Reading Half Marathon saw a select group of Thames men produce some fine performances. John Macfarlane made the trip from the West Country to lead the way with 21st place in 69:45, followed one place behind by Andy Weir in 70:39. Unfortunately incorrectly recorded in the results, Mark Tuckett also showed good pre-marathon form with 72:31 for 32nd, and it was good to see Chris Wrighton returning to form with 73:04 for 42nd. There were also decent performances from Toby Pearson (73:51), Olly Mytton (77:55), Anthony Doolittle (81:34) and Charles Cooper (85:56).

21:	J Macfarlane	1:089:45
22:	A Weir		1:10:39
32:	M Tuckett	1:12:31
42:	C Wrighton	1:13:04
53:	T Pearson		1:13:51
96:	O Mytton		1:17:55
166:	A Doolittle	1:21:34
327:	C Cooper		1:25:56

First prize for sheer “tough guy” antics this month go to Nick Maloney, who recently finished a superb 6th in the Jurassic Coast Challenge, an extremely tough event in Dorset involving 3 marathons in 3 days.

Not content with a mere 26 miles 385 yards, Matt Lynas ran a superb 7:10:38 for 100km at Kienbaum, near Berlin, placing 2nd overall and 1st M40. Mind bogglingly, this equals his PB for the distance. Matt was rewarded for his considerable endeavours with a table tennis set, but hopefully further international recognition will be a more fitting reward.

Congratulations to Andrew Macnamara, who turned in a highly impressive performance of 2:30:12 in the Rome Marathon placing 31st. A sub 2:30 clocking hopefully beckons later this year.

Daren Talbot placed fifth in 33:33 with Andy Robinson also having agreat run to record 35:15 for first V40 spot.

Ben Reynolds ran impressively to finish 8th in the V35-49 race and 2nd V45, Peter Giles also made the long trip to North Wales and finished 8th in the V60 race. It has been a fine cross-country season for the Vets team, with hopefully more to come in the National Road Relays in May.

Andy Weir was fastest over the 10 mile course, with Matt Lynas flying in from Germany to fox the handicappers and take top spot.

Despite recent injury woes, self proclaimed “tough guy” Chris Daniels continues to expand his portfolio of extreme running. Not content with a stab at the Vets indoor track champs, the intrepid Mr D turned his legs to stair running at the notorious “Vertical Rush” a time trial race up to the top of Tower 42 in the City of London. He finished an impressive 5th place in a lactic drowning 5 minutes 23 secs, with Hugh Shields also turning in a fairly impressive time of 6 minutes 38 secs.

Excellence from Thames spans the generations as ever, with Jeffrey Gordon placing 1st M70 in the Finchley 20 with 3:43:32.

Mara Yamauchi retained her Matsue Ladies half-marathon title on Sunday, and showed she is in good form for London this year winning in a time of one hour, 10 minutes and 19 seconds. Mara finished sixth in last year's Olympic marathon and will now lead the British challenge in London.

Andrew McNamara made a fine debut at the WCTT to place a close second in 16:36. Ian, Keith and Colin were also in action.

Competition hots up for the title of Thames’ toughest man! While the self-styled Wharf's Toughest Guy, Chris Daniels, was competing at a less than fearsome vets indoor 1500 metres, real men Johnny Mcfarlane and Toby Pearson were displaying their own tough credentials in the Grizzly, a 20 mile multi terrain race in Devon. John won in 2:19:21 by over 6 minutes, with young pretender Toby Pearson an impressive 3rd in 2:27:30.

THH played host to teams from the Stock Exchange, the Stragglers, Kingston Poly and Full on Tri. THH won the match, scoring 4 per team, and Keith Newton won the Stock Exchange Challenge.

1	Keith Newton	HHH	27:17
2	Huw Lobb		THH	27:28
3	Simon Moldon	THH	27:50
4	Andy Weir		THH	28:18
5	Andy Arbour	K&P	30:13
6	Johnny Powell	THH	30:21
7	Peter kennedy	Strag	30:37
8	Stewart Tompson	JP Morgan	30:50
9	Alan Barrie	Strag	30:54
10	Andrew Mcluchen	SEAC	30:58
11	Simon Brazil	Strag	31:15
12	Matthew Kyat	K&P	32:46
13	Declan Flynn	Strag	33:17
14	Ian Callander	Strag	33:49
15	Chris Hutber	THH	34:06
16	Steve Sandham	Strag	34:06
17	Phylis Flynn	Strag	34:25
18	John Sawyer	SEAC	34:33
19	Liz Stavreski	THH	34:38
20	Bernt Erik Roed	THH	34:48
21	Phill Davis	Strag	34:50
22	Keith Spacie	THH	34:54
23	Evan Bond		Strag	35:04
24	Gwyn Jones	Bank	35:17
25	Geoff Fisher	Strag	35:38
26	Anna Garnier	THH	35:39
27	Martin Woods	SEAC	35:50
28	Vicky Filsell	THH	36:04
29	Louis H-Parsons	FoT	36:15
30	Rob McDonough	K&P	36:23
31	Graham Huntly	K&P	37:09
32	Sam Huntington	SEAC	37:31
33	Stewart Scotts	JP Morgan	37:34
34	Paul Fletcher	JP Morgan	37:39
35	Steve Annett	Strag	37:51
36	Roger Jacoman	Bank	38:00
37	Dave Walsh	THH	38:33
38	Nicky Atkins 	K&P	38:52
39	Rob McNabb	THH	39:26
40	Rick Pigatt	FoT	39:31
41	Leisl Packer	FoT	39:38
42	Sue Cord		Bank	39:39
43	Holly Barker	FoT	39:39
44	John Freens	Strag	40:17
45	Neil Meres	K&P	40:44
46	Marc Eliott	JP Morgan	41:20
47	David Jenkins	THH	42:31
48	Geoffrey Reid	K&P	42:49
49	David Gibbons	K&P	44:10
50	Pete Deadman	Bank	45:12
51	Andy Lee-Gerrard	THH	46:48

			
Teams (4 to Score):	
1. THH 	 	15
2. Stragglers	45
3. Kingston & Poly	78
4. Stock Exchange	87
5. JP Morgan	121
6. Bank of England	152
7. Ful on Tri	153

Having reached landmark eligibility only days previously, Chris Daniels celebrated the start of his 5th decade at the British Masters Indoor Champs. Despite struggling with injury he finished 4th in the 1,500m in a decent time of 4:19:95.