Race No 3 of this season’s Kent Fitness League (KFL) was held at a sunny but at times a very chilly Oxleas Wood Eltham. The race was hosted and marshalled by Plumstead Runners Run over 1 small lap of the park and 2 hilly laps of the woods
The start of the main race was delayed by nearly 10 minutes because of some mindless vandalism on the course and this did little to help the pre-race nerves.
First home for the club once again was Nathan Chapman in a fantastic 5th place followed not far behind by Colin Tricker in 8th place. The clubs top 3 men were completed by Charles George coming home in 13th place. James Ridger who is improving with every race came in in an excellent 22nd place and was followed by Wayne Balmer 32nd. These five runners made up the teams scoring senior men. Stephen Wright, (V40) 34th David Sampson and Nick Denbow (both V50s) 50th and 72nd made up the teams scoring veteran runners.
Steve Chalklin 33rd Clive Gigney 35th Paul Slater 47th Steve Chivers 48th, Martin Taylor 55th, Aaron Rowland 61st , Mike Walters 76th Ian Sutherland 82nd , debutant Rob Everett 88th and making up the top 100 runners Pete Buckingham 100th. Some fine packing and great efforts. Mark Wild 107th Trevor Crysell 145th Paul Mace 149th Simon Poole 205th John Tilston 208th Steve Sutton 236th Paul Graves 229th Tim Veysey-Smith 279th Ron Carr 301st Simon Barker 306th and Les Percival 284th who gave blood for the team and had some fantastic service from St John’s made up the rest of the clubs men. 29 men a great turn out with 18 in the top 100, as team managers you can’t ask for any more.
The ladies team consisted of Fiona Buckingham 302th overall 56th lady and Mandy Barker 330th overall 62nd lady the ever improving Sue Chivers 405th overall 100th lady and back from illness Annie Ross 405th overall 103 lady, all out of the 134 ladies that ran. Well done to the four of you without you we would not have had a ladies team!
Thank you to Daniel Grimwood (who sadly twisted his ankle warming up and therefore could not run) but supported his team mates and took some great pictures that can be seen on Facebook.
To say we were over the moon with the turnout is being very polite.
PWAC’s combined team finished an excellent 3rd place overall out of the 18 teams in the league. The impressive men’s team finished 2nd male team on the day with the ladies finishing 14th.
For the full race results please take a look at the KFL website http://kfl.canterburyharriers.org The clubs results can be seen posted on our own website.
After the 3 KFL races so far this season PWAC’s combined team have reached the heady heights of 4th place in the combined event. A testament to some great turnouts along with some fantastic performances.
This was the last KFL race of 2017 the next KFL Race (No 4) is on January 7th 2018 at Bettshanger Park, Fowlmead Country Park near Deal. Please note there will be junior races at this event.
Let’s hope we can keep the enthusiasm into the New Year with the same great turnout by the club.
Merry Christmas one and all, we hope you all have a happy and healthy New Year.
Richard and Jeanette Elliott
PWAC KFL Team Managers