The weather is changing and the autumn season full of September and October races is almost upon us, but even in a relatively quiet month there are still some pretty special things happening for some of us at FRAC.
I’ve ran 3 sub 20 5Ks since I last wrote a report, a month before that I hadn’t run one for nearly 2 years, and a potential sub 19 is so close I can feel it.
For now though, on that particular topic, sit back, get comfortable and lets have a look what happened at Parkrun this weekend:
Saturday 29th August – Parkrun
Folkestone
Wakehurst
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 12 | 12 | Andrew NOBLE | 00:20:57 |
Ashford
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 192 | 156 | Martin SALMON | 00:28:42 |
Rostrevor (Northern Ireland)
Thomo and Martin Murray ran the Rostrevor Mountain Parkrun whilst away visiting family, and Thomo said that there was heavy rain and quite a bit of elevation on the route, but it was a good run, as you can tell by the photo he’s clearly enjoying himself.
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 4 | 4 | Thomas MURRAY | 00:21:36 |
| 15 | 15 | Martin MURRAY | 00:26:46 |
Penrith
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 138 | 110 | Anthony SCOTT | 00:25:36 |
Burnley
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 149 | 120 | Simon COFFEY | 00:25:40 |
Walmer and Deal Seafront
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 389 | 131 | Elizabeth TEW | 00:33:14 |
Birkenhead
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 737 | 432 | Jake HARVEY | 00:44:50 |
Dover Waterfront
Special guest on the mic introducing the event to celebrate a year of ‘5k your way’ – Kevin Daly.
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 10 | 8 | Henry AXON | 00:19:13 |
| 11 | 9 | Dan MCCARTHY | 00:19:14 |
| 49 | 7 | Nicole DODD | 00:22:48 |
| 68 | 9 | Sarah NUNN | 00:23:59 |
| 71 | 59 | Stuart WEST | 00:24:06 |
| 75 | 63 | Luke HICKS | 00:24:24 |
| 79 | 11 | Layla DMONTE | 00:24:50 |
| 94 | 13 | Amy AXON | 00:26:08 |
| 112 | 19 | Rebecca STEVENSON | 00:27:07 |
Monsal Trail
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 13 | 13 | James BARNEY | 00:19:37 |
Avery Hill
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 89 | 15 | Kate EVANS | 00:26:55 |
Medina (I.O.W)
| Position | Gender Position | parkrunner | Time |
| 250 | 85 | Sarah SILVER | 00:33:05 |
Saturday 29th August – Sandgate Run Club Backyard Ultra
Elsewhere on Saturday was fellow runner, race report writer and Lead Womble Thomas Aspinall completing a crazily impressive challenge which he’d kept pretty quiet in the build up.
Below is what he had to say about the event:
“Completed my first ever backyard ultra this weekend in Aldington with Sandgate Run Club!
65km/40 miles overall – the furthest I’ve ran in a single day in my whole life. So incredibly proud but so incredibly broken!
It was 10 looped laps (4 miles each) that you run on the hour, every hour. Depending on how quick you do it, the longer you have to relax and fuel up before the next round. I averaged around 40-45 minutes per lap, so did pretty well for my standards!
I only ever intended to turn up and run a marathon distance so coming away doing the whole thing has not only surprised me, but delighted me in finding out what I’m capable of.
Event was expertly run with lovely support throughout.
The only negative part was doing 10 hours running in solid rain, wind and grey clouds.
What a day!”
Sounds like one to potentially try out next year, and what made the whole thing even more impressive is that he was out wombling the next day with all that in his legs.
Saturday 29th August – Stockholm Half Marathon
From England we now head over to Sweden to hear about club power couple David and Belinda Hitching as they took part in the Stockholm Half Marathon, which has now sold out for 25 consecutive years.
The conditions didn’t look too great, a bit grey and wet, but Stockholm is the sort of place that even if it doesn’t seem great you’ll eventually end up falling in love with it.
The conditions however didn’t slow down David as he finished in a time of 1:35:21 which is a 31 second PB for him, and then Belinda finished her run in 2:04:06.
Both runners were well taken care of afterwards as they were presented with a table covered in enough bananas to supply a zoo for a few months, quite an impressive sight no doubt.
Great work you two, spreading the red white and blue of FRAC around the world and collecting medals along the way.
That’s all for this report, one which Elton John would love to read as it’s all happening on Saturday!
With the Folkestone Half coming up, and for a few Folkestone runners a particularly BIG Half coming up even sooner, there’ll be some packed reports coming up soon, but until then polish those carbon plates, iron out those soar vests and get ready for a speedy one tomorrow evening as we take on the Don Thompson mile race in Seabrook.