Get comfortable and stick on some Bon Jovi as we’re halfway through this year’s relay series, and this report will tell you all about how we got on in the latest round.
We’ll also see the continuation of Friday evening race season, with a particularly popular addition coming up at the end of this week.
Tuesday 2nd June – East Kent Relays Event 3: Betteshanger Park
On Tuesday FRAC turned out in force to Betteshanger for the third event in the East Kent Relays Series, strong performances followed, with one of our teams winning their 7th relay event in a row and following the theme of it being the 3rd event we had a large number of third place podium finishes, some incredibly close.
Men’s Results:
It was our V60 A team which won their 7th event in a row, showing no signs of that streak ending anytime soon, the personnel changes slightly from time to time but the results are consistently successful.
V50 A had a similar result finishing first by roughly a minute, with Mr. PB fastest on the team despite getting a PB in the 10k only 2 days before.
Third place podium finishes were achieved by: Senior B, V40 A and V50 B, including a narrow 3 second gap caused by Dan McCarthy sprinting to the line past the previous third place holder.
It’s hard to explain but there’s something about turning a corner to be greeted by a crowd of blue supporters and a finish line appearing in view that gives me a shot of adrenaline which allows me to sprint to the line, I always look back while overtaking to see if the other person wants to try and keep up, but they never do…
Senior Men’s A: Tom Bean 10:34, Ian Merrick 11:49, Philip Haynes 11:14, Phil Hayes 11:31
Senior Men’s B: James Barney 12:06, Hugo Kingston 12:01, William Parry 11:51, Dan McCarthy 12:16
Senior Men’s C: Thomas Aspinall 12:57, Jake Harvey 13:46, Asim Rai 12:32, Ollie Collier 13:07
Senior Men’s Mixed: Danny Tomlinson 13:56, Jason King 14:58, Kate Lancefield 21:58, David Tetlow 14:18
Men’s Vet40 A: Nick Bryant 11:25, Darren Crew 12:14, Joe Carroll 12:50, Nick Steele 11:28
Men’s Vet40 B: Stuart Erskine 13:47, Don Gilliland 13:29, Ian Vousden 14:30, Phil Haines 13:21
Men’s Vet50 A: Thierry Bal 12:01, Paul Bartlett 11:47, Rob Collier 11:52
Men’s Vet50 B: Tristan Bruce 12:18, Darren Philip 12:46, David Hitching 12:31
Men’s Vet50 C: Arthur Parry 13:57, Karl Letchford 14:05, Anthony Scott 15:40
Mixed Vet50: Philip Maull 18:00, Trudi Curd 17:43, Brian Austin 17:20
Men’s Vet60 A: Stephen Male 11:35, Peter Sheridan 13:13, Torben Jessen 12:44
Men’s Vet60 B: Andy Hadlow 14:33, Royd Powell 15:46, David Smyth 15:54
Men’s Vet60 C: Clive Allon 16:21, Alan Randall 16:47, Dave Botting 16:21
Individual Photos credited to Graham Eke.
Women’s Results:
Our senior women’s teams flew round to third place finishes in both the A and B senior section, with the 35A and 45A teams also doing the same, with 35B and 45B finishing their sections in second place.
Senior Women’s A: Nikki Goodwin 12:32, Manda Gurung 12:21, Ivana Collier 13:23
Senior Women’s B: Meg Scott 14:30, Amy Axon 15:47, Aurora Brown 15:51
Senior Women’s C: Khemma Limbu 15:30, Margaret Whitham 23:47, Caron Inder 18:15
Women’s Vet35 A: Vicky Scott 13:08, Rebecca Powney 13:49, Louisa Eede 14:24
Women’s Vet35 B: Kayleigh Ridgewell 15:07, Marie Brazier 16:03, Pamela Allon 17:05
Women’s Vet45 A: Belinda Hitching 16:31, Catherine O’Connor 14:30, Jody Stoakes 15:15
Women’s Vet45 B: Hilary Collins 15:45, Melanie Powell 17:47, Deirdre Coombs 17:45
Women’s Vet45 C: Sarah Silver 19:28, Rachel Thompson 21:08, Claire Tetlow 16:34
Women’s Vet55 A: Caroline Curtis 15:24, Jane Wren 16:14, Deborah Parmenter 16:28
Individual Photos again credited to Graham Eke.
Friday 5th June – Rye Race Series: 5k and 10k (Race 2)
Another Friday, another evening race, with the latest leg of the Rye Summer Race Series, a nice flat scenic race with strong wind exposure to spice things up a bit.
This course has a nice finish setup as you turn a big corner, and approach a little bridge, which you know at this point you’re about to see the finish and be greeted by cheering crowds for a little fast finish stretch.
The usual crew attended this event, with Jane Wren finishing the 10k race in 51:54 and placing first in the FV55 category.
Martin Salmon finished the 10k in 48:05 and ended up taking the top spot in the V50 category, with Clive Allon finishing just a few minutes behind in 52:42.
Tony Scott continued his strong foot recovery by pulling out a result of 25:22 in the 5k, with Diane just behind in 25:32, both of which were happy with their results.
