Andrew Milne was twelfth overall, James Graham was first M60, and John Stevens was third M50 as nine SAC runners contested the Thanet 20 on Sunday 5th March. Grace Manzotti was also one of them, and she provided the following report.
"Nine Sevenoaks fairly crazy runners, the 2 Andys, Keith, John, James, Dan, Grazia, Jon and Jenny braved Thanet 20 this morning in lashing rain and strong winds. Braved is the right word for it as I think today being there at the starting line under those conditions was an amazing achievement. Everybody was saying what are we doing here? We were all there at the starting line trying to keep warm and shelter from the crazy wind and the lashing rain. We were impressed that Dan was running in a vest. I feel this is the hardest race I have ever run. At some point uphill the wind was pushing me backwards, yes backwards, I had to really power up to go forward. And the rain was so hard it hurt my face. I am sure that everybody who is reading this wishes they were there too!
"I ran most of the race with Jon and I am really grateful as running with him really kept me going and it was really nice to have some company and to chat bit as the race wasn't exactly crowded. The race was full (500) and only 257 people got to the end of it. We got to mile 10 in a good time and we though great half done. At that point my hands were so cold and painful I could not open my gels nor the water bottles and my gloves were drenched, so I am so grateful to Karen who was there to support for giving me her woollen gloves and for opening a gel for me and the water. Thanks Karen! I then felt better, my hands warmed up and the sun almost came out, briefly (well very briefly). At 17 miles I thought "great - parkrun left" and sped up a bit and in the last mile it started raining so hard that I couldn't see the finish line as it was at the side of the road on the grass. Fortunately two marshals pointed it out to me. Jenny said that the marshals were chatting when she came through so they didn't point the finish line out to her and she went past it and had to turn round.
"I think to finish this race in these conditions was a great achievement. We felt that if we could finish today's race we could probably do anything. I think I would like to do this race again in sunny weather, with a bit of sun the views would have been amazing. I really liked running by the sea and we thought that some parts of it were really pretty. Oh and when the wind was pushing us forward that was fab, but it didn't seem to happen that much!"
The SAC results were as follows:
Pos | Bib | Firstname | Lastname | Cat | CatPos | Sex | SexPos | Club | Chip | Finish |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
12 | 133 | Andrew | Milne | Open | 7 | M | 12 | Sevenoaks AC | 2:22:13.65 | 2:22:30.65 |
23 | 115 | Andrew | Ashlee | MV40 | 10 | M | 23 | Sevenoaks AC | 2:27:25.10 | 2:27:47.40 |
24 | 186 | Keith | Brown | MV40 | 11 | M | 24 | Sevenoaks AC | 2:27:46.25 | 2:28:03.70 |
25 | 87 | John | Stevens | MV50 | 3 | M | 25 | Sevenoaks AC | 2:29:27.90 | 2:29:49.05 |
30 | 257 | James | Graham | MV60 | 1 | M | 29 | Sevenoaks AC | 2:34:04.00 | 2:34:05.40 |
44 | 114 | Daniel | Witt | MV40 | 17 | M | 42 | Sevenoaks AC | 2:37:02.65 | 2:37:20.55 |
151 | 201 | Grazia | Manzotti | FV45 | 13 | F | 36 | Sevenoaks AC | 3:14:56.35 | 3:15:20.40 |
163 | 150 | Jenny | Austin | FV35 | 15 | F | 42 | Sevenoaks AC | 3:16:34.85 | 3:16:53.80 |
176 | 63 | Jonathan | Copping | MV60 | 6 | M | 125 | Sevenoaks AC | 3:24:51.00 | 3:25:15.00 |
The full results are here.
Jenny Austin showed how to compete in the Sevenoaks AC monthly handicap race while training for a marathon when she won the second race of the 2017 club handicap series and then carried on for another eleven miles.
Andrew Hutchinson ran the fastest time with Heather Fitzmaurice the fastest woman.
All the details are here.
A combination of holidays, other commitments and other races meant that only a small group of four SAC runners made the long trip to the rescheduled final race of the Kent Fitness League 2016/17 season at Fowlmead, Sholden near Deal.
Lee Lintern was our first finisher in 19th place, and was also our second best male runner in the series in 26th place, while Heather Fitzmaurice was our only woman on the day finishing ninth and our second woman in the standings in 12th. Heather was also fourth W45 on the day and in the standings. Jim Fitzmaurice also did well finishing third M70 on the day and second in the series.
