FR&AC Race Reports: 23rd February – 1st March

With March arriving and spring being right around the corner, hopefully this will be the last race report for a while full of rainy events, and to any keen astronomers currently reading, you’ll be pleased to know that this report contains a very impressive constellation made up of 6 stars with a very clear sighting in Japan.

Before we get into this week’s running events, I’d like to quickly congratulate the below members for their efforts in the recently concluded grand prix:

Premier Division: Nick Steele (Winner) and Torben Jessen (Runner Up).

First Division: Louisa Eede (Winner) and Jacob Henwood (Runner Up).

Second Division: Deborah Doughty Parmenter (Winner) and Adam Ward (Runner Up).

Third Division: Tony Scott (Winner).

Fourth Division: Clive Allon (Winner) and Rosie Smissen (Runner Up).

Most Improved WMA Percentage: Diane Parsons.

Masters League: Torben Jessen (Male Winner) and Catherine O’Connor (Female Winner).

Fastest Handicap Time: Joe Bruce

And of course, to wrap up this section, a big well done and thankyou to Jane Wren for all the work she puts into the grand prix year in, year out, she really excels at putting those leader board spreadsheets together!

Below is a poster to get everyone excited and prepared for next season’s Grand Prix:

Saturday 28^th February – Parkrun

Beckenham Place

Position	Gender Position	parkrunner	Time
65	4	Kate EVANS	00:24:46

South Norwood

Position	Gender Position	parkrunner	Time
3	3	Krzysztof KLIDZIA	00:20:07

Billericay

Position	Gender Position	parkrunner	Time
54	9	Caroline CURTIS	00:24:41

Burgess

Position	Gender Position	parkrunner	Time
688	260	Beth GOODCHILD	00:44:13

Pegwell Bay

Position	Gender Position	parkrunner	Time
17	15	Jake BRAZIER	00:21:27

Folkestone

After last weekend’s unfortunate cancellation, it was greatly received news that we were back in business this week, with 281 people turning up to try out the new modified route.

The weather wasn’t entirely friendly, and the main comments about the new route were that it may have been slightly short, and that it was a bit steeper than the usual, but overall it seemed a pretty smooth success of an event, and I’m sure we’d all rather run a modified route than not have a parkrun at all for 2 months.

Below is a look at the temporarily modified route:

Position	Gender Position	parkrunner	Time
1	1	Oscar ROACH	00:17:03
2	2	Guy SLINGSBY	00:17:47
3	3	Simon RAMSAY	00:18:27
4	4	Jacob HENWOOD	00:19:46
5	5	Elliot CHAPMAN-JONES	00:20:03
6	6	Thierry BAL	00:20:07
10	10	Darren CREW	00:20:43
13	13	Stephen DEEMING	00:21:36
16	1	Louisa EEDE	00:22:21
19	18	Greg DIXON	00:22:32
20	19	Phil HAINES	00:22:34
25	23	Thomas ASPINALL	00:22:47
26	24	Tristan BRUCE	00:22:48
27	25	Ian VOUSDEN	00:22:55
30	28	Jonathan ARANA-MORTON	00:23:15
35	33	Stuart ERSKINE	00:23:54
64	4	Diane PARSONS	00:25:45
67	5	Kirsty WILSON	00:25:50
70	62	Anthony SCOTT	00:25:58
80	66	Ron BELL	00:26:16
82	68	David BOTTING	00:26:18
83	69	Jason KING	00:26:20
88	74	John O’HARA	00:26:37
95	79	Ian MERRICK	00:26:55
98	80	Martin MURRAY	00:27:03
100	82	Ben HANCOX	00:27:13
104	84	Miles GAWTHORP	00:27:27
110	89	Philip MAULL	00:27:39
121	19	Helen WEBB	00:28:10
126	21	Rosie SMISSEN	00:28:33
128	22	Jody STOAKES	00:28:39
148	34	Deirdre COOMBS	00:29:07
162	46	Julie SLINGSBY	00:29:46
166	48	Marie BRAZIER	00:29:59
184	58	Hilary COLLINS	00:30:57
202	127	Simon BURVILL	00:31:46
206	129	Jason CROCKFORD	00:31:49
207	71	Kayleigh RIDGWELL	00:31:54
263	153	Brian DAVIS	00:39:36
264	103	Trudi CURD	00:41:08
267	154	Jake HARVEY	00:41:29
274	111	Kate LANCEFIELD	00:44:17
276	157	Jacob BURVILL	00:49:33

