over the Donnington Bridge before returning to Iffley Road to finish on the track. Pre-race favourites included defending champions Oxford University and Loughborough students. Cambridge, Bristol, Birmingham and Nottingham universities were also out in force. The Royal Air Force had mustered a strong "A" Squad and a "B" Team consisting of newcomers and team manager making up the numbers. The race was held in wet overcast conditions and the muddy puddle infested towpath section would not have been out of place in a cross country race.

The RAF "A" team was led off by Martin Whitehouse who had made the long journey down from RAF Waddington. The first leg as usual was loaded with team runners aiming for fast times and the usual lightning fast, adrenalin charged kamikaze start on the track ensued. This was a situation that Whitehouse relished, taking the challenge full on he remained with the leaders for most of the first leg, holding on bravely to record an 18 min 57 sec leg the fastest RAF time of the day. Whitehouse handed over in fifth place only seconds down from the leaders. Second leg runner Matt Blunden also from RAF Waddington, soon made the inroads required to regain contact with the leaders. Unfortunately the lead runner at this point was not content with a mere 3.6 mile course and proceeded to lead the first 20 or so athletes around an additional unscheduled 900 metre loop of Magdalen college park. Blunden was not alarmed as he caught up the RAF team manager and scribe of this report about seven minutes into the second leg going from second place to about fiftieth in the space of a few yards, he simply retained a cool head and worked his way through the mid pack runners to complete an extended leg time of 22 min 59 secs. I would estimate of the extended second leg runners Blunden recorded the third fastest time.

There was much confusion on the track for the start of the third leg as red hot favourites Oxford University found themselves well down at the change over. Marcus Maxwell (RAF Brize Norton) led off on the third leg for the RAF; using knowledge gained from a good look at the course map he went about establishing true race order to put the RAF in second place, behind Oxford but ahead of Bristol, Nottingham and Manchester Universities. Maxwell recorded a time of 19 min 50 secs. On to the final and fourth leg, Dan Lewis (RAF Brize Norton) fresh from the previous night shift on 101 Sqn Engineering set off with grim determination knowing that Bristol University were hot on his heels. An epic battle followed with Lewis only giving way to the superior track speed of the Bristol runner Tom Russel with less than three hundred yards remaining. Some of the older RAF runners may remember Sqn Ldr Keith Brackstone, he is now involved with Bristol University coaching their athletes. I witnessed him for the first time ever actually encouraging an athlete to catch the runner in the light blue RAF vest. Lewis recorded 19 min 14 secs to bring the team home in third place from 111 teams. An excellent overall result only seven seconds away Bristol University in second place and 67 secs away from the winners Oxford Universtity.

The RAF “B” Team consisted off Ken Ivory (Southwick Park), he got in some valuable spadework in preparation for the Fleet half marathon and London marathon races later this year, he recorded a respectable 21min 20secs, the team manager Carl Thompson (DLO Andover) trundled around the course in 23 min 06sec, newcomer Ben Norfolk (RAF Odiham) followed, he recorded 23 min 21 sec like Ken getting the speed work in for Fleet and London and Nick Gaulder (RAF Lyneham) 22 min 58 secs brought the team home in 42nd place. 111 teams finished the mens race. 42 teams in the Ladies and also 42 in the mixed category. Further details of the results are available from the OUCCC website. http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ouccc/thr2006.

Finally I would like to thank those RAF Athletes who took the plunge to try this new event and would urge those who missed out to consider competing next year. It really was a great day out and it was good to see the RAF Team compete in the relay format. I aim to make it a regular fixture for the Road Racing Team.