Saturday 6th June – Parkrun
Folkestone
This Saturday saw a drastic shift in the weather, as well as the latest round of the Parkrun Cup, a bit quieter than my last report, with only one matchup this time, which saw Deirdre Coombs (104.8) beating Alan Randall (103.6) in the B cup, on another short course.
Dulwich
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 31 | 29 | Krzysztof KLIDZIA | 00:18:40 |
Walmer and Deal Seafront
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 71 | 57 | Andrew HADLOW | 00:24:25 |
| 129 | 102 | Martin SALMON | 00:26:54 |
Dishley (Loughborough)
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 63 | 9 | Diane PARSONS | 00:26:12 |
Pegwell Bay
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 88 | 67 | Philip BRIDGES | 00:26:24 |
| 119 | 85 | Jonathan DRINKWATER | 00:28:16 |
| 166 | 59 | Catherine-Anne CURTIS | 00:33:44 |
Ashford
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 19 | 2 | Ivana COLLIER | 00:21:06 |
| 20 | 3 | Nikki GOODWIN | 00:21:06 |
| 111 | 23 | Amy AXON | 00:26:14 |
| 112 | 87 | Henry AXON | 00:26:15 |
Margate
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 2 | 2 | Nick STEELE | 00:18:09 |
Evesham
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 67 | 54 | Bill WOLEDGE | 00:25:51 |
Keswick
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 78 | 63 | Stuart WEST | 00:23:58 |
Maidstone River Park
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 108 | 22 | Kate EVANS | 00:27:42 |
Brooklyn Bridge
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 148 | 80 | Jason CROCKFORD | 00:32:15 |
Puolarmaari (Finland)
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 3 | 2 | Jacob HENWOOD | 00:21:54 |
Riverside Walk
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 33 | 19 | Roy ATKINS | 00:36:14 |
Jersey
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 36 | 27 | Phil HAINES | 00:22:13 |
Gorleston Cliffs
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 327 | 108 | Rosie SMISSEN | 00:33:27 |
Sunday 7th June – Grafman Middle Distance Triathlon
On Sunday Louise Hagger travelled over to Cambridgeshire to take part in an award winning middle distance triathlon which has a reputation for being a premier event, and has hosted multiple championship events.
They say it’s ‘Created by triathletes, for triathletes’.
Below is what Louise had to say about the event:
A crazy windy day in Cambridgeshire made race conditions very tough.
The swim was a bun fight in a washing machine, the first of 2 laps was really difficult, trying to settle my breathing, my stroke and sighting, whilst fighting the wind, after an aussie exit the second lap was much better fortunately. Many people struggled with the swim and were way off on their predicted timings. I managed a 45min swim, longer than the 40mins I was hoping for but under the conditions I am happy, and beat my previous time of 47mins.
The bike was hard, the first 30km flew by, the second 30km I seriously questioned my life choices on a section of headwind which really zapped my energy. Final 30km was much better again. Kept rigidly to my fuelling strategy and stayed mostly within power and HR targets but had a sore tricep and back niggling and distracting me. Tricky to stay in aero for many sections as the crosswinds were pretty savage! 3hrs19mins, pretty happy with all things considered.
The run, I have trained really hard for and was annoyed with myself for not realising before the event that half was on grass and half on concrete as I turned up with my nice new alphaflys! Reassured they would be ok I cracked on. By now the wind speed was about 16-18mph with about 2km out of every 5km in my favour. I tried really hard on the concrete to push, with good form (I did get a few compliments on my running – thank you Catherine) and survived the rest as best as I could without twisting an ankle. I walked the water stations until final 5km, again stuck to the nutrition plan although I never want another gel or chew! Dug deep in the last 5km and managed to finish my run in 1hr51 (chip time, 1hr 50 strava time). Again I was hoping for 1hr 45 with how I felt going in but with the weather and terrain I couldn’t do it, however it is a half PB 🙂
Final time 5:59:48, delighted with my sub 6, done with Triathlons for the time being!
Sunday 7th June – Folkestone Race For Life (3k, 5k and 10k)
Sunday saw the crescendo of over 900 fundraising stories as the 2026 Race For Life took place, I could hear Kevin Daly’s mic announcements from my flat which got me in the spirit and ready to head over to help out and support fellow runners.
Roughly 100 people took part in the 3k, with 600 completing the 5k and 200 taking part in the 10k, showing a clear favourite in terms of distance.
A big hand should out to Kate Evans for her work supporting and setting up the event, I was out for an unhealthily early run that morning and saw her putting up signs along the route.
We also had a couple of club members running the 10k as pacers, Vicky Scott paced 50 minutes, with a little extra at the end to make up a slightly short course, and Paul Hannay pacing 60 minutes, great work by the two of them pacing an event which involves coming up the zig zag path just before the last mile.
Lauren Hart, Lisa Smith and Ivana Collier took part in the event as runners, in solo efforts, with groups and friends, and with cheer squads at the ready alongside.
It really is a great event, for a great cause, and I’ll hopefully be doing it next year.
Now that the report is wrapped up, it’s time to check train times and tickets for Ashford as we have Charing 10k on Friday, a potential bit of a relay recce at Ashford parkrun on Saturday, followed by event 4 in the relay series which is also over there on the Tuesday, and depending on the results we pull out over there they’ll be sick of us come Tuesday night.