The Furley Page Whitstable 10k 2nd May 2022 – Race Report
The Mayday Bank Holiday Monday saw the 2022 Furley Page Whitstable 10k race take place.
Now this is one of those events that book up very quickly, and because of this, it was not included in our Club Champs events for this year. Despite of this, a handful of TRAC members gave it a go. Now I think one of the reasons this event does prove popular is because, barring one hill of any mention, it’s essentially a flat course and, with the right conditions, we’re talking PB territory. The conditions were perfect, slightly cloudy but not in any way cold.
Race HQ and the finish line were at the Tankerton end of Whitstable harbour and after getting our race numbers & timing chips, a short walk up to the start on the top of Tankerton Slopes then followed, there we were lined up in our various waves (dependent on what predicted finish time you put on your application) by none other than TRAC stalwart and now Parkrun legend Terry Brightwell, with the first wave leaving promptly at 09:30. Jay Bailey was in wave 1 and soon shot off into the distance, in wave 2 was new TRAC member Jack Nesbit, the bulk of the rest of TRACcies there were in wave 3, namely Jacquie Brazil, Simon Burton, Paul Preston & myself. I had a brilliant getaway, taking full advantage of the downhill slope and clocking 7:13 for the first mile. The course takes you east away from Whitstable, through Tankerton & Swalecliffe, the first half of the course is a mixture of road and some promenade running before turning inland and passing through the Seaview Holiday Park, after this you meet the grassy hill of Studd Hill before turning left and heading back to the promenade at Hampton, this is the halfway point, after this, it’s essentially flat, fast running along the promenade back to race HQ and the finish line.
You, naturally find that your legs start to tire after the halfway point, but a quick refreshment from the water station, gave me some renewed vigour to plough on through the grumbles and see what I could achieve, I was hoping, but not expecting a sub-50 minute time, with cheers from spectators and the excellent marshals, the going was made very easy, a few hundred yards from the finish line, I found I had a spurt on and was able to overtake a few runners in the closing stages.
Great times were achieved by TRAC members, with many getting distance PB’s, which is always good.
Anyway, a great event put on by Sporting Events in association with Canterbury Harriers, deffo one for next year.
Here are the times of all TRAC members I can think of, those that were in club colours anyway…
7th Jay Bailey 00:36:20
63rd Simon Burton 00:43:34
77th Jack Nesbit 00:44:29
164th Kevin Bullions 00:49:32
187th Paul Preston 00:50:32
253rd Jacquie Brazil 00:53:46
637th Gaynor Shelvey 01:29:39
642 runners in total crossed the line.
A full list can be found here
Kevin Bullions