The cross-country season has started - at least for our keenest trio of runners who contested the first Kent League match at the new course of Stanhill Farm at Wilmington on Saturday 10th October. James Graham was first M60 and led the other two home in 94th place with 39:40. Dan Witt was just a few strides behind in 39:55 for 98th, with Chris Desmond 111th in 40:51. The full results are here.
A few Sevenoaks AC athletes usually travel down to Ashford to take advantage of a fast course at the Givauden 10k. Jenny Austin, Happy Fisher and Rob Johnson made the trip on Sunday 11 October with Rob finishing 157th in 44:59, Happy 395th in 52:40, and Jenny 487th in 55:47. The full results are here.
And Grace Manzotti provides this brief description of her experience of the Royal Parks Half Marathon on the same day:
"The start of this race was very stressful. Trains were delayed so myself and other runners had to sprint from Victoria Station to Hyde Park, where I queued 30 minutes for the loos and 20 minutes for the bag drop and I missed the green start which was where I was meant and ended up towards the end so started the race stressed out! Having raced Tonbrige half last week with a hip injury I was worried about my hip so decided that my aim was going to be to get round in one piece! And I did with a time of 1h55.05, again not a PB, but on this occasion I wanted to finish in one piece! Glorious sunny morning, very nice course with amazing crowd support. Even though I was struggling towards the end I managed a sprint finish as I saw a man dressed up as Peppa pig with a wonderful costume try to overtake me and I thought, no I am not going to be overtaken by Peppa Pig and sprinted!"
The full results are here.