Green light for road season
Green light for road season
Please see this week’s update for Kent AC members – 05/03/23–
KENT AC NEWS BULLETIN
5 March 2023
–
GOLDEN START FOR ALEX
It became a one man race to the top with Alex smashing the hills, his silver and bronze medallists unable to hold on to him to the finish line. Kudos to Alex on another victory!
GREEN LIGHT FOR ROAD SEASON
Speaking of races, our Kent AC tribe have kicked off the road season with some fantastic results this weekend!
On Saturday, Battersea Park was home to new PBs and blistering 10k times at the first Sri Chinmoy race of the year.
Chris Busaileh (6th overall) – 32:32
Laurie Oliver – 35:53
Stuart Beaney – 36:29
Jonathan Ratcliffe (2c) – 36:43
Christopher Lydon (1st V60) – 38:27
Amy White (6th female) – 39:03
Richard Giles – 39:47
Philip Marsden – 46:33
Today, Kent travelled up north with a strong field turning up for the Trafford 10k in Manchester with Paul Pollock in 2nd place in 29:07, followed shortly by John Gilbert in 29:48 moving him up to 9th all-time British V40, Chris Greenwood in 31:40 and Russell Bentley in 34:27.
A big shout out also to those who represented Kent AC today at the Sutcliffe Indoor 60s.
Round 1
Azarai Asihene (U17W) – 8:82 PB
Clio Parkes (U17W) – 8:06
Jonathan Browne (V35M) – 6:97
Round 2
Azarai Asihene (U17W) – 8:93
Clio Parkes (U17W) – 8:07
A terrific start to the season!
If you would like a shout out for a race result or want to surprise a fellow Kent runner with a PB in the newsletter, make sure to email us at .
–
MASTERS CROSS COUNTRY
The club has one more cross country race left, and it’s the
BMAF XC Champs on the 18th March at Wallsend, Newcastle.
8.6km for Men (<65), 5.6km for women.
Individual medals in each 5 year band, so v35, v40, v45, v55 etc.
Team medals for v35+, v45+, v55+, v65+
To gauge interest, please sign-up here.
The deadline for entry is the 10th March so if you haven’t signed up yet and are interested,
please do!
Here are the results from last year to see approx. standard:
Kent AC 2nd in mv35+ and 3rd in mv55+
Teams
Individuals
–
HELLO RELAY SEASON, NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN
Now road season is upon us, it is time to focus our attention to the upcoming road relays:
12-stage for men, 6-stage for women.
First up is the Southerns on Sunday 2 April at the Olympic Park. With the southern race on our doorstep, we would love to get as many teams out for this and build on our amazing cross country success. The top 25 A teams plus any B teams who finish in front of the 25th A team will qualify for the Nationals. This is at the traditional venue of Sutton Park on Saturday 15 April.
For those who haven’t raced them before, these are the premier club road events in the country. Think Southern and National XC, but with better weather and no mud. As the name suggests though, they’re not individual races but a team effort spread over 12/6 legs. They are therefore a true barometer of a club’s distance running strength. Strength in depth is far more important than individual brilliance (although that helps too).
The relays are a great club event with good support & a fun day out with post-race prosecco 🥂
Sign-up sheet for men is here and for women is here.
If you have any questions then give Chris Busaileh or Katie Rowland a shout.
Deadline to register is 14th March.
Beyond that, save the dates for the upcoming SAL season too! Ian will share more information shortly.
Track – Southern Athletics League
Saturday 20th May – Hornchurch
Sunday 18th June – Mile End
Sunday 9th July – Stevenage
Saturday 19th August – Thurrock
–
SHOW TRACK AND FIELD YOUR LOVE
Athletics needs more officials, and volunteering in this way is a wonderful way to give back to the club.
Courses take place on 1 April in Norman Park, and the following are available:
Level 1 Starter/Starters Assistant
Level 1 Track Judge
Level 1 Field Judge
This is a great opportunity to help get club events’ results on Power of 10. And it’s fun.
It’s a straightforward process that the club will pay for, with more detail here.
https://www.kentac.org.uk/membership/get-involved-volunteer/becoming-an-athletics-official/
Please contact Len Reilly for more info.
It would be great to see a few more people put their names down to help out!
–
KIT DONATIONS FOR JUNIORS
We still have more juniors who would be interested in receiving some kit. Please let Amelia know if you have any running kit (not only New Balance) that could be useful to the juniors!
–
CLUB 250 DRAW – WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT
Congratulations to John Cox who has won this month’s £250 with his lucky number 7 being the bonus ball last night.
There are still a couple of numbers left, so if you want to be in with a chance of winning £250 next month for the price of £6/month, email David at and you can be added to a list which we will draw names from.
–
LADYWELL OPEN TRACK EVENT: SAVE THE DATE
Further details to follow but please put Sunday 7th May in your diaries.
–
EASYFUNDRAISING
Over 7,000 brands pay easyfundraising a commission when you start your shop through their platform, so you can raise FREE donations for us no matter what you’re buying. These donations really help us out, so please sign up if you haven’t yet. It’s easy and FREE! You can get started at https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/kentac
You can also install a helpful Chrome extension, which prompts you to donate whenever doing any online shopping – really handy
–
WIN A TRACK PASS
To be added to the rota simply email Jacqueline/Laurie at ( /
).
We only need each track attendee to volunteer a couple of times a year to spread the responsibility fairly.
T&Cs for the track pass draw:
All volunteers for the current month will be added into the hat for a draw each month.
The winner will win a free pass for the next calendar month.
Names will be automatically drawn from https://namepicker.net/ (or similar alternative)
The winner can either chose to:
use their free pass within a calendar year
allow their free pass to roll down to another volunteer
annual pass holders can nominate another club member if they cannot make use of the pass themselves
No refunds/discounts will be provided in place of the free monthly pass.
Volunteers will only be eligible to win a pass once every three months.
–
TRACK, TRACK, TRACK
Buy your track pass here.
The usual track times are:
Tuesday 17:15 – 20:45
Thursday 18:30 – 20:30
Sunday 09:00 – 11:30
Please note that individuals are permitted to do their own sessions during club opening times, but coached group sessions continue to take priority.
Please purchase your £5 junior monthly track pass in advance here. When purchasing the track pass can parents/guardians please enter the athlete’s name when completing the transaction
Please see a helpful FAQs guide here
Ladywell Arena now has new opening hours dedicated to the public. While during these times the Kent AC track pass is not valid, members can pay for an individual session.
Session times are:
Monday: 07:00 -15:00
Tuesday – Thursday: 1300 -1700
Friday: 07:00 – 15:00
Saturday – Sunday: 09:00-15:00
Price:
Adult resident: £2.70
Adult non resident: £3.00
Junior (U16): £1.30
The Kent AC track pass continues to be required for training on Tues/Thurs evenings and Sunday mornings.
Track staff have encouraged people to double check the opening hours before their training session, as they may occasionally be closed for school sport days and football friendlies. Hours can be checked at https://www.better.org.uk/leisure-centre/london/lewisham/ladywell-arena. This will likely suit members who can’t make training sessions but would like to train in the morning/lunchtime/evening.
Pay as you go fees can either be paid via cash to the desk or using the Better app (note: staff are working to add the sessions to the app).
–
KEEP US UPDATED
–
–