Spring marathon season has come to end, but that don’t stop our Folkestone Running & Athletics Club members running halfway instead!
This last week we’ve got a couple half marathons to mention as well as some shorter stints across at parkrun in our ongoing club cup and a double race in Rye.
We’re looking forward to the height of the summer racing season, but while we wait let’s get a taste of the things happening right now:
Hackney Half Marathon 2026
The HOKA Hackney Half in London is the trendy spring race, renowned for its flat, fast route and high-energy, festival-like atmosphere. As part of the annual Hackney Moves festival, it features vibrant street art and live DJs along the 13.1 mile course.
Two of our runners, Nicole Dodd and Ian Merrick ventured to the big city on Sunday 17th May to take on this run, but how did they do? Well, two PBs were secured but only one was for a club runner!
Ian Merrick lent his skills as an experienced runner to help pace his friend Daniel Evans for charity during what was his first ever half marathon! Daniel finished in a time of 2:09:12, a new personal best.
One PB left…so that means our Nicole did something amazing at Hackney!
She came away with a new PB effort of 01:36:57. Keeping it short and sweet, here’s how she found the race:
“Absolutely loved every second. The crowd support was unreal!”
Well done you three and the 23,000+ other runners out there on the day!
Chester Half Marathon 2026
Another half, this time at the Essar Chester Half Marathon which welcomed 7,999 runners including our club member Peter Sheridan.
For the last three months, Peter has been coached by our club coach Catherine O’Connor for his first target race under her tutelage.
He returns home with an official time of 1:34:24, coming 13th in his MV60 category.
“Chester is a qualifying race for the British Masters and fairly flat so ideal for a good time.
Going into it I wanted to break 1:40 but managed to take over 8 minutes off my previous PB. This beat the minimum qualifying masters pace!”
Brilliant work Peter! He’s well pleased and puts it all down to Catherine’s coaching and support.
Rye 10 & 5 Mile
Sunday also saw a scenic (and hilly!) race through the country lanes of East Sussex with one of our runners joining the 5 mile event.
Alan Randall enjoyed the race, so much so he did so in 46:30 – coming 1st in his MV60 age category.
Great effort Alan!
parkruns for the week:
Another round of the Folkestone parkrun Cup took place this weekend, with a quite a few matchups hitting The Leas promenade:
- Amie Howard (win) vs Pam Allon
- Karl Letchford (PB & win) vs Don Gilliland (PB)
- Torben Jessen (win) vs Phil Haines (PB)
- Bec Powney (PB) vs Adam Ward (PB & win)
- Julie Gibbs vs Edwin James (PB & win)
- Clive Allon vs Miles Gawthorp (win)
- Ian Vousden (win) vs Caroline Curtis
- Sophie O’Callaghan (PB & win) vs Joe Carroll
- Jane Wren (win) vs Julie Slingsby
- Rebecca Stevenson (win) vs Thierry Bal (PB)
Well done all! Victors now go on to the next round in the A cup, with the defeated given a second chance as they join the B cup.
The full weekend of parkrun results from our FRAC members (some like Ron Bell over in Finland and Norway!) can be found here.
