Races galore!
Races galore!
Please see this week’s update for Kent AC members – 18/02/24–
KENT AC NEWS BULLETIN
18 February 2024
Throwing it back to last weekend, Vic Cartwright came third woman in the St Aidan’s Winter Beast race.
Podium grins
Also last weekend, another superb result came from Will Pitt at Lee Valley indoor track,
finishing 1st v50 in the 1500m and 2nd v50 in the 800m.
Moving onto the results from this week, Clare Elms returned to Lee Valley to break the women’s v60 indoor world record which she accomplished in 5:05.44, taking three seconds off the previous record keeper. On fire!
The look of determination
Photo credit: Paul Forrest
Staying at Lee Valley, at the British Masters Championships yesterday, Joe Appiah crossed the line in 1st place in the 60mH with a time of 8:29. Joe also doubled up, racing his first ever 200m indoors in 25:45 and 2nd place overall.
Smile for silver and gold
The first PUL5K of the year kicked off on Friday evening at Battersea park and we had a strong contingent show up from Kent AC, see the results below.
Jake Simmonds – 14:52
Kurt Wilkinson – 14:54
Ben Clarke – 15:21
James Boustead – 15:28
Dame Dibaba – 15:35
Sean Fitzpatrick – 15:53
Jake Herrera – 15:57
Annie Birch – 17:00
Next, a huge congratulations to Phil Sesemann who this morning secured the Olympic qualifying time at Seville marathon, completing it in 2:08:02. Ross Braden came home in 2:19:46, followed by Richard Bidgood in 2:39:35 and Jonathan Ratcliffe (2c) crossing the line in 2:47:47.
Today has been a busy day for road racing, here are a few other results to report from across the country.
Hampton Court Half
Jake Herrera – 74:42
Teresa Murphy – 89:17
Wrexham Half
John Gilbert – 2nd place in 66:46
Chris Lydon – 85:05
Tunbridge Wells Half
Nicky Hayes – 1:48
Ronnie Haydon – 1:54:27
Wimbledon 10k
Heather Castle – 64:42
Let us know when your next race is so we can give you a shoutout in the newsletter!
Read on to hear more on the Hilly Fields parkrun takeover, exciting upcoming events, current club vacancies and key dates for your diaries. We’ll be bringing you a full report of the National XC Championships in Chester next weekend, the last club XC race of the season.
Plus a reminder to make sure you purchase your track pass at the beginning of each month on the sumsup shop.
You can also sign up to volunteer on the gate at the track on Tuesday or Thursday evenings here.
A HILLY TAKEOVER
We had a great morning at Hilly Fields parkrun yesterday, with many Kent members volunteering and participating. There was some mud and rain as predicted, but it didn’t stop three of our own taking the podium win with Dame Dibaba finishing in first place, not long after racing at Battersea park the evening before. He was closely followed by Jon Tipper and Sam Dames. Well done to all of you who took part!
Post-parkrun endorphins
Our volunteers had a lot of fun cheering from the side line and raising the presence of our wonderful club. Thank you to all of those that came down!
Our colourful bunch of volunteers
Keep an eye on socials for the takeover video release and if this has encouraged you to be a part of the next one, sign up here and join us at Dulwich parkrun next on 2nd March. Options to pace as well as other volunteering roles available!
For the pacing, please add the fastest and slowest times you’d be happy to pace – they’re looking for a wide range of abilities (down to around 36 minutes), so the more the merrier!
Contact Rich Giles if you have any queries.
SAVE THE DATE
After the huge success of last year’s Coronation Games, we’re thrilled to announce our first open track meet of the year including the return of the Gunpowder Mile.
Save the date for now, information on entries and more to follow!
THE SAL NEEDS YOU
The club has a vacancy for the men’s track team manager.
Taking the reins from Ian Ellwood, the focus of the role is managing the SAL team and the work is shared with the women’s team manager, Sofia. The job is a mix of publicity, encouragement, team selection, entries, declarations, travel coordination, on the day choreography and juggling, checking results and writing up reports. This person represents the world of track and field to the club more generally, and can take on other projects in that arena beyond the SAL. The role is a committee position, giving the chance of shaping club policy and direction more generally.
The role is open to all club members, so if you’re interested in taking this on,
please contact Phil Marsden, our club sec, by 29 Feb.
The response will be reviewed at the March committee meeting and an appointment or contest arranged. If you have any questions or want to chat about the role, please reach out to Sofia Contino.
SAL and KYAL dates below.
Southern Athletics League
May 18 – Dartford
June 15 – Thurrock
July 14 – St Albans
August 17 – Ware
Kent Young Athletes league
May 5 – Norman Park
June 22 – Medway
July 28 – Norman Park
August 10 – Dartford
COULD YOU BE A CLUB WELFARE OFFICER?
Kieran has taken the difficult decision to stand down from his post as one of the welfare officers, so the club has a vacancy. Many thanks to Kieran for the work he has done while in the position.
