Serpie Planner - event reports

Windsor Half Marathon (03 Oct 1999)

The ladies made 2nd ladies team with Sally Mackay, Jane Thompson, myself and a (now badly) injured Katy Williams.
David and Gabrielle Street, their friend Cassandra and Steve Hilton (a new member, who actually took a black cab from Waterloo after the trains were cancelled and ran around 1:18 on his watch) arrived late due to horrendous traffic problems. I admire their commitment to running starting the run more than an hour late.
It is a real shame that Sepanta did not run with her own number. She ran an amazing 1:27:27 and could have been 5th lady and pushed us up to 1st ladies team.
Kathleen Healy ran a great 1:57:24 as a preparation for her Dublin Marathon in a couple of week’s time. I certainly hope that she will run Dublin as a Serpie.
What happened to John Hudspith? He ran a terrific 1:26:29 and placed 112th overall, but was not registered as a Serpentine runner.
Baiju (1:40:05) and Phil (1:28:59) McCubbins ran for their respective companies and did extremely well.
Maggie Moran, Kathleen Broekhof, Sue-Ellen Horrocks and Sami Mohammed also did not make it to the start in time, but were great supporters to all of us. Owen and Grethe arrived in time, but could not register on the day. They had great runs but did not cross the finish line. Tant pis!
This race is run on a wonderful, albeit hilly, course. A real shame about the bad organisation of traffic to and from the race. More stories about that in Ron’s report.
Beate Vogt

Well, it was such a good plan, made as it was over a nice breakfast after someone returned from seeing off the London to Brighton crowd and someone else turned over in that nice warm bed. The noise from above summoned me to it, or was it the smell of the coffee, anyway my house was full of people having breakfast so I naturally joined in.
Oh, the plan… Well everyone thought it would be great to bike to Clapham Junction and take the train to Windsor because of the traffic problems, particularly after the event getting out of the large lot with one small exit. So off we went Grethe, Owen, Beate and I in convoy. Four return tickets and just in time to the platform where we found a lot of folks waiting and were told that the Windsor train was cancelled owing to staff not showing up to work. Later we were told it was cancelled because someone jumping in front of a train and at that point I kind of hoped it was the late staffers. The alternative rail route through Stains was also without service since that train was still on its return journey and not expected any time soon. So, a new plan was about to be under taken when David and Franziska arrived after buying tickets also (that Southwest ticket agent should either be shot or promoted to marketing). We decided to take cars. David & Franziska took Owen and Grethe while Beate and I returned home to take ours. We decided to put the bikes on the car in case of a traffic jam like last year and the year before. Since I work out there we decided to take the route through Egham and arrived only a few minutes later than planned – no sweat. The roads and the lots were virtually empty so we thought they had solved both the parking and road problems. But after parking the car, everyone else called the mobile to say they were in some horrible traffic jam somewhere near Slough. Some folks like Keith Evans arrived from a Paddington train with no problem but many others were very late.
We met up with my engineer John Walsh who was to run in his first race ever. His friends were all there and he had raised over

Windsor Half Marathon (26 Sep 2004)

Congrats to Vikki, Val, Liz and Joanne for winning the ladies team first prize at Windsor....!!!!!

The mens team of Andrew D, Paul Phibbs, Niall and Marc were second in their category ....for some reason my name did not have "serpentine" on the results...so in which case it should have read "Andrew D, Paul Phibbs,
Niall and Nick"....but it would not have made any difference to the position....and besides Marc got the better chip time ...I just happened to get a better clock time...

report by Nick Slade

Windsor Half Marathon (25 Sep 2005)

Conditions were warm (18 ish decrees), no rain until after the finish (or for Yvonne..at the finish), a light breeze and probably as good you could get at least for spectators, though a few commented it would have been nice to be a tad cooler and et some of the rain (no pleasing some!)

Always an excellent setting, even if it's just a little tougher than the average Half Marathon. Well organised with plenty of friendly support.

Hampstead training runs and hill work are a distinct advantage for preparing for this one I have to say.

Report by Nick Slade.

Windsor Half Marathon (24 Sep 2006)

The day was hot, blue skies and gentle breeze.

The course is undulating pretty much all the way, but well worth the effort as the course is traffic free, lovely countryside and forests.

Congratulations to the 8 stars who caused the Serpies to win both the men’s and women’s teams prizes.

Get in early, May, for next years event.

Report by David McGregor

Windsor Half Marathon (24 Sep 2017)

Meridian Windsor Half Marathon & Glynn Shefford Memorial Run