Traccies were in action at 5 races this weekend and took 3 first places!
CANTERBURY RIVERSIDE 10k hugs the Stour from Canterbury to Chartham and back. Its a flat, but often very wet race which attracted 236 runners this year. This year the course was completely water logged, it was raining and windy. Certainly not a PB course!
Thanet Roadrunners took both first place and first lady home. Jay Bailey and Asmaa Hatim did us proud.
Last year Jay Bailey came second. This lit a fire within him. He was determined this year would be different! Jay set out at a fast pace, as they lapped the field before heading out onto the course.
He said “I was a bit cautious and stayed behind the leaders . After a mile my mate Alex took the lead and I followed him. We managed to break away from the pack, then just after 2 miles into the race I overtook him and managed to put 100 yards between us by the half way point. My other mate Ryan started to close on me, but I managed to kick hard in the last 2 miles and held on to win.”
Jay finished in 37.34, over all winner (38.11 in 2023), Mark Croucher 44.22, Asmaa Hatim 44.38 (first lady home), Stephen Forshaw 46.41, Sandra Baldock 56.43.
Asmaa has her eyes on a future marathon and incorporated this as part of a long run. It takes someone pretty special to do a long run, incorporate a ‘cross country style’ 10k and come first!!! A really strong run from a key club runner.
We really need you both in the cross country team later in the year. There is nothing better than running as part of a great team. Tremendous running!
Elsewhere Traccies were in action at the SMUGGLERS 5 & 10K in Birchington, BATH HALF MARATHON and WESTERN HEIGHTS HALF.
At the Smugglers 10k Thanet Roadrunners took home the treasure too! Conditions for the run were good, cool and a little wet. The start and finish were on grass which made for a very slippery surface.
Alex Duggard again took first place in the 10k race, taking home the treasure!
Alex Duggard 35.02, (first place) Lee Hardie 35.50 (second place), Daniel Grech 40.40 (PB), Chris Pascoe 41.10(PB), Martin Cooper 42.34, Jake Tallent-Wing 46.19, Pascal Phillippe 53.34, Greg Marshall 54.36, Joanne Marshall 56.28, Sarah Ovenden 57.27, Cathy Beddoes 57.53, Laura Thomas 1.00.29, Adrian Smith 1.02.17, Ela Wojciechowska 1.05.39, Carly Lines 1.05.40, Donna Cusack 1.18.51
5k results
Matt Stanley 28.31 (C25k graduate) and Lainey Carter 26.51 (14th place over all and 3rd lady).
Overall the event was really fun with lots of spectators at the start/finish.
Matt Stanley has just finished our Couch to 5k programme and is now putting in sub 30 minute performances for the club. Congratulations Matt on a tremendous start to your running career!
Our normal Sunday morning long run was of course out in force and joined the Smugglers 10k finishers to encourage them and celebrate their achievements. What an amazing bunch of people!
Other runs of note were Bath Half Marathon (Tim Kerr) in 2.16, his second fastest time and Western Heights Half Marathon, which we have a separate report for. Claire Morgan and Brittany Crombie competed for Trac. Race report to follow – Maybe not a race we’d recommend!
And finally…
Quote of the day was from the lovely Ela who said “Running with friends makes the good runs better and the hard runs easier”. True Thanet Roadrunners spirit!
Thank you to those who sent in photos and race details. We really appreciate them and love celebrating your success. If we missed you please message us and we’ll fix it in a jiffy! After all we are A CLUB FOR ALL!