The sun is out and with it, Folkestone Running & Athletics Club bringing their best!
Up and down the country a number of members have shown up and put down some extraordinary times and distances.
Here’s what they got for ya:
Outlaw Half Holkham Weekend 2025
A host of events took place on Sunday 6 July against a stunning backdrop of Holkham Hall in beautiful North Norfolk.
Our Amy Axon traveled up to compete a triathlon of activities including swimming, cycling and of course, running!
For Amy’s report, here’s how she did:
- Swim 1.9k – 39:12
- Cycle 90km – 3:35:39
- Half Marathon – 2:11:04
Upon finishing Amy had to this to say about the run:
“Undulating and lots of diffrent terrain but felt strong and managed to keep a comfortable pace!
“6:37 overall and a big PB of 1 hour and 36 minutes.”
Three rounds of applause to you Amy!
Brands Hatch 10k 2025
In honour of the British GP this weekend, Phil Haines and his entourage of faithful supporters (the long-suffering wife and kids) headed to Brands Hatch for what he predicted would be his fastest 10k…
Little did he know it wasn’t as flat as he first thought!
Turned out that a gruelling circuit was waiting for him which revealed more elevation gain than his recent effort at Charing.
That said, he had an absolute blast and came 110th out of 1055 runners with a time of 48:34, which he was more than happy with.
Here’s what Phil had to say:
“The atmosphere was incredible with a chequered flag finish and I even got to take to the finishers’ podium (in the kids play park).”
This medal will be his 6th ever bit of running bling so he might actually be able to justify investing in a medal rack soon.
Great work Phil!
Rye Summer Classic Series
Race two of the Rye Summer Classic series took place over the weekend with a double lineup of events in the 5k and 10k distances.
Jenny ‘Twiggy’ Heathfiled, Jane Wren and Sonia Markwell all came home with trophies with first and second awards in their categories.
The results on the day were:
10k
Jake Harvey, 49:48
Phillip Heathfield , 49:59
Pam Allon, 52:37
Jenny Heathfield, 53:27
Clive Allon, 53:40
Diane Parsons, 54:26
Anthony Scott, 55:29
Brian Austin, 58:20
5k
Jane Wren, 25:17
Sonia Markwell, 27:24
Aldous Hosking, 27:53
Great work everyone who took part!
The Serpent Trail 2025
A beautiful long distance route within the South Downs National Park, from Haslemere to Petersfield.
A course like that calls for two FR&AC trail running legends…
Phil Maull and Sylwia Tokarska heard the call and joined the inaugural (and new distance) 75km at The Serpent Trail.
This is the longest ultra Sylwia has ever tackled with a chip time of 9:47:43 – just closing the top 30 (out of 104) overall, 14th woman out of 50 and 4th in her age category.
Phil arrived 59th overall in time of 11:10:05, 37th out of 53 and 9th (out of 16) in his age category.
Here’s Phil’s report from the mountain effort:
“The Salomon Serpent Trail is a trail running festival held in Hampshire with various events from 10K, 20K, 50K, 75K and 100K distances available.
“The camping is fun as are the ‘talks’ with sponsored runners the night before the races.
“Sylwia and I ran the 75K, which wends it’s way along the Serpent trail from just outside Hillbrow heating east towards Petworth and Fittleworth and then back west via Midhurst.
“According to the organisers, ‘the 75k is a beautiful journey through lowland heath habitats that are rarer than rainforest, ancient woodlands, coppices, greensand hills and quaint villages in some of the best, quintessentially English Countryside you could find!’
“Sylwia did amazing and I also really enjoyed my run.”
Serpent Trail 20km
Joining the two in the South Downs, Colin and Karen Burfoot completed the Serpent Trail 20km distance on Saturday 4th July.
Colin finished in an impressive 1:43:22 (6th in his age category and 46th out of 278 finishers). Karen also did very well with 1.48.42 (6th in her age category and 14th female).
Well done to all you serpent runners!
Cliffe Woods 5 Mile
The sun came out just in time for the start of Sarah Nunn’s run on Sunday 6th July which made for a hot, sunny effort!
A lovely undulating route through country roads which started and finished at Cliffe Woods Primary School in Rochester.
Sarah finished at a time of 41:29. Brilliant work there, now get back to school!
The Fixaddiction Triathlon
At a stunning Dorney Lake in Windsor, Marie and Gary Brazier and Diane Parsons completed a triathlon on Saturday 5th July.
Gary and Diane competed in the super sprint, 400m swim, 20K bike ride and 5K run.
Gary with a time of 01:29:07 and Diane in 01:30:22 in her FIRST EVER triathlon.
Marie competed in the sprint distance, 750m swim, 20K bike ride and 5K run. She finished in a great time of 01:29:12.
They came home saying it was a fantastic venue and was really well organised. That’s lovely to hear, now who’s joining them next time?
South of England Octathlon
Coming out on top again, Thomas Webb wins another weekend gold medal at the South of England Octathlon event.
An Octathlon is a combined competition consisting of eight different sports or athletic contests with this one taking place in Oxford.
Lots of PBs were gained including a massive PB of 9cm in the high jump competition where he cleared 1.65m! Great job Thomas!
Bewl 15 Mile
Rounding out the week is Trevor DeVooght, Jane Wren and Krzysztof Klidzia with their recent outing along the gorgeous lakeside route at Wadhurst, Sussex.
Great showings by this trio with Krzysztof finishing in 1:49:19, Trevor coming home in at 1:50:39 and Jane at 2:48:07.
Brilliant way to end this week’s round up.
parkruns for the week:
Some epic battles were had this week as part of the ‘parkrun cup’ with four new PB’s and two matches settled by a 0.04 margin!
Run of the round goes to Joseph Carroll with his fabulous PB and beating his set time by 1 min 21 secs.