James Graham took the M60 Kent Championship at the Tonbridge Half Marathon on Sunday 2nd October in fine conditions. Jacqui O'Reilly was a brilliant sixth in a field of over 360 women and Sally Shewell was W55 runner-up with yet another excellent performance on the roads. Keith Dowson led the nineteen-strong Sevenoaks AC contingent home, narrowly ahead of James Graham.
Tonbridge Half expert Grace Manzotti writes:
"A PB today!! i have done all 6 of them since the first one. I just live 5 minutes from so no excuses! I was really worried about this race as it was my first Half Marathon after getting an injury last year and I did run this race last year with an injury, which wasn’t fun and not a good idea at the time. I had not run a half marathon since last October.
"And even though I have been running regularly I felt I hadn’t done enough distance for it. To be honest I was happy to be at the starting line injury free, was good to see all the Sevenoaks AC friends and I started with Lionel and Anna and that helped with my nerves about my hip falling off or something like that!
"It is a hard course, undulating they call it, but I think I found the hills slightly easier than the previous times, maybe it is all the Tuesdays runs in Knole park with the crazy hills there and the handicap races which helped me with the hills. I enjoyed it especially when I realised I was fine and was going to finish it OK! I enjoyed going through Leigh, so much crowd support. The last 4 miles where hard as it is when the hills start again, and the last stretch in Lower Haydsen lasts forever but crossing the finish line was amazing I am still buzzing. Thanks to everybody at Sevenoaks AC for all the encouragement I get all the time!"
The SAC results were:
Pl. | Bib | Name | Club | Sx | Cat | Net Time | Time | By cat. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
30. | 905 | Keith DOWSON | Sevenoaks AC | M | M50 | 01:26:22 | 01:26:23 | 6 |
32. | 672 | James GRAHAM | Sevenoaks AC | M | M60 | 01:26:21 | 01:26:25 | 1 |
34. | 1172 | Andrew MILNE | Sevenoaks AC | M | SM | 01:26:37 | 01:26:42 | 33 |
43. | 1100 | Daniel WITT | Sevenoaks AC | M | M40 | 01:27:26 | 01:27:31 | 18 |
67. | 360 | John STEVENS | Sevenoaks AC | M | M50 | 01:29:22 | 01:29:27 | 11 |
83. | 980 | Nick HUMPHREY-TAYLOR | Sevenoaks AC | M | M40 | 01:29:42 | 01:30:36 | 29 |
92. | 1255 | Jacqueline O'REILLY | Sevenoaks AC | F | SW | 01:31:44 | 01:31:48 | 6 |
98. | 655 | Joe PARSONS | Sevenoaks AC | M | SM | 01:32:36 | 01:32:40 | 92 |
116. | 1112 | Chris DESMOND | Sevenoaks AC | M | M50 | 01:34:19 | 01:34:24 | 21 |
235. | 463 | Simon HALLPIKE | Sevenoaks AC | M | M60 | 01:41:51 | 01:42:02 | 10 |
311. | 518 | Sarah SHEWELL | Sevenoaks AC | F | W55 | 01:46:00 | 01:46:19 | 2 |
387. | 163 | Grazia MANZOTTI | Sevenoaks AC | F | W45 | 01:50:01 | 01:50:47 | 15 |
426. | 978 | Anna HUMPHREY-TAYLOR | Sevenoaks AC | F | W45 | 01:52:23 | 01:53:08 | 19 |
460. | 681 | Lionel STIELOW | Sevenoaks AC | M | M60 | 01:54:46 | 01:55:33 | 18 |
521. | 576 | Jonathan COPPING | Sevenoaks AC | M | M60 | 01:57:22 | 01:58:08 | 21 |
673. | 1137 | Clair THORNTON | Sevenoaks AC | F | W35 | 02:07:19 | 02:08:09 | 53 |
674. | 1138 | Mike ALLEN | Sevenoaks AC | M | M40 | 02:07:19 | 02:08:10 | 167 |
687. | 249 | Robert PEERS | Sevenoaks AC | M | M50 | 02:07:49 | 02:08:52 | 120 |
770. | 715 | Sylvia LEWIS | Sevenoaks AC | F | W55 | 02:13:24 | 02:14:55 | 13 |
The full results are here.
