The cross-country season has started - at least for our keenest trio of runners who contested the first Kent League match at the new course of Stanhill Farm at Wilmington on Saturday 10th October. James Graham was first M60 and led the other two home in 94th place with 39:40. Dan Witt was just a few strides behind in 39:55 for 98th, with Chris Desmond 111th in 40:51. The full results are here.

A few Sevenoaks AC athletes usually travel down to Ashford to take advantage of a fast course at the Givauden 10k. Jenny Austin, Happy Fisher and Rob Johnson made the trip on Sunday 11 October with Rob finishing 157th in 44:59, Happy 395th in 52:40, and Jenny 487th in 55:47. The full results are here.

And Grace Manzotti provides this brief description of her experience of the Royal Parks Half Marathon on the same day:

"The start of this race was very stressful. Trains were delayed so myself and other runners had to sprint from Victoria Station to Hyde Park, where I queued 30 minutes for the loos and 20 minutes for the bag drop and I missed the green start which was where I was meant and ended up towards the end so started the race stressed out! Having raced Tonbrige half last week with a hip injury I was worried about my hip so decided that my aim was going to be to get round in one piece! And I did with a time of 1h55.05, again not a PB, but on this occasion I wanted to finish in one piece! Glorious sunny morning, very nice course with amazing crowd support. Even though I was struggling towards the end I managed a sprint finish as I saw a man dressed up as Peppa pig with a wonderful costume try to overtake me and I thought, no I am not going to be overtaken by Peppa Pig and sprinted!"

The full results are here.

Darrell Smith was fourth overall as eight Sevenoaks AC runners eschewed the Tonbridge Half and Sittingbourne 10 and sneaked over the county border to contest the Titsey Trail 10k run near Oxted. Despite the terrain, decent times were achieved as the following Sevenoaks AC results demonstrate:

 The full results are here.

Sally Shewell was first W55 and John Stevens third M50 as Andy Ashlee led 16 SAC runners home in the Tonbridge Half on 4th October. Grace Manzotti writes:

"I have run all the 5 Tonbridge half marathons, but today due to a hip injury I thought I was not going to be able to run. I woke up saw the beautiful weather and decided I couldn’t miss one of them and headed for the race, just 2 minutes from my house. Beautiful weather, great support at Leigh as  usual church bell ringing and lots of people cheering the runners, it seemed the whole village got out for us, beautiful course. Hilly though, but  I guess  what goes up  always comes down…..still the hills on the way back are a killer and my first half of the race was much faster than the second half so need to get stronger. Towards the end I saw a guy who had collapsed and suddenly my hip problem became totally insignificant. My hip was kind of ok till the end. I did finish in 1h53.58 not a PB for me, but did manage a sprint finish. There is always next year for a PB."

The SAC results were as follows:

The full results are here.

And in the Kent GP ten mile race at Sittingbourne the same day, Dan Witt was 42nd in 1:07:30 and Chris Desmond 128th in 1:17:38.The full results are here.

Following cancellation of the Maidstone Half, the final race of the GP series will now be the A20 Path and Downs Half on 15th November.

James Graham contested the Folkestone Half on 27th September, from which he reports as follows: "I ran the Folkestone half marathon yesterday on a gloriously sunny but very breezy day. The route is a mainly flat out and back between Folkestone and Hythe along the sea wall, with great views of the English Channel as far as France. The outward leg was fast as it was ‘wind assisted’ but the pay back was on the return leg which was a real grind, only to be compounded by a steep climb back to the top of the Leas up the Road of Remembrance. Not a road that I will forget in a hurry.
I came 15th overall and managed to win the M60 in a PB time of 1:27:31."

The full results are here.

Jim and Heather Fitzmaurice were also busy at the weekend, running the famous Half at Barns Green. Jim says: "...won silver medal at barns green heather was 4 th 1 40." Their results were:

 The full results are here.