BMAF 10k

The BMAF 10k Open Road Champs took place at the Gravesend Cyclopark on Sunday with Richard Pitcairn-Knowles and myself taking part, writes John Denyer. The morning was very warm and the 4 lap cycle track quite hilly but Richard was initially more concerned about finishing inside the cut off time of 75 min which he achieved to finish as 2nd M80 in 70.35.

The overall winner was  Sullivan Smith in an impressive 32.24 as an M40. This was my first road race in over a year so I was unsure what to expect but disappointed to run my slowest 10 k and to finish behind M65's that I would normally expect to beat. The message was clear - I need to up the intensity of my training! June Johnson who long term members will remember well before she moved away to Leamington Spa was also competing and finished as 2nd W70 in 56.03.

The full results are here. Picture from the VAC website.

BRIGHTON MARATHON

Also hosting SAC runners on the 9th April was the Brighton Marathon as another three of our intrepid athletes tackled the classic distance in unusually hot conditions. Nick Humphrey-Taylor was first of them home in 3:10:54, followed by Jacqui O'Reilly in 3:41:10 and Anna Humphrey-Taylor in 4:14:06. The full results are here.

Darrell Smith was first M40 and sixth overall and Cath Linney second W45 and fifth woman as seven SAC runners tackled the Rotary Club's 10k race in Knole Park on 2nd April. The SAC results were:

 The full results are here.

Jenny and myself really enjoyed our trip to Milan and we both got a PB in the marathon, writes Grace Manzotti. On the Saturday we picked up our numbers and t-shirts at the expo. The t-shirt is red and designed by Giorgio Armani. The weather was sunny and warm and we were a bit worried about marathon weather, but we didn't need to be as the weather was not hot and it was cloudy on marathon day.

My main aim was to go under 4 hours so I started following the sub 4 hours pacers. It was Ok at the beginning but I found difficult that they stopped a long time at the water stations and then had to make up for lost time, so they were really accelerating at times and then slowing down again. At miles 17 they did a very fast mile and I started getting tired and I really wanted to slow down and was worried I would lose them. I knew that psychologically losing the pacers so early on was not good. It was a mental battle, but I managed to to keep up with them, recover and carry on. At mile 24 I really wanted to stop, and it was a real mental battle not to. The pacers went a bit ahead and that wasn't good but I realised that I had  a lot of time to spare to get under 4 hours so I thought if I keep on running I will get there in under 4 hours anyway. Then I saw the 350 metres sign. I looked at the watch and I realised that if I sprinted I would get a PB, so the brain said to my legs it is like the track at Sevenoaks: less than a lap, only 350 metres to go - sprint!  My legs said "You what? You must be joking", but my brain said "I want a PB", so I sprinted as fast as I could for the last 300 and came in in 3h57.48, a PB by about 30 seconds. Phew!

Jenny's PB is much more amazing - over 14 minutes! She also started with the pacers as her aim was to get a PB which would have been under 4h30, but she knew she could go faster than a sub 4h30 so she started following the 4h15 pacers and keeping them in sight, but she knew it wouldn't matter too much as she would still get a PB. She said she lost them at some point but she wasn't worried as she knew she was going to get a good time anyway and she came in 4h.17.46, which is 14 minutes under her previous time and a massive PB.

We both found it a bit strange that of 6,000 people there were only about 773 women. Most of the runners were men and we also found Italian runners not as friendly as our runners in England. There was a lot of pushing and shoving and we both got pushed a few times, and at the water station everybody was pushing to get to the water and shoving everybody else out of the way!! Apart from that the marathon was well organised and the course is nice. It goes through all the sights in Milan.

On the medal is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele one of the world's oldest shopping malls. The Galleria is named after Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of Italy.

In the evening we celebrated with Italian pink champagne and my mum's home made Italian food.

These are the official results.

After keeping a careful eye on the weather all week, I was very relieved to see the forecast predicted conditions were going to be perfect for the marathon on Sunday, writes John Witton. I travelled to the start using the Metrolink and it was chilly at 7:15 before the sun was properly up, but the skies were clear with just a smattering of cloud and, importantly, no wind.

The race was very well organised with marshals directing runners to the bag drop area from the Metrolink and clear signposting. After dropping my bag, I made my way to start area B to start warming up, bumping into Andrew Milne on the way. It was great to see Ron Hill interviewed, who later started the race. Amazing that this year he finished a 52-year streak of running every single day!

Dan Witt found me at the start and we set off together at the signal, shuffling our way over the start line before breaking into a run. I had a pace range I wanted to stay within to try to achieve my target of sub 3 hours and, with excellent crowd support, wide, traffic free roads and excellent marshalling, I managed to stick to the lower end of it (4 min per km) for the first 20 miles. I felt comfortable up to this point and was buoyed by the support of my family at 9 and 16 miles, but the last 6 miles got tough. My pace slipped to 4:15 per km but I managed to hold on, and was delighted when the finish came into sight. The finishing straight was very long, however, and didn’t seem to be getting any nearer as I pushed myself to maintain my pace. It really started to hurt in the final few metres and I could feel the first twinges of cramp in my thighs, but I made it over the line in a time of 2:51:46, which I was ecstatic with.

I was nearly sick after the finish, due to the gels I’d consumed, but I managed to recover and by the time I'd collected my medal and goody bag, pint of alcohol-free beer and my bag from the bag drop, I felt fine. It was great to see my family at the meeting point and we all went for a celebratory lunch before I met Dan for a couple of pints.

It was a really enjoyable, well-organised race, on a superb flat course with excellent crowd support and we were very lucky with the weather.

The SAC results were:

The full results are here.