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Results

 

A great turnout from the club, especially considering the other fixtures.  Good to see Kevin Murison in his first race of the season and Des Hobbs in his first race for the club.

Ov       Lg        Runner                        Time

Pos      Pos

16        14        Mark Mellon                35:16

26        24        David Abery                 36:15 (first over 50)

115      94        Eric Pestell                   41:52

129      105      Kevin Murison  42:41

141      114      Des Hobbs                   43:31

165      130      Robin Heel                   45:21

168      27        Maria Baker                 45:51

191      39        Claire Medes                47:47

194      142      Liam Hayes                  47:58

199      42        Suzanne Loveridge       48:49

207      149      Lee Rawlinson  50:09

231      60        Sharon Gee                  53:54

257 finishers

 

This was a special one of race to commemorate the 100^th Anniversary of the first (and only previous) Hastings Marathon in 1908.  All 3 Gravesend Roadrunners enjoyed the race and were happy with their results, for David Wright his time was a pb by 12 minutes.

 

Pos      Runner                        Gun                 Chip

31        Annabelle Stearns         3:04:40 3:04:24 (first female)

216      Glyn Morris                  3:31:43 3:31:25

265      David Wright                3:37:07 3:36:49

1178 finishers

 

Dawn, Peter and Mark took part in the Las Vegas Half Marathon whilst on holiday.  Dawn and Peter ran together as it was Peter’s first half marathon and the furthest he has ever run by quite some distance.

Mark Lownie               2:18:29

Dawn Granger              3:14:40

Peter Granger               3:14:41

 

Just Annabelle from the club ran the Ditton Turkey Run this year.  This is a fun, multi-terrain event of approx 6.5 miles, the course is usually very muddy but there was a frost this year making it slightly easier.  Annabelle finished in 41:03 in 12^th position from 247 finishers.

 

There were some great runs by club members at our home fixture on Sunday the 30^th November.  First to go were the juniors with Ross Cree running for Gravesend followed by Jessica and Lucy Wright who were competing in their 3^rd race of the season.  In the senior race Mick Spurr ran his first cross country of the season along with Germaine Church and Jenny Phaure who were both running in their first ever cross country race.

Ov       Lg        Runner                        Time

Pos      Pos

  24        22      Mark Mellon                   37:03

  34          1      Annabelle Stearns            38:09

  37        33      David Abery                    38:27

  74        66      David Wright                   40:41

  78        68      Mick Spurr                      40:48

219        40      Maria Baker                    48:11

243      180      Adam Hughes                  49:56

265        59      Suzanne Loveridge          51:47

271      196      Lee Rawlinson     52:13

273        61      Claire Medes                   52:20

302        76      Sharon Gee                     57:32

322        89      Germaine Church          1:00:08

337      100      Jenny Phaure                1:08:34

338 finishers

 

After this race Gravesend are 14^th in the combined league and 10^th in the Ladies.

 

 

Blean Woods was cold, windy and wet.  Congratulations to all that braved the conditions, including Jessica and Lucy Wright who completed the junior race for Gravesend.  In the senior race the club results were:

 

Ov       Lg        Runner                        Time

Pos      Pos

  22        20      Mark Mellon                32:42

  38          2      Annabelle Stearns         33:25

  45        39      David Abery                 33:57

  84        71      David Wright                35:56

169      133      Eric Pestell                   39:10

242        48      Suzanne Loveridge       43:04

249        52      Maria Baker                 43:21

294        74      Sharon Gee                  47:55

346 Finishers

In the team competitions Gravesend finished in 14^th in the combined competition and in 10^th in the Ladies.

 

 

Sunday 9th November was the first fixture of the 2008 Kent Fitness Cross Country League at Swanley Park.  There was a good turn out from the club, with 12 runners, including Lee Rawlinson, Adam Hughes and Claire Medes who were all competing in their first cross country race.  The course was muddier than normal due to heavy overnight rain.  The club results were:
 
Name                             Time     Ov Pos         Lg Pos
Mark Mellon                32:11           30              26
David Abery                33:03           47              41
Annabelle Stearns       33:04           48              1
David Wright               35:19          102             89
Eric Pestell                   39:02           202            160
Robin Heel                   40:21           236            181
Adam Hughes             40:49           246            189
Lee Rawlinson             41:24           263            197
Liam Hayes                  42:53           283            208
Maria Baker                  43:16           293            53
Claire Medes                45:03           316            60
Sharon Gee                   48:19           346            73
384 Finishers
 
In the combined team competition Gravesend finished in 14th position and in the ladies team competition 12th of 17 teams competing.
 

 

There were great runs from David Wright with an excellent time of 1:33:32 (pb) in 83rd place and Richard Scarff 2:00:25 in 446th place.  There were 609 finishers.
 

Claire Gaskill travelled to Leicester and was very close to her best time with a time of 1:36:53 finishing in 178th position of 1334 finishers.
 

Mick Spurr was the only Gravesend Road Runner to run this race, he had another good run, finishing in 1:09:52 in 23rd position of 159 finishers.
 

This was Adam and Claire's first race for the club and a new pb for Lee.
 
Dave Abery           37:38    39th (running for Istead & Ifield)
Eric Pestell            45:23  256th
Lee Rawlinson        48:56  383rd
Adam Hughes         50:19  429th
Claire Medes          52:22  490th
 
850 finishers
 

Annabelle Stearns finished the London to Brighton 56 mile trail run, running with Steve Cable.  They finished in joint 2nd place (Annabelle 1st female) out of 81 finishers in 9 hours and 40 minutes.

Well done to Dawn Granger who travelled to Newcastle to run in the Great North Run finishing in 2:39:08.

 

 

 Mark Mellon had a brilliant run at the Folkestone Half Marathon on the 28th September, finishing in 8th position out of 530 finishers in a new personal best time of 1:22:26.  David Abery, running for Istead & Ifield finished in 26th place in 1:27:30.

Also on the 28th September, Mario Cientanni and Claire Gaskill completed the Green Chain Marathon, starting in New Eltham the run was well over marathon distance.
 

Mario Cