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President - Peter Granger

Secretary - Annabelle Stearns

Treasurer - Dawn Granger

Membership Secretary - Adam Hughes

Captain - David Wright

Social Secretary - Claire Medes

AClub Welfare Officer - Maria Baker

The Club 10k championship was held at Nurstead on 14^th February on a Multi terrain course which had approximately 15% road and concrete track. Eight members did battle over the challenging terrain and the eventual winners were Mark Mellon and Claire Medes. Due to misinterpretation of signage and a lack of marshals around the course there were a few variations of what the 10k distance should have been, all the men running a short route, one lady running a tougher, longer route and only one lady (Dawn Granger) completed the marked out route. Nonetheless the race was well contested and proved a useful learning experience for runner and organiser alike.

Thanks to Annabelle and Alan for assisting on the day and for the use of Nurstead land.

The other members who participated were; Dave Abery, Dave Wright, Mark O’Brien, Jakub Bazant, and Robin Heel.

Six Gravesend Road Runners turned up for the inaugural running of this tough off-road race. Starting at Vigo Rugby Club the first 3 miles were all downhill through woods and then along the Pilgrims Way on very wet and slippery paths so you had to watch your footing. Rocks and tree roots were par for the course.

Just before the half way point the uphill climb that everybody knew was coming appeared and it was definitely a big uphill, many people I saw were reduced to walking as this was just as quick as running so I joined them and caught my breath.

We were now on top of the North Downs and had a pleasant run through fields before entering the woods again. After negotiating a few motorbikes who seemed to be moving even slower than us runners due to the muddy conditions there was another slippery downhill which led us to blessed tarmac close to Dode Church. Following this road to the end and a tough off road climb up Wrangling Lane for a mile we appeared

on White Horse Lane which led back to Vigo Rugby Club. It was along this road that a marshall pleasantly informed me that there was half a mile to go, and a mile later I was still running! (One lap of the field and I was crossing the line exhausted, wet and tired but with the famous runners high (or was it just relief that it was all over!).

I would recommend this race to anybody who likes cross country running. It is very scenic and the time seemed to fly by. The general consensus was that the race was 8.5 miles but nobody had any complaints about that. There were good before and after race facilities including tea and food stalls, licensed bar, showers and even live music.

Mick Spur

THE 25^TH ANNIVERSARY BOUNDARY RUN

I’ve been on a few off-road runs recently and the Boundary Run ranks up there with the most enjoyable; everyone seemed to have a great day.

For me a good event needs to have plenty of variety and we certainly had that:  fast flat sections with well defined paths, very steep hills – even Annabelle had to walk up a couple of them, wooded shaded footpaths, plenty of overgrown sections which made navigation challenging, beautiful scenery, good company, a choice of distances for all runners, and on this occasion head high nettles which I’m sure Eric was proud of (he even somehow managed to organise a field full of angry looking bulls to block the exit).

The run was really well attended and brought together a few members we haven’t seen for a while.  It was also nice to see the two guest runners enjoying themselves.

Dawn and Peter generously gave up their time to man the checkpoints as well as run, and in true form used their initiative to move one of the checkpoints to a pub!  I’m sure their intention was to motivate us further by waving lager under our noses to encourage us to finish quicker.  It worked for me and that first pint went down lovely.

Even though most of us managed to get briefly lost at one stage or another, map reading didn’t appear to be a problem thanks to our Tuesday night orienteering runs, although Robin had some difficulty reading his map when it was bobbing about in the stream he managed to drop it in.

Eric, Mark M and Suzanne are all now proud (I hope) ultra runners.  Suzanne did particularly well as she seemed to be the only person unaware she was going to run the full distance, and we now have at least nine ultra runners in the club!

A well stocked barbeque rounded the day off nicely and surprisingly everyone was still able to walk unaided, some even showing off by kicking a football around.

I’m looking forward to hopefully doing the same again next year, even though my legs are still throbbing from all the nettle stings.

Glyn Morris

There were so many pictures to choose from, like the one above of Suzanne, that it really hard to pick.  Hopefully we can get some of them onto the new website.

The boundary run was a success this year and a good time was had by all.  Lets hope we can do it all again next year.