DURING working hours their thoughts are firmly on the water but, last weekend, a group of port staff were busy pounding the pavement.

More than 30 members of staff from the port took part in the inaugural ABP Southampton Half Marathon and 10k after months of hard training.

More than 6,000 runners hit the streets of Southampton, passing iconic landmarks such as the Bargate, the QE2 Anchor, St Mary’s Stadium and the Itchen Bridge.

Among the staff who laced up their trainers on the big day was port pilot Sean O’Toole.

Sean, 51, from Chandler’s Ford, can usually be found navigating ships into port, however this week he was routing the streets of the city as he took on the half marathon.

Sean is a member of the Itchen Imperial rowing club and regularly ran the Northam Bridge and Itchen Bridge as part of his fitness training.

He said: “The furthest I ran before the big day was six miles so I really put myself to the test.

“The support and atmosphere was superb. I met some friends at the halfway point who gave me some jelly babies, and managed to cross the finish line in 2 hours, 1 minute.”

Steve Lake, head of finance at the port, who also took on the half marathon, finished in a time of 1 hour, 38 minutes, placing him in the top 500 runners overall.

Steve said: “It was a fantastic, fun event with such great support. ABP Milemakers really captured the spirit of Southampton.”

Brian Butcher, who works in the Vessel Traffic Services Centre at Eastern Docks, completed the 13.1 miles in 2 hours, 45 minutes.

He said: “I was very surprised at how many people came out and supported the runners. It made the run much more fun.”

Sean Cooper and Gideon Aymes, both project engineers, and Will Jeffrey, senior project engineer, took part in the half marathon and 10k respectively.

Port director Nick Ridehalgh ran the 10k route and finished in 52 minutes. He said: “We are extremely proud to sponsor this fantastic event. The city took the race to its heart, as did our team of staff.”