Alastair Moffatt was fourth overall and first M40 at the Tonbridge 10k at Hildenborough on Sunday 23rd October. Other Sevenoaks runners also did well in their categories, with Anna Humphrey-Taylor third W45, Nick Humphrey-Taylor third M40, Tony Horlock fifth M50 and Simon Hallpike second M60. Despite the proximity to Sevenoaks, a beautiful autumn morning and an excellent scenic course with a great finish, these were the only SAC runners at the event. The SAC results were:

The full result is here.

Eight Sevenoaks AC athletes contested the first Cross Country race of the season: the Kent League match at Stanhill Farm, Wilmington on Saturday 15th October. Andrew Mead led home a complete men's team which finished 12th on the day and in which James Graham finished first M60 in a strong field:

78 00:39:16 ANDREW MEAD S'oaks AC M V45 770
91 00:39:54 DAN WITT S'oaks AC M V40 774
96 00:40:04 JAMES GRAHAM S'oaks AC M V60 773
147 00:43:02 CHRIS DESMOND S'oaks AC M V50 775
223 00:56:22 FRANK MASON S'oaks AC M V55 771

SAC also had two representatives in the senior women's race, with Jacqui O'Reilly our first in and Sally Shewell finishing second W55:

27 00:22:20 JACQUELINE O'REILLY S'oaks AC F Senior 779
62 00:24:42 SALLY SHEWELL S'oaks AC F V55 778

And we also fielded the only M80 competing on the day, as Richard Pitcairn-Knowles finished 5th in the M70 race:

5 00:35:06 RICHARD PITCAIRN-KNOWLES S'oaks AC M V80 772

The full results are here.

Lionel and myself braved the brand new Maidstone half marathon course today, writes Grace Manzotti. Being a new course we really didn't know what to expect. Well for a start it wasn't a half marathon, it was a half marathon plus a 0.60 miles, one whole KM!  This has never happened to me in a race before!  So we had to do 13.7 miles, 22 km instead of 13.1.

They got us to turn at the wrong place near mile 4 so from mile 3 onwards all the miles markers were wrong, which threw me. I was not very impressed when I got 13.1 on my watch and I saw a massive hill ahead of me and the finish line nowhere in sight. About the hills… they called it challenging and undulating, well more like killer half with crazy hills I would say. The hills were both long and steep.  Myself and Lionel are proud to report we never walked we ran up them all and overtook quite a few people. There were downhills too of course, what goes up comes down, and I tried to fly down, but after seeing couple of people falling over as it was so wet, I was cautious.

There were lots of positives too, the course is really scenic, beautiful views of the countryside and goes through nice villages too, the weather was very kind to us and as the race started it stopped raining, race headquarters were inside and well organised and lots of marshals around the course and the medal is fabulous as you can see from the photo. I am  going to try this race next year again with the right distance! I think it is a good one to do to train on hills but not a fast course.

The SAC results were:

 The results are here.

Andy Evans won the October handicap, while Grace Manzotti still leads the series from Jon Copping as both missed the October race. Details here.