A small but hardy contingent from CAC ventured east to Launceston on Sunday for the Launceston Half Marathon, decribed by the organiser as ‘quite possibly the toughest Half marathon in the South West’.

They also faced a strong field, with the top four men and two of the first three women coming from out of the county.

Jason Pascoe had his usual good run on hills, having decided to sensibly let the international athletes Richie Gardener (Cardiff) and Kevin Heywood (Bideford) go on. Jason finished 10th and 4th in the Cornish Grand Prix section in 1.22.42.  Great running on that course and putting him right up into the top ten in the overall Grand Prix standings.  Matt Lewis was perhaps slightly below par but hung on for 15th (7th GP) not far behind Jason and is also rapidly climbing the GP table, now having run his two long Grand Prix qualifying races.

Jason leads the CAC runners home at Launceston

Next in for the yellow and greens was young Adam Tatlow, who had a great run in 25th place, especially considering his lack of training due to county and university hockey commitments.  With some more training he should go better still in the shorter races to come.

Adam home from University for the summer

Dave Southby came 53rd, only just outside his pb (what?!!) with a superb run to move up to 2nd in the GP table.  Not bad for someone who only started running seriously last year.

Dave, concentration personified

Another fairly new recruit to racing, Suzy Bosustow, had her best result yet, as she finished 76th overall and 6th lady.  If we manage to get her iPod off her she may go even faster!  Our three ‘old hands’ followed her in, with Pete Torr dipping under 1 hour 40 in 91st position to push into the top three in the GP Veterans 50-54 category (yes, he really is that old!) and Graham Storer was 133^rd, moving up to 2nd in the GP Veterans 45-49 category.

'Young' Pete leads the 'old hands' home

I don't want to worry their other halves but it is definitely love between Graham and Viv, though they must have had a tiff, as they were a whole fourteen seconds apart at the finish line with Viv clocking 1.46.30.

Viv, building up for his sprint finish

Sam Alexander (267^th) made the journey up to Launceston well worth while, taking a massive 8 minutes off her Personal Best set on the easier Truro course last year.