This first meeting of the season saw numbers well down on last year, both for BVAC and in total. We had a couple of good excuses with a number of members off on a walking weekend and others having committed to the Petts Wood 10K. Others too were under the weather, having succombed to the cold/flu bug doing the rounds, but Neil and Phil put a brave face on it and tackled it as best they could under the circumstances and Les being a welcome 'third man'. The women put in a good performance and it was great to see Pam making a welcome return and in fine style. Anne also took more than a minute off her time last year (even if they tried to put her down as Janice Bailey) with Jan completing the fine scoring trio.
Special thanks to Tony (being June for the day and collecting money and raffle tickets - we won nothing there either) and Jane for coming all that way, though not fit enough to run.
KFL Race Report - Rob Bright
Our first race of the season was blessed with warm autumn sunshine and blue skies as 300 runners lined up for a 5.2 mile run around the twisting, undulating paths of Rough Common Woods.
Paddock Wood’s James Ridger who hasn’t made it into the top 5 in any of his previous outings, set the pace and crossed the line in a time of 29min 46 sec at the front of the field. In doing so he put his club on course for a team victory in a closely fought race – ably assisted by Rob Shaw in 8th and Rob Rowland in 18th. Second placed guest runner Tim Burt and Larkfield’s Graeme Knott battled it out for the minor placings and Medway’s Josh Nice was a few seconds adrift in fourth – all breaking the 30 minute barrier.
Mike Baron (Swanley) was, yet again, the leading over 40 veteran in 8th place, while Nick Brawn (Invicta –a former international road runner) was the leading over 50 runner in 13th place. John Leach took the over 60 honours ahead of Peter Burton.
The ladies’ race was swept away by the arrival of 16 year old Amy Smith, running for Dartford Harriers. In her first season of running against Seniors, and following an emphatic win in the Kent League the previous weekend, Smith ran with the leading men to finish in 11th place overall a full 3 minutes ahead of her nearest rival (despite a brief stop at halfway). The next three places were a close-run thing, with Nicola Susans (Larkfield) outsprinting Heidi Coleman (Invicta) into the runners-up spot. Emma Harraden (4th) led the charge for Medway and Maidstone AC who were second placed team on the day.
The leading lady veteran was Sarah Maguire (Canterbury Harriers) finishing 7th, while Barbara Wenman (15th) and Sue James (16th) took the senior vet categories.