Rik Holden kicked off the weekend’s racing on Saturday recording an impressive 3:51:45 over a muddy marathon distance at the SVN Book Day Challenge. This was Rik’s sixth marathon of the year. Helen Weedon also took on the event, covering a solid 17.61 miles in a time of 3:34:51.
On Sunday for the second year in a row A&D’s finest battled the blustery winds of Lydd as they took on the 20 mile and Half Marathon events. The race suited many of the club’s runners targeting Spring marathons with its flat, out-and-back course providing opportunities for steady pacing and a test of training so far. In the 20 mile distance Paul Ridley was first home for the club beating his PB by 6 minutes to finish in 2:16:53, followed by the duo of Julius Samson, also setting a new personal best of 2:19:13, and Andrew Noble chasing him down for 2:19:37. Next home was James Booth whose heart rate training paid off to see him achieve a PB comfortably in 2:21:03 while men’s captain Scotty Lynch finished 63rd overall and 4th Vet50 in 2:21:57. Mark Attenborough used his extensive ultra experience to finish in 2:32:27 and the club’s first lady back was Linda Delport in her longest race so far, stopping the clock at 2:35:44. Cris Francis finished ahead of John Beale, who was also running 20 miles for the first time, in 2:37:44 and 2:38:16 respectively. Keith Haynes edged Adrian Beresford for 10th home for the club in 2:49:45 with Beresford only fifteen seconds behind and running a PB of 2 hours and 50 minutes exactly. The final sub-3 finisher was Essen Larsen in 2:52:18. Sandy Mortimer continued her push for marathon success with a strong first attempt at the distance to finish in 3:02:33 and then five minutes later another experienced member of A&D, Mark Carlton, finished strongly despite the strong headwind to chalk up 3:07:49. Aaron Homewood continued the club’s strong showing to finish in a respectable 3:08:26. Running a 3:18:35 long-distance specialist Eddie Rodger arrived home looking fresh and was followed by Karine Reid and Nick Erskine rounding off the club’s entries to both PB the distance in their times of 3:26:32 and 3:26:42.
In the Half Marathon distance Johnny Wells once again proved his stamina taking on the distance in 1:27:24 to grab 17th place overall. Christine Costiff finished 4th lady and won her age category in 1:40:54, followed closely by Carl Ireland who ran a strong race to record 1:41:47. Stuart Nunn overcame the windy conditions to finish in 1:47:41 before Massah Cooper’s weekly marathon training runs brought her over the line in 1:58:25. The pair of Ailis Goddard and Claire Williams ran the distance together, encouraging each other to a double PB of 2:01:53 and 2:01:54 respectively. Rounding out the Half distance racers was Lucy Johnstone who battled the wind for the final 3 miles to clock 2:19:48.
At Ashford Parkrun a lone A&D participant in Alison Waters completed the 5k around Victoria Park in a rapid 24:14.
At the SVN Funky Pants Challenge several members braved the slippery mud of King’s Wood, Challock. Lesley Moody finished the Half Marathon distance first in 3:04:15 and was followed in by Sarah Taylor in 3:14:11. Next to complete the muddy course in 3:28:25 was Becky Hodgson and later Rachel Jenkins ended her day having covered 17.5 miles in 4:21:41.
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