It has been a quiet few weeks, however that has all changed this week! On Friday, 10 runners from Folkestone Running and Athletic Club competed in the final race in the Rye, 5k Summer Series. Guy Slingsby was the first runner back overall, in a time of 16:33. Kirsty Wilson was next back for the club in a time of 20:23 and first in her age category, followed by Stephen Deeming 20:39, Jon Wilson 21:07, Rebecca Powney 21:13, Carrie Thomas 21:38 first in her age category, Philip Bridges 24:53, Deborah Parmenter 24:55, Sonia Markwell 25:25 and Brian Austin in 28:07
On Saturday, in Interlaken, Switzerland, Vicky Scott ran the Jungfrau Marathon through the Swiss Alps. She completed the beautiful, but very tough course which has a massive 6648ft elevation gain in a time of 5:21:48 achieving 12 segment PBs on her way.
On Sunday, live from Norwich, Torbin Jessen ran the Run Norwich 10k in a time of 39:27, finishing 129th out of 7797 finishers and first in his age category, 2 seconds faster than last year.
In London Darren Crew 1:32:02 and Jody Stoakes 1:57:26 ran the Big Half around the heart of London.
And further north, runners competed in the iconic Great North Run. Catherine O’Conner 1:37:22 finished 4th in her age category, 1 behind Dame Kelly Holmes. Paul Bartlett 1:25:17, Louisa Eede finished in 1:42:00, a new PB by 6 minutes. James Owen 1:41:40, Jason O’Callaghan 1:52:21
Closer to home, Thomas Murray ran in the inaugural Sandgate Run club Backyard Ultra. It was a tough run in the heat but Thomas managed to complete 12 loops which was 2 more than the last Backyard Ultra he attempted in Brighton. The event was really well run. 58 runners started and when Thomas dropped out only 7 runners were remained. In the end the winner won with 16 loops.
Further afield, Caroline Curtis ran in the farming village Fuente Librilla in the Murcia region of Spain. Fuelled on hot squidgy Octopus, peppers and masses of Garlic, the run was part trail through the farm land of olive and almonds. The uphill start, out onto the craggy dusty rocky trail was wonderful although Caroline was only 3k in and struggling with the humidity. She only had 4 or maybe 5 walks but luckily it was 11k and to her surprise she finished first in the V55 category. All prize winners won jam and Bolognese sauces on top of beer apples nuts and olives provided by the sponsors for all runners.
And finally, Folkestone R & AC had 19 athletes taking part in the Kent County Relay Championships at Bromley on Sunday.
With teams from U13 Girls, U13 Boys, U15 Girls and U15 Boys.
The U15 Boys won Gold in the 4 x 100m storming to a win 5 metres ahead of the second placed team, they also gained Bronze in both the 4 x 200m and 4 x 300m. Smashing all of the club records, the 4 x 300m record by over 8 seconds!
The other teams ran superbly also breaking club records, with the U13 Girls making the finals of the 4 x 100m and the 4 x 200m.
This weeks parkruns
Ashford parkrun
Anna Thomsen was the first female back in a time of 20:12.
Canterbury parkrun
James Barney 21:33
Lloyd parkrun, Croydon
Krzysztof Klidzia 19:42
Stevenage parkrun
Andrew Noble 23:07, Lesley Clancy 25:08
Shorne Woods parkrun
Beth Goodchild 35:37
Stretford parkrun
Joseph Carroll 21:09
Uckfield parkrun
Oliver Collier 23:04
Zuiderpark parkrun, Den Haag
Martin Salmon 24:31
Peel parkrun
James Springett 22:59
Philips Park parkrun
Greg Dixon 23:17
Folkestone parkrun
Prakash Gurung was the 2nd runner back overall in 17:11, followed by Nick Steele in 3rd place in a time of 17:11. Deborah Jeffery was the first female back in a time of 19:32, followed by Nikki Goodwin in 2nd place in a time of 20:50. Also running were; Simon Ramsay 18:07, Ben Hancox 18:24, Ian Merrick 18:59, Tristan Bruce 19:00, David Gillett 19:09, Thierry Bal 19:18, Derek Matcham 19:27, Elliot Chapman-Jones 19:36, David Hitching 20:02, Darren Philip 20:05, Nicholas Bryant 20:28, Jonathan Arana-Morton 21:14, Thomas Aspinall 21:15, Dave Bowerman 21:32, Phil Haines 21:54, Dan McCarthy 22:10, Guy Slingsby 22:57, Stephen Deeming 23:17, Anthony Leyton-Thomas 23:34, Hazel Millard 23:42, Simon Coffey 23:42, Anh-Van Whitby 23:45, Jake Harvey 23:56, Stuart Erskine 23:57, Jason O’Callaghan 24:22, Ron Bell 24:48, John O’Hara 24:57, Ian Vousden 25:20, David Botting 25:41, Belinda Hitching 26:32, Jacob Henwood 27:10, Alan Randall 27:21, Anthony Scott 27:25, Deirdre Coombs 27:56, Tomas Lane 28:03, Miles Gawthorp 28:03, Diane Parsons 28:08, Lara Parsons 28:09, Aldous Hosking 28:23, Brian Austin 28:33, Simon Burvill 28:59, Gary Brazier 29:51, Julie Gibbs 29:54, Deborah Parmenter 31:15, Jane Wren 31:15, Malcolm Gibbs 31:28, Rosie Smissen 31:29, Sonia Markwell 31:30, Caron Inder 31:40, Maria Felicetti 32:12, Jacob Burvill 32:15, Lauren Hart 32:50, Julie Slingsby 33:12, Rachel Smith 35:10, Jason Crockford 35:43, Kate Lancefield 36:22, Sophie O’Callaghan 41:08, Helen Merrick 53:07