For the second Saturday in a row a cough reduced me to the status of spectator (and supporter and photographer) for this one. All five of our runners said at the finish, quite independently of one another “what a great course, I really enjoyed that” or words to that effect. Hills, mud, standing water, the course had it all; proper cross country, one of those where if anyone tells you they didn’t like it you tell them that they are in the wrong sport.
Luke Ford was advised to stick with David Reader for the first two of the three laps but was soon seen forging ahead only to fade and be overtaken towards the end. Josh Lawless tried to stay with Christian Poluton’s pace but couldn’t, although he still had his best race of the season, this being the first time that he wasn’t overtaken by Graham Maynard towards the end.
As I have said before, one of the good things about the South of the Thames races is that they take you to new venues each year, the downside to that however is that if they find an excellent course like this one and you miss it, it might be 15 years before they go back there. Oh well.
At time of writing results have still not been published but they should eventually appear here:
But I can tell you that the race was won by Joe Morwood (AFD) with a comfortable margin adding to his victory in the 5 miler the previous month, and that our runners finished in the following order: David, Luke, Christian, Josh, Graham. Kent AC won the much coveted team prize and took home the huge and ancient Dewar Shield.
Tonbridge AC filmed the race; you can see it here: