Lionel and myself braved the brand new Maidstone half marathon course today, writes Grace Manzotti. Being a new course we really didn't know what to expect. Well for a start it wasn't a half marathon, it was a half marathon plus a 0.60 miles, one whole KM!  This has never happened to me in a race before!  So we had to do 13.7 miles, 22 km instead of 13.1.

They got us to turn at the wrong place near mile 4 so from mile 3 onwards all the miles markers were wrong, which threw me. I was not very impressed when I got 13.1 on my watch and I saw a massive hill ahead of me and the finish line nowhere in sight. About the hills… they called it challenging and undulating, well more like killer half with crazy hills I would say. The hills were both long and steep.  Myself and Lionel are proud to report we never walked we ran up them all and overtook quite a few people. There were downhills too of course, what goes up comes down, and I tried to fly down, but after seeing couple of people falling over as it was so wet, I was cautious.

There were lots of positives too, the course is really scenic, beautiful views of the countryside and goes through nice villages too, the weather was very kind to us and as the race started it stopped raining, race headquarters were inside and well organised and lots of marshals around the course and the medal is fabulous as you can see from the photo. I am  going to try this race next year again with the right distance! I think it is a good one to do to train on hills but not a fast course.

The SAC results were:

 The results are here.

Andy Evans won the October handicap, while Grace Manzotti still leads the series from Jon Copping as both missed the October race. Details here.

James Graham was first M60 at the Givauden Ashford 10k on 9 October 2016, which was also the final Kent Grand Prix race of 2016. After his M60 win the previous weekend at the Tonbridge Half, James finished the series with an almost-perfect 59 points from his six best GP races to retain the title he won last year.

In another repeat performance, Sally Shewell was first W55 at Ashford and will retain her Kent GP second place from 2015 when the final results are consolidated by KCAA.

SAC's top performer in the 2016 GP series, Dan Witt, also ran well on the day and should be well up in the M40 category as well as the overall positions when the Tonbridge and Ashford outcomes are digested.

The Sevenoaks AC results were:

 The full results are here.

And in a massive field of well over 800 at the Petts Wood 10k on the same day, Steve Nicholson was 197th in 48:07 - results here.

James Graham took the M60 Kent Championship at the Tonbridge Half Marathon on Sunday 2nd October in fine conditions. Jacqui O'Reilly was a brilliant sixth in a field of over 360 women and Sally Shewell was W55 runner-up with yet another excellent performance on the roads. Keith Dowson led the nineteen-strong Sevenoaks AC contingent home, narrowly ahead of James Graham.

Tonbridge Half expert Grace Manzotti writes:

"A PB today!! i have done all 6 of them since the first one. I just live 5 minutes from so no excuses! I was really worried about this race as it was my first Half Marathon after getting  an injury last year and I did run this race  last year with an injury, which wasn’t fun and not a good idea at the time. I had not run a half marathon since last October.

"And even though I have been running regularly I felt I hadn’t done enough distance for it. To be honest I was happy to be at the starting line injury free, was good to see all the Sevenoaks AC friends and I started with Lionel and Anna and that helped with my nerves about my hip falling off or something like that!

"It is  a hard course, undulating they call it,  but I think I found the hills slightly easier than  the previous times, maybe it is all the Tuesdays runs in Knole park with the crazy hills there and the handicap races which helped me with the hills.  I enjoyed it especially when I realised I was fine and was going to finish it OK! I enjoyed  going through Leigh,  so much crowd support. The last 4 miles where hard as it is when the hills start again, and the last stretch in Lower Haydsen lasts forever but crossing the finish line was amazing I am still buzzing. Thanks to everybody at Sevenoaks AC for all the encouragement I get all the time!"

The SAC results were:

The full results are here.