Deal Tri’s runners have been busily representing their club at various different races around the country this month, starting with Jane Westhead, who ran the British 10k on 8th July in a much faster time than her last Folkestone 10k in a good time of 54 mins. Also on the same day we had two runners take on the tough Mount Ephraim 10k. Stephen Hollands ran 46.55 & Dave Martin in 50.57, both very good times on this notoriously hilly course.
Finally the conclusion of the Inter-Club relays held at the Canterbury running track led to the Ladies 35 category winning 1st place overall. Emma Dunn, Mo Ovenden and Jill Cliff did just did enough to keep Folkestone away.
The Romney Marsh 10K was attended by three prominent runners Kevin Brown, Alex Wilder and Keir Williams. Last year was this race's debut and with more than twice the number of entries this year (around 140), it is clearly beginning to establish itself, not least for being an ideal pb smasher. Run Captain Alex attained a PB of 37.05, which put him in 4th place overall. He was shortly followed by Keir, who ran 37.42 and placed 6th, and Kev who came 23rd with 40.45.
Meanwhile Simon Read thought it wad time he got going again after his 100th marathon effort by taking part in the popular Fairlands Valley Challenge- a 26.4 mile self-navigating cross country course. He reported it being very wet and muddy and estimated around a 4.30 finish as his Garmin didn’t start (technology!). He was pleased that he managed not to get lost in his fourth year of completing this race.
Mark Sayer joined the ranks of off-road self-navigating runners completing in the Andredsweald Circuit, High Weald Challenge. It was a very muddy and swampy 26.9 mile run, if running was possible in such conditions! It took Mark 6 hours 48 minutess to complete the course so was obviously very hard going, but he really enjoyed the day and is keen to do another similar event.
Most recently on a long-awaited sunny Sunday 215 runners took part in the 2012 Dinosaur 10K which is held in memory of late Deal Tri founder member Roger Francis Darby (who often referred to himself as a Dinosaur). We also had a great turnout of 79 juniors taking part in the 1500m fun run.
The overall race winner with a time of 32:28mins was Mike Coleman who still holds the course record of 30:35mins set back in 2005. Mike showed that he is still very much capable of holding off a strong field of runners who started to flood into the finish from 35minutes onwards. The overall Female winner with a very impressive time of 38:31mins was Rachel Masser. Our first Deal Tri member to cross the finish line was Paul Campling in 5th position just behind second claim member Peter Hogben.
A strong performance from 3 deal tri ladies - Emma Dunn, Yvonne Elliott and Louise Ludwig saw Deal Tri win the 1st female team while South Kent Harriers with all 4 times well below 39minutes won the 1st male team.
Finally congratulations to Tina Barton first and only lady for Deal Tri finishing the Harbour Wall Banger, a soft sand 7 km event. She finished in 41.50. Steve Holland was our first Deal Tri male in 36.18, this after his 52 miler last week! Simon Read finishing somewhere in the middle after losing his shoe in quicksand in a time of 36.56. Simon reported a tricky course with rocks & sea weed to trip you up but a lovely race on a sunny day.