England Athletics recommend that clubs should have both male and female welfare officers, so we are looking for somebody to replace him and work alongside Sarah Young and Sarah Maris-Shaw. The welfare officer role involves taking a lead for safeguarding children and adults at risk (though this is everybody’s responsibility), helping to develop policy and occasionally dealing with concerns.
We also have an interest in promoting athletes’ well being more broadly, such as encouraging an understanding of mental health issues. The role would suit somebody with a children’s services background in education, health or social care though this is not essential. It is a great opportunity to make a difference and also looks good on your CV!
Training in the role is offered by England Athletics and there will be a full handover/induction provided.
If you might be interested or would like to find out more, please let us know at .
ROAD RACE RECS
Have you ever seen a roundup of races and considered that you might have liked to have run it, if you’d known? Club entry races are well trailed, but there are plenty of road races that are popular with Kent athletes, at which you may find some friendly faces to run and travel with. Many of these are used as part of training of April marathons.
Half marathons
25 February – Brighton Half – half a dozen Kent runners did this last year. Can be windy, but fun!
3 March – Paddock Wood Half – very popular with Kent runners every year, last year 26 travelled down.
3 March – Cambridge Half – there are a few Kent runners headed to this one this year.
20 milers
Finding races that bridge the gap between the half and full marathons isn’t easy, so here are a few 20 milers that Kent runners have enjoyed:
10 March – Oundle 20
24 March – Hillingdon 20 – well established 20 miler
24 March – Thames Riverside 20 – popular
In addition to the above, there is the Milton Keynes Festival of Running on 17 March. There are 5k, 10k, HM and 20 mile races being staged, and several Kent runners are planning to travel up there.
This isn’t an exhaustive list, there are of course lots of other events at this time of year.
We will try to update you throughout the year of upcoming events that we know Kent runners like to enter, such as the North Downs run in June.
TIME FOR AN ADVENTURE..
Our co-President Len Reilly has floated an idea for a couple of challenges for the summer, if we can get enough participants.
Welsh 3000’ peaks in a day.
This is a tough day out taking in all 15 summits over 3000’ in Snowdonia (Eryri as it is now). Its 24 miles summit-to-summit and maybe 30 road to road, with about 4000m of up and down, some of it over rough rocky steep loose terrain, and no guarantee of good weather.
I’m already committed to this on weekend 29/30 June.
I have inexpensive characterful basic bunkhouse accommodation for up 13 people and perfectly located for this. It’ll need cars to get there and a couple of supporters to take people to the start and to minister supplies at the road crossings.
More here: https://www.welsh3000s.co.uk/
London Loop in 24 hours
The London Loop is a 150 mile (poorly) signposted walk starting (or finishing) in Erith and finishing (or starting) in Purfleet and following paths roughly inside the M25. It breaks down into anything between 16 and 24 sections, their ends reachable by public transport, mostly trains. The challenge would be to do it as a relay in a single 24 hour push. A quick calculation gives an average moving speed of 10 min miles and my experience of doing bits of it shows that’s not easy, and that’s in daylight and for some of the time knowing where I am. It’ll need good planning, good navigation, extensive use of Oyster cards, a short night and occasional use of headtorches. And maybe some route reccing before.
We would need to start in the middle of the day to take advantage of the 24 hour trains that serve west London and the easy night time navigation along the canals.
Weekends of 22/23 June or13/14 or 27/28 July are possibilities, or even midweek.
If there were lots of interest we could have one squad going clockwise and the other the other way.
More here:
https://innerlondonramblers.org.uk/ideasforwalks/loop-guides.html
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
A summary of dates for your diary
February
24 – National XC Champs – Weston Park, Shropshire
March
16 – British Masters XC Champs – Corwen, N Wales
24 – Southern Relays – Milton Keynes
April
6 – National Road Relays – Sutton Coldfield
21 – London Marathon
25 – Kent AC Spring Open
May
5 – KYAL Norman Park
18 – Southern Athletics League – Dartford
June
15 – Southern Athletics League – Thurrock
22 – KYAL – Medway
July
14 – Southern Athletics League – St Albans
28 – KYAL – Norman Park
August
3- 10k Sri Chimnoy Battersea Park (club champs)
10 – KYAL – Dartford
17 – Southern Athletics League – Ware
September
1 – Big Half (club champs)
LET’S MAKE IT OFFICIAL
Athletics needs more officials, and volunteering in this way is a wonderful way to give back to the club.
This is a great opportunity to help get club events’ results on Power of 10. And it’s fun.
Our SAL performances not only need athletes, but also qualified officials – so you can directly contribute to our success! Every qualification counts!
It’s a straightforward process that the club will pay for, with more detail on available courses here.
There will be in person training for officials at Medway Park on March 24, to take people from beginner to level 1. Several kent members are likely to travel to this. More details to come.
Please contact Jacqueline Francis for more info.
It would be great to see a few more people put their names down to help out!
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
TRACK, TRACK, TRACK
Buy your track pass here.
The usual track times are:
Tuesday 17:30 – 20:30
Thursday 18:00 – 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.
Track Pass – Juniors
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 has 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 here. 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
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