KFL Rough Common 23 November 2008

On a freezing cold Sunday morning, 18 intrepid runners from Sevenoaks AC set off for Canterbury in the snow, to compete in the second fixture of the 2008/2009 Kent Fitness League which was held at Rough Common, writes Rob Carr.

First up was the junior race (two 1 km laps around the playing fields), which was held in strong winds and rain. The first girl home was Caitlin Carr (age 14), the only Sevenoaks AC junior representative to brave the elements.

Weather conditions were equally poor in the senior race, for the 346 runners that completed the wet and muddy five mile course, run mainly on undulating paths through Rough Common Woods. Rob Murray followed up his 13th place at Swanley to once again lead the Sevenoaks AC men’s team home. He finished in an impressive 9th place with a time of 31:20.

Chris Desmond maintained his high standard in this competition to finish in 16th with a time of 32:36. Keith Brown also ran well to finish 21st in a time of 32:54. Not far behind Keith was Jim Harness in 26th (33:14) then a gap before Robert Carr finished 72nd (35:58), closely followed by David Lee 78th (36:12).

With the first 6 scoring finishers in and requiring a M50 for the team results all eyes were on who would complete the score sheet for Sevenoaks AC. It was Geoff Vine who finished 108th (37:39). Geoff was the race winner in the M60 category.

Other male finishers were Fraser Partridge 82nd (36:28), David Lobley 84th (36:32), Rob Peers 100th (37:12), Simon Stromberg 151st (39:54) and James Fitzmaurice 189th (44:45)

The ladies team was led home by Heather Fitzmaurice who made a welcome return to XC running for Sevenoaks AC, finishing 18th in the women’s race (145th overall) in a time of 38:12. Second finisher for the ladies team was Vicki White 29th (40:04) closely followed by Lindsey Shing 31st (40:10l). Other Sevenoaks AC ladies finishers were Sally Shewell 40th (41:38) and Happy Fisher 55th (44:45).

From a team perspective we finished a very creditable 5th. This leaves the combined Sevenoaks AC Team 3rd in the standings after two events.

The next race is Nurstead Court, Meopham (complete with water crossing) on Sunday 30th November 2008. Hopefully we will have another strong team out to build on our strong results to date.

Full results and current standings HERE. Junior result HERE, and standings HERE.