Warming to our theme of extraordinarily high 5k expectations,  Owen Hind and Rob Seseman did the club proud at the Comeback race at the Millennium Arena in Battersea Park, hosted by Belgrave Harriers.

Rob looked relaxed at the start of his race, and raced a wonderful PB

14:45!
Owen Hind was up next, all aglow in his citrus colour scheme

14:32!
Ben Harding, meanwhile, was up north for his 5km test, and scored a 15:35 at the Mid Cheshire 5km.
The youngsters showed us their best 5km colours, too, this weekend, with Olly Buck coming in second at Dulwich parkrun with 16:18; Guy Barnett was first in Hillyfields parkrun with 17:21 and George Searle earning his second place at Sutcliffe parkrun with 17:48.
This Sunday also saw our athletes, not to be outdone by the ghastly weather, taking part in taster sessions in discus,  javelin and high jump, in preparation for the upcoming SAL next month – 18 May – do sign up if you’re interested in running, throwing or jumping, or just helping out.

On the same day (May 18) is the Night of 10,000 PBs in Parliament Hill Fields, the annual extravaganza of running that’s building a big reputation. Kent will have a few runners there, and it would be great to get some spectators up to support.
In June, however, it’s The BIG One: read on to learn more about our Summer Track Open.
This Thursday is the first Thursday of May, which can only mean one thing: Assembly League. It’s over in Victoria Park, Hackney this week, with a start time of 7.30pm. Assemble at St Augustine’s Hall E95EG.
 

Entries are now live for our Summer track Open. Sign up here
We will also need volunteers, so please get in touch if you can help.

…yourself into summer (as the rain starts lashing down again). The Southern Athletics League is back, with the first meet taking place in Dartford on Saturday 18 May. 

Division 2 is competitive and we need as many people to bring their talents to the team as possible.

Get your spikes out and put your name down for an event (or three) on the spreadsheet.

Interested in trying something new or want to brush up on some skills? A bunch of hardy Kent AC athletes, including Sofia, Jo Mott, Jaqueline and our esteemed marathon champ Victoria Buck:
 
 ignored the weather and leapt at the chance of joining in on this year’s first Sunday morning training session Miguel Stucchi was their coach today. Interested in joining in for the second? More throwing and jumping to be enjoyed on Sunday 12 May.
They’re completely optional and there is no official sign-up, just come down to the track 10am-12pm and join in. 

Further SAL dates:
Sat 15 June – Thurrock
Sun 14 July – St Albans
Sat 17 Aug – Ware

After more than 3 years as the women’s XC captain and then as co-captain Sarah Crichton is stepping down. Sarah has been an invaluable leader both in the role as xc captain/co-captain and as a welcoming and very active member of the club. The amount Sarah does for the club, often behind the scenes, is immense so we can’t thank Sarah enough for all her time, effort and contributions. 

The role of xc co-captain involves collaborating with the other captains to gather race interest, execute race communication, input race entries, arrange travel and race-day activities, write race reports and represent the xc captains at committee meetings (womens xc co-captains share a vote when a vote is required as the role is shared). We represent the membership to work on the season’s goals, and to build enthusiasm for races. 

The committee will accept nominations for the position, and if there is more than one person interested, the committee will welcome statements for the position and then vote.

If you are interested in applying and/or have questions about the role, please email or text/WhatsApp Gen Blanch – +447828888031. 

If you’re looking for some fun races to fill in the gap between spring road season and cross country, we have a couple of local events that are always well attended by Kent, with plenty of success.

On Wednesday 22nd May there are the Beckenham Relays – teams of 3 running around Beckenham Place Park. We will be entering multiple teams, there’s electronic timing and it’s well-organised and competitive.

On Wednesday 19th June, there are the Dulwich Relays in the equally familiar Dulwich Park – one lap each (just under one mile) As with Beckenham, we will have many teams entered, men’s and women’s and split by age category.

Both of them are friendly, social events, although taken seriously on the course, as ever.

Do sign up here if you’re interested, whatever your ability.

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 25 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.

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

A request from Sarah Young on behalf of her son, Alfie:

Please could you share this with your running network; I am looking for a few interviewees to help contribute to my dissertation:

Identifying the Impact of Marketing and Message Framing on Young Adults consumption of Caffeinated Sports Supplements and Energy Drinks in the UK

To clarify, the term caffeinated sports supplements includes any form of pre-workout powder, pill, gel, bars containing caffeine, this could even include running gels used during long distance races, but not supplements such as protein powder or vitamins.

I am looking for young adults aged between 18-25 who have experience taking these products for their workouts, runs or exercise sessions etc…I will just be asking questions on their experiences with these products and how they perceive the promotional side of them, too, the entire interview should only take 15 minutes max, and will be conducted and recorded over zoom.

please contact Alfie – . 

A summary of dates for your diary

May
2- Assembly League, Hackney
5 – KYAL – Norman Park
18 – Southern Athletics League – Dartford
18 – Night of 10,000m PBs – Highgate
22 – Beckenham Relays – BPP
25 – Masters Relays – Leicester

June
15 – Southern Athletics League – Thurrock
19 – Dulwich Relays – Dulwich Park
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)