Not the Roman IX  2011

Stratford–on-Avon

A very bright but bitterly cold morning greeted the 608 runners who finished the Not the Roman Nine on Sunday 15th Jan.

B&R had a smaller than normal turnout with mixed fortunes. Alan Elsmere and Pete Hawcroft had looked forward to a good race against each other but Alan was struggling with a cold and Pete was just getting over a calf strain.

Nathan Bone was in decent injury-free shape and he and Pete ran the first 3k together until Nathan started to pull away on the first real drag before Loxley Hill. Nathan slowly moved away and had his own battle with another runner which helped him improve his NTR9 P.B. by 2 minutes. He finished 65th in 49.16.

Pete had to ease off to nurse a protesting calf but finished 101st in 51.39 and was surprised to be first V60. The main result was not aggravating the injury.

Alan battled on gamely as always and was 3rd V65 in 53.21 for 149th place.

Mike Leci had a great run and despite a pit stop (the cold weather!) also knocked 2 minutes off his NTR9 P.B. to finish 186th.

Fenella Brown ran 1.01.16 for 349th. Sorry I can't say more as we didn't meet up.

Click here for full results on the Stratford AC website

(Pete Hawcroft)

P.S. The race is over the unusual distance of 12 km. It was originally the Roman 9 mile road race but when the race venue was moved and the course shortened it was given its current name.