Although the small turnout meant the combined SAC team were 13th on the day, with the men 14th and the women 15th, Sevenoaks retained their fourth position in the in the final League table, with both the men and women also fourth.
SAC also had some success in the final individual standings, with James Graham winning the M60 category and Cath Linney winning the W45s. Sally Shewell was third in the W55s to add to Jim Fitzmaurice's M70 silver. Cath was also our top woman overall, while Andrew Milne was our leading man.
The SAC results were as follows:
Ov Pos | Lg Pos | Runner | Age | Time | Club | Rating | # Races |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
19 | 19 | Lee Lintern | 36 | 31:54 | Sevenoaks AC | 88.75 | 25 |
87 | 9 | Heather Fitzmaurice | 47 | 36:55 | Sevenoaks AC | 88.06 | 64 |
110 | 94 | Duncan Cochrane | 59 | 38:23 | Sevenoaks AC | 41.88 | 24 |
180 | 141 | James Fitzmaurice | 74 | 44:54 | Sevenoaks AC | 12.50 | 61 |
The full results are here.
James Graham was first M60 as twenty-seven Sevenoaks AC runners contested the Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon on Sunday 19th February, with some good packing by the group above. The SAC results were as follows:
Pos | Gun | Chip | Name | Club | Sex | Category | Num |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
10 | 1:14:37 | 1:14:37 | James Mason | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Male | Senior Male | 1073 |
32 | 1:22:03 | 1:22:01 | Alastair Moffatt | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Male | Male V40 | 1145 |
65 | 1:27:21 | 1:27:18 | Keith Dowson | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Male | Male V50 | 462 |
71 | 1:27:52 | 1:27:31 | George Strong | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Male | Senior Male | 1596 |
90 | 1:28:33 | 1:27:24 | Nick Humphrey-taylor | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Male | Male V40 | 832 |
92 | 1:28:38 | 1:28:30 | James Graham | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Male | Male V60 | 640 |
105 | 1:29:30 | 1:29:16 | Matthew Hardcastle | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Male | Senior Male | 701 |
112 | 1:29:54 | 1:29:46 | John Stevens | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Male | Male V50 | 1579 |
121 | 1:30:51 | 1:30:45 | Keith Brown | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Male | Male V40 | 235 |
123 | 1:30:54 | 1:30:48 | Daniel Witt | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Male | Male V40 | 1848 |
133 | 1:31:31 | 1:31:20 | Luke Ashworth | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Male | Senior Male | 60 |
134 | 1:31:35 | 1:31:29 | Chris Desmond | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Male | Male V50 | 436 |
247 | 1:37:43 | 1:37:26 | Chris Hall | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Male | Senior Male | 683 |
265 | 1:38:18 | 1:37:50 | Andrew Evans | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Male | Male V40 | 525 |
427 | 1:44:09 | 1:43:20 | Oliver Sherman | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Male | Senior Male | 1500 |
549 | 1:47:33 | 1:46:58 | Georgie Butler | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Female | Senior Female | 268 |
589 | 1:49:05 | 1:48:37 | Claire Edwards | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Female | Female V35 | 497 |
609 | 1:49:45 | 1:49:10 | Sarah Shewell | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Female | Female V55 | 1505 |
621 | 1:49:53 | 1:49:00 | Jane Morgan | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Female | Female V35 | 1167 |
647 | 1:50:25 | 1:49:32 | Nicola Beckett | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Female | Female V35 | 126 |
727 | 1:52:54 | 1:52:08 | Rob Johnson | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Male | Senior Male | 874 |
788 | 1:54:48 | 1:53:12 | Stephen Nicholson | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Male | Male V40 | 1216 |
807 | 1:55:34 | 1:53:46 | Anna Humphrey-taylor | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Female | Female V45 | 833 |
1099 | 2:05:39 | 2:03:18 | Jenny Austin | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Female | Female V35 | 69 |
1252 | 2:13:19 | 2:12:39 | Lionel Stielow | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Male | Male V60 | 1584 |
1335 | 2:18:29 | 2:15:47 | Sylvia Lewis | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Female | Female V60 | 994 |
1386 | 2:23:28 | 2:20:45 | Alzbeta Benn | Sevenoaks Athletics Club | Female | Female V35 | 133 |
The full results are here.