Chris Hall won the fifth race of the 2017 handicap series with a big personal best, while Jacqui O'Reilly in second place became the seventh fastest woman ever over the five-mile course.

First-timer John Witton was also very quick, running the fastest time for nearly four years.

Chris Desmond went straight into the lead in the series, ahead of Jim Fitzmaurice.

The full details are here.

James Graham was first M60 as twelve Sevenoaks AC runners tackled the Darent Valley 10k, a Kent Grand Prix event, on 7th May 2017. Andrew Milne was the first home. The SAC results were as follows:

The full results are here.

Grace Manzotti adds: "Having done the marathon at the beginning of April I was not going to race for a while, but everybody tempted me saying this race was fantastic with amazing views so I signed up. The race start time was 8.30 so when the alarm went off at 6.00 on Sunday I wasn’t very impressed. I picked Lionel up at 7.00 and off we went. The race was really well organised and I like local races, it is always nice to see people we know from Sevenoaks and parkruns. 13 of us from Sevenoaks AC were there. It was rather cold, but a very good temperature for running. I did not know what to expect as I had never done this race before and people had told me it was tough, not a PB one, but a good one to do.

"The route goes through the beautiful villages of Farningham, Lullingstone and Eynsford. I had been warned about 2 hills, especially one at km 6, I was told to keep something in the tank for it as it was tough. But then some people had told me that at the end of the hill you turn left and then from  km 7 is all downhill from there. So first 5km all well, then the race goes off road on gravel for a bit using the same route as Lullingstone parkrun and then there was "the hill". It didn't look too bad from the bottom so I thought well go for it also thinking it would go downhill straight away. So I powered up through it, the end of it was steeper than it looked and my legs were not very happy, I found it hard to keep running but I kept thinking downhill soon! and….. No!! I turned  left and there was another hill on the road which went steady up for another km! People had been lying!! My legs were screaming by then, the downhill nowhere to be seen. And then at km 8 here it comes, my legs start to recover  and then I was flying downhill and it felt great. Before the finish there was  another flat bit and then the road went down again to the end!!! It was great to fly to the finish line! It was really good to see Anna and Nick cheering me on and it was lovely to get a warm cup of tea from Lionel. I think this is a lovely and well organised race with fantastic views so I definitely recommend it. I am happy about my finish time 51.26, I would like to do it again next year as I will know what to expect and can try to go a bit faster."

Jacqui O'Reilly was first woman and Valerie Place second W55 at the Hildenborough 10 on bank holiday Monday 1st May. Nick Humphrey-Taylor led the seven SAC runners home. Their results were:

And we also had two runners in the five-mile race:

The full results are here.

SAC veterans did well at the Ted Pepper 10k in Bromley and the Whitstable 10k on the Mayday bank holiday. Jim Fitzmaurice was first M75 in Bromley and narrowly beat Ron Denney's club second best time for the category and distance. Peter Dillon was fifth M70 at the same event. Their results were:

The full results are here.

And Pauline Dalton was fifth woman and first W45 at Whitstable, where John Denyer missed out on first M60 on gun time but actually ran faster than the category winner. Their results were:

The full results are here.