The Gower Marathon took place on Saturday, a gruelling course on the Gower Peninsula in Wales taking in plenty of hills and mud, made worse by the torrential rain. Emma Long took on the challenge, raising money for the Pilgrims Hospices while Tina and Grahame Eke were also in action, taking part in the half marathon which though shorter, was equally challenging.
It was the third round of the Kent Cross Country League on Saturday afternoon. First to race was Louis Blacktop-Wales in the men’s U17 category. Making his cross-country debut in an extremely competitive age group, Louis put in a great performance over the muddy 5.2km course, finishing 36th.
The senior women’s race was the next also following the 5.2km route. Zoe Neale was first back for the club in 70th position followed by Kirsty Wilson in 88th, Catherine O’Connor in 98th, Gail Turbott in 107th, Diane Parsons in 110th, Ivana Coller in 136th and Julie Gibbs in 149th. The ladies are currently 13th out of 21 teams in the 3 to score team competition and 10th out of 15 in the 6 to score competition.
Fine weather on Saturday morning meant lots of FRCers were out parkrunning. In Folkestone, Dave Gillett was first back for the club in 6th position overall in a time of 18:42 followed by Joe Bruce (19:00), Jonathan Arana-Morton (19:10), Phil Hoyland (19:54), Kevin Newman (20:00), Ian Merrick (20:35), Rob Huish (20:56), Chris Addison (21:06), Darren Crew (21:13), Nikki Goodwin (21:32), Vicky Scott (23:45), David Walbrook (23:56), Richard Fowles (23:57), Jody Stokes (24:25), John O’Hara (25:33),Richard Dyer (25:35), Gary Brazier (26:19), Carolyn Lewis (26:43), Jacob Burvill (29:28), Linda Robson (33:02), Louise Fowler (34:08), Caron Inder (36:35) and Catherine-Anne Curtis (42:01).
There were also a few parkrun tourists. Caroline Curtis ran the tough Lullingstone parkrun finishing as first lady in 24:36. In Minster, Debbie Jeffrey ran 22:09 just ahead of Chris Woolgar in 22:20. Clive Allen took part in the Pollok parkrun in Glasgow finishing in 25:20 while Ian McGilloway and Vicky Green ran the Southwark parkrun, finishing together in 23:33.