Walmer and Deal Seafront

Position	Gender Position	parkrunner	Time
67	53	Martin SALMON	00:24:42

Futakotamagawa (Japan)

Position	Gender Position	parkrunner	Time
53	49	Henry AXON	00:23:22
199	52	Amy AXON	00:29:38

Dover Waterfront

Position	Gender Position	parkrunner	Time
2	1	Anna THOMSEN	00:18:48
22	19	David HITCHING	00:20:49
66	56	Andrew HADLOW	00:24:31
82	15	Lesley TAYLOR	00:25:58
85	17	Belinda HITCHING	00:26:07
88	69	Andrew NOBLE	00:26:17
118	91	Aldous HOSKING	00:28:07

Pirrama (Sydney)

Position	Gender Position	parkrunner	Time
50	36	Oliver COLLIER	00:22:35

Ingrebourne Hill

Position	Gender Position	parkrunner	Time
5	1	Deborah JEFFERY	00:20:32

Saturday 28^th February – Bedgebury Pinetum CaniCross

Elsewhere on Saturday our dynamic duos Phil and Marley & Jen and Banjo wrapped up their CaniCross season in Bedgebury, with Marley no doubt still keenly awaiting his next opportunity to run with Tom.

Below is Jen’s course description, and their run times:

“Phil and I took place in our last CaniCross race of the season. Run by Canix a new, challenging route around Bedgebury Forrest. The course measured about 6k so was slightly over but thankfully it was a lovely long downhill finish. 

Phil and Marley completed the course in 27:07 whilst Banjo and myself crossed the line in 33:19.”

Sunday 1^st March – Newport Half Marathon

In order to warm up the roads for the marathon and half next month Newport celebrated St. David’s Day in style by holding a half marathon in support of St. David’s Hospice Care Charity, and Helen Webb took part.

She described it as being unsurprisingly wet and windy, and finished with a time of 1:38:47 which is nearly a 2-minute PB, what a great result.

It would be quite a challenge to find somewhere in the UK that it wasn’t wet and windy this week.

Sunday 1^st March – Stelling Minnis 10k

Also, on Sunday 3 of our members travelled over to Stelling Minnis to take part in Sporting Events UK’s 10k Race.

Karen Burfoot described the course as very challenging which wasn’t helped by challenging conditions (yet more wind and rain), but she still managed to pull a time of 52:57 out of the bag and achieve 3^rd place in her age category.

David and Claire Tetlow ran together and below is what David had to say about the event:

“On Sunday, Claire Tetlow and David Tetlow ran the 10k race at Stelling Minnis, a historic and rural village near Canterbury, renowned for its Grade I listed windmill. The day turned out to be very wet and windy, and the route full of large muddy puddles, nevertheless it was an enjoyable race, all the better when finished off with coffee and cake at the finish. Claire finished in 58:46 and David in 58:49.”

Sunday 1^st March – Tokyo Marathon

On the other side of the world, in the land of Cherry blossom trees, Pokémon, Sushi and Nissan Skylines 2 of our members took part in the Tokyo Major Marathon.

Henry and Amy Axon both completed the marathon, the day after sampling a local parkrun as a shakeout run.

I covered Henry’s 5^th Marathon Major star last year in October, as he completed Chicago marathon, so it’s great to have the opportunity to cover the conclusion of the journey as his Cassiopeia became a Lyra, or as his 5 stars became 6.

Amy arrived at the ‘Crux’ of her marathon major journey as she collected her 4^th Major Star, only 2 more to go for a full house.

The original 6 stars consist of: London, New York, Chicago, Berlin, Tokyo and Boston.

With both runners not having quite the training volume they would have liked, and with Henry’s shin pain and Amy’s potential for calf problems they both overcame some struggles but managed to finish with great results.

Henry mentioned that it was warm in the second half, but he still managed to complete the marathon in a time of 2:51 and get himself a Good-For-Age time in the process.

Amy stayed strong throughout and was very happy to make it round with a great time of 4:33.

Congratulations you two, you’ve both done an amazing job this weekend.

Hopefully everyone feels as educated as Galileo after reading this report, and maybe if we’re lucky our skies won’t be full of rain clouds for much longer and we’ll actually be able to see some stars again.

Enjoy the sunshine the next few days, and good luck to everyone running Paddock Wood next week!