After a long, slow start to the year, all those many, many hours of training are starting to pay off and the big races are starting to appear on the calendar. Last Weekend, Stephen Deeming ran the Hellfire Backyard Ultra.
Stephen said “Hellfire Event’s Backyard Ultras have been on my radar for a while and as they are a local company running ultras in Kent I was excited about being able to run at the event in Sholden on the 7th of March.
Hellfire run an amazingly supportive and encouraging event and it was my first time running this sort of format, 4.167 miles to be ran in an hour every hour until 1 person is left, the eventual winner ran for 41 loops which is 170 miles.
The atmosphere was great and as we all started each loop together there was a lot of time to chat and encourage each other to keep going and have a laugh.
As I had struggled with an injury last year my confidence wasn’t great, but I felt pretty good throughout and no recurring injury ! Also I managed to finish 10 loops (42 miles/68km).”
This weekend at the Kent Indoor Athletics Championships at Lee Valley, Folkestone Athlete’s Oscar Roach and Sam Voyle both excelled in their events.
Oscar came 2nd in the u20 800m final on Saturday, with 2.05.14 an 8 second pb!
He followed that on Sunday by winning gold in the u20 1500m with another pb of 4.24.06.
Sam competed in his first 400m in competition coming 2nd in his heat to gain a place in the u17 400m final, with an excellent 54.78.
Both Oscar and Sam are bottom end of their age groups for the indoor season, a brilliant achievement.
Further afield, on Sunday, Don Gilliland and Emilie Haines travelled to Rome to run the Rome Marathon. It was Don’s 3rd marathon (but 1st since 2019) and Emilie’s 1st – they ran the race together, and finished in 4hr 31m 40s, which was a PB for both runners! Don said it was a “Really great course, although we weren’t a fan of the cobble sections!
Also on Sunday, Lara Parsons ran the Surrey Half Marathon. After putting in a strong few months of training, Lara completed the course in a PB time of 2:02:19
This weekend over 2500 runners took part in the famous hilly Hastings half marathon. A challenging route with lots of ups (and a few down) hills! The roads were lined with cheering crowds, banners, live bands, endless hand outs of sweets, wonderful marshals and of course the glorious spring sunshine. The run was started by TeamGB athlete Charlotte Purdue. Seven Folkestone Running and Athletics Club runners
Krzysztof Klidzia was the first MV60 runner back in a time of 1:23:27, also running were Peter Sheridan 1:43:14, Nikki Goodwin 1:44:39, Sarah Nunn completed the race in a new PB time of 1:52:39, Martin Salmon 1:56:33, Jane Wren 2:04:30, Alan Randall 2:14:30.
This weeks parkruns
Dover Waterfront parkrun
Stephen Male was the second runner back overall in a time of 18:40. Stuart West was the next Folkestone Running and Athletics Club runner back in a time of 20:34, followed by Karl Letchford 22:56, Anthony Scott 23:57, Diane Parsons 26:21, Aldous Hosking 29:54.
Ashford parkrun
Andrew Noble 22:48, Lesley Taylor 26:23, Rachel Thompson 30:52
Walmer and Deal Seafront parkrun
Martin Salmon 26:31
Hastings parkrun
Simon Coffey 25:04
Hanworth parkrun
Brian Austin 27:20
Greenwich Peninsula parkrun
Kate Evans 24:03
Hove Promenade parkrun
Jason Crockford 29:53
University Parks parkrun
Jacob Henwood 19:13
Folkestone parkrun
Prakash Gurung was the first runner back overall in a time of 17:39.Manda Gurung was the first female runner back in a time of 19:49, with Louisa Eede coming in as the 3rd female runner in a time of 22:40.
Also running were:
Thierry Bal 19:39, Harry Wall 19:44, Krzysztof Klidzia 20:05, Ian Merrick 20:07, Phil Hoyland 20:48, Darren Crew 20:51, Tristan Bruce 20:52, James Barney 21:00, Stephen Deeming 21:14, Dan McCarthy 21:23, Joseph Carroll 22:06, Thomas Murray 22:52, Ian Vousden 23:22, Stuart Erskine 23:38, Paul Bartlett 23:38, Catherine O’Connor 23:49, Linnaea Stockall 24:28, Nicole Dodd 24:29, Jonathan Arana-Morton 25:40, Alan Randall 27:27, Ron Bell 27:27, Amy Axon 27:31, John O’Hara 27:39, Simon Burvill 28:52, Deirdre Coombs 28:54, Miles Gawthorp 29:33, Jason Herridge 29:39, Victoria Edwards 29:42, Marie Brazier 30:11, Paul Hannay 30:32, Jane Wren 31:04, Rosie Smissen 32:47, Gary Brazier 32:47, Julie Gibbs 33:51, Malcolm Gibbs 34:29, Danielle Anson 34:48, Beth Goodchild 35:58, Roy Atkins 37:13, Kate Lancefield 38:09, Jacob Burvill 46:54