On a warm, sunny but very windy morning in Britstol the half marathon set off at 9:30 am. Immediately the two Kenyans hit the front pursued early on Great Britain runner by Thomas Abyu. James Connor and Nick Torry (Serpentine AC, but trains at Ladywell) set off together with a Sri Lankan 2:16 marathoner. Passing through the first mile in 5mins, Connor and Torry were 5 secs ahead of the chasing field and settled into their running with the Sri Lankan.

Working together in the wind and rotating the lead, they maintained the 5 minute per mile pace passing through 3 miles in just under 15mins. They kept this going up until 10 miles at which point Connor and the Sri Lankan broke away from Torry in pursuit of Thomas Abyu who was around 15 seconds ahead. Working together, they caught and passed Abyu at 12 miles and were then racing each other to the finish for 3rd place. The Sri Lankan put a kick in with 300m to go and held on to beat Connor by 2 secs.

John Gilbert was part of the chasing group which had pushed on in the second half. John caught Nick Torry before the finish and showed his strength just finishing outside the UK Medals and beating many big name runners on the way. A great day for Kent AC in this National championship!

James was 4th in the overall race behind 2 Kenyans and a Sri Lankan, and therefore awarded the UK Championship first place ahead of a strong field on a very windy course. The time of 66:17 took 41 sec off his personal best. John was 7th in the race, but 4th in the UK Champs, and again running a big pb 66:51 and beating some big names in the process.