Hospice in the Weald 10k, Tunbridge Wells
A few of the club members did the Hospice In The Weald run on Sunday - somewhat hilly 10K, writes Andrew Mead. There were 6 SAC runners in the top 30 and although pretty competitive at the front (winning time just over 35 minutes), there was also a real friends and family atmosphere with over 570 finishing and Dame Kelly Holmes at the start and finish. I ran in memory of my late wife and either the additional emotional energy or the fact that I had no idea how fast I was going (as my Garmin watch lost its GPS signal half way around) led me to do my fastest 10K time in several years. However, of special note perhaps is Daniel Witt and John Stevens who ran the race and then ran home from Tunbridge Wells to Sevenoaks - all as part of their prep for the Athens marathon in November.
The SAC runners were:
7 307 Andrew Mead 00:40:06
13 570 Daniel Witt 00:41:07
15 219 Nick Humphrey-Taylor 00:41:44
16 564 John Stevens 00:41:48
19 548 Chris Desmond 00:42:21
21 569 Anthony Waldon 00:43:11
154 449 Lionel Stielow 00:52:15
The full results are here.
High Weald Half Marathon and 50k
Matthew Walker was sixth in 1:39:34 in the half marathon a little way ahead of Lesley and Jim Knight, 171st and 172nd in 3:20:00. Claiir Thornton and Mike Allen completed the 50k ultra in 69th and 70th in 7:02:55.
The results are here.
Highway 10k
And at the Highway 10k near Orpington, new member John Witton was seventh, Heather Fitzmaurice was 4th woman and first W45, and 74-year-old Jim Fitzmaurice was also in the field, albeit in a rather challenging category!
7 126 John Witton M M Senior 6 M 1-39 40:32
32 133 heather fitzmaurice F F 45 to 54 1 F 45-54 48:26
83 134 james fitzmaurice M M 50 to 59 13 M 50-59 58:03
The full results are here.
Nick Humphrey-Taylor was our only representative at the Kent Coyote Marathon on Sunday 18th September, run over twenty plus laps of the Cyclopark at Gravesend. Nick was 15th overall and 5th M40 with 3:21:25. The results are here.
And some SAC performances from earlier in the month...
Dan Witt writes: "Last Sunday (11/9/16) I was racing again, this time a marathon as sole SAC competitor down in the New Forest.
"Amazingly, considering it's a multi-terrain course, I achieved a PB of 3hrs 12 minutes and in the process managed to attain a London GFA qualifying time for a vet 40 by coming in under 3 and a quarter hours (17th in 3:12:36), assuming MT marathons are eligible!
"Overall there were around 600 finishers in the well organised marathon and 6500 overall including the other events which included a half marathon, 10k and 5k races. All the routes took in some of the most scenic and notable parts of the forest which also includes some forest road sections around Brockenhurst and Sway village."
The results are here.
And Cath Linney was 23rd overall and second woman at the Beckenham Half on 11 September in 95:53 - results here.
Lastly Andrew Milne was 5th overall at the Shoreham Woods 10k on Saturday 3rd September, where Heather Fitzmaurice and Nicki Thompson were 1st and 2nd W40 and Jim Fitzmaurice 3rd M60(!). The SAC results were:
Pos | Bib | Name | Race | Time | Gender | GenPos | AgeCat | CatPos | Club |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
5 | 133 | Andrew Milne | 10k | 0:46:17 | Male | 5 | 0-39 | 4 | Sevenoaks AC |
36 | 165 | Chris Randall | 10k | 0:54:13 | Male | 29 | 0-39 | 17 | Sevenoaks AC |
41 | 74 | Heather Fitzmaurice | 10k | 0:54:43 | Female | 8 | 40-49 | 1 | Sevenoaks AC |
42 | 190 | Nicola Thompson | 10k | 0:55:05 | Female | 9 | 40-49 | 2 | Sevenoaks AC |
83 | 75 | James Fitzmaurice | 10k | 1:04:02 | Male | 62 | 60-98 | 3 | Sevenoaks AC |
The full results are here.
At the Kent Masters T&F Champs on 10/11 September, SAC's octogenarians dominated their category with prolific competitor Ron Denney contesting nine of the events. Perhaps Ron's best result was his 400m win with a championship best performance of 107.41, but he was also first in the 800m and Discus, and second in the 100m, 200m, 1500m, 5000m, Hammer and Javelin. In the 100m, 200m, 1500m and 5000m, the winner was our own Richard Pitcairn-Knowles, who won all four of his events.
Our only other competitor at the meeting was Paul English who was second in his two events, the M40 100m and shot. The results are here.