An egg-celent weekend
An egg-celent weekend
Please see this week’s update for Kent AC members – 31/03/24–
KENT AC NEWS BULLETIN
31 March 2024
Throwing it back to last weekend, well done to Zac Murray for winning a silver medal at the Lee Valley minithon on 23 March. An amazing achievement!
Doing Kent AC proud!
On Friday, Nick Torry kicked off this weekend by storming to victory at the Maidenhead 10 miler in 50:56. Jon Tipper shortly followed in 53:54, Stuart Beaney in 63:47 and Matthew Moroney in 64:20.
Post-race smiles
Over in East London at Victoria Park, Heather Castle completed the 5k in 29:35. Whilst in the half marathon, Kersha Dwyer finished in 91:49 and Andrew Barber in 99:13.
Kudos to you all!
Away from the roads, Kent vests were swapped for something more fancy to celebrate the wedding of Amelia and Dan Pettitt. Congratulations to you both and wishing you a lifetime of happiness together!
Suited and booted
Locally, at Hilly Fields parkrun yesterday morning, the sun was shining. A special shout out to Fanta for cheering on some Kent AC ladies and repping our club colours!
Fanta on paw patrol
20 places have been offered to Kent AC for The Big Half this year. If you want to be in with a chance of bagging a place, sign up to the lottery here. The draw will be announced on 20th April.
Next up, National Road Relays in Sutton Coldfield on Saturday! Good luck to all of you who will be racing. As always, a full report will follow.
RACES RESCHEDULED
Due to a lack of race officials being available for the event, the Kent AC Spring Open will be rescheduled and two further events are currently being planned, one in June for track and field and a track only event in August. We’ll keep you posted!
The club needs more officials!
It is great way to support the club, junior development and ensure these events can be recorded on Power of 10.
It’s a straightforward process that the club will pay for, with more detail on available courses here.
Contact Jacqueline Francis for more info, please help us out if you can.
MASTERING THE RELAYS
Sign up is now open for the British Masters Road Relays at Mallory Park, Leicester –
the biggest Masters road event in the UK on Saturday the 25th May 2024.
The Relays are billed as ‘the biggest masters road event’ so therefore we’d like to enter men’s and women’s teams in as many vets categories as possible (35-44, 45-54, 55-64, 65-74 and 75+) and we’d like to aim for as many medals as possible too!
The course is a traffic free 3 mile loop around a lake for each leg on tarmac, with licensed café on site and camping available. It is possible to get there on time via public or private transport on the day, and the club will contribute to transport costs, so please embrace the opportunity of travelling to and running at Mallory Park.
Further details are here and the all important sign up sheet is here.
If you have any questions, then contact Jules, Nicky or Lin.
30% OFF NEW BALANCE
We have 10 discount codes for 30% off New Balance to give away to track gate volunteers.
Sign up for gate duty here by Thursday 4th April and you’ll be in the draw to win a huge saving on your next pair of trainers.
A SUMMER ADVENTURE CALLS
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
April
6 – National Road Relays – Sutton Coldfield
21 – London Marathon
May
5 – KYAL Norman Park
18 – Southern Athletics League – Dartford
June
15 – Southern Athletics League – Thurrock
19 – Dulwich Relays
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)
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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