Fleet Half-Marathon

Fleet, Hampshire

Sunday 22nd March 2015

Following a number of withdrawals through injury, the five remaining Penguins, of differing shapes and sizes, assembled for the 2015 Fleet Half Marathon. Training regimes had varied wildly, in content and intensity, amongst the group, with a heavy bias towards carbo-loading. Paul greeted the others at the start line, and was then not seen for dust, completing the 13.1 miles in an extremely impressive 1 hr 36 min. The others took a
more measured approach to the course.

Alex, sleek and elegant, cantered along effortlessly. Pat, nursing an injury, conserved his strength early on. Greg and Charlie, atypically-sized for this event, rolled sedately along. Numerous supporters lined the route, with the Johnston and Gush families providing much-appreciated, occasionally ribald, encouragement.

The other runners were both friendly and curious regarding PAC's origins. A small man with a large, unruly shock of hair (let's us for convenience call him Catweazle) asked Charlie why the name 'Penguins' was chosen - was it because of Charlie's running style? We passed a number of pubs and gazed longingly at the relaxed gentlefolk sipping beer in the sunshine, who smiled back contentedly, trying not to look too smug. At the 1 h 40 mark, Paul was in a pub sipping beer, looking smug, whilst the rest of us were still hard at it. In the last mile, Alex, looking as fresh as a daisy, accelerated smoothly past the lumbering heavier penguins, who eventually finished in her wake.

Iain and Nannette Pretsell, with outstanding generosity, then provided some much needed sustenance and replenishment at their house, before everyone retired home for a well earned rest. Over £4,000 (including Gift Aid) has been raised thus far.

Finish Times:

Paul Johnston M 45 1:36:27
Alexandra Schaub F 45 2:02:48
Charlie Beardmore M 45 2:03:59
Greg Hyttenrauch M 45 2:06:46
Patrick Gush M 51 2:16:35

Simply double-click on any of the scrapbook images below to open the image gallery and to witness all the pain, the glory and the suffering, the agony, the ecstasy and the sheer bloody, gritty determination of our brave
and (fool)hardy PAC runners.

PENGUINS AGAINST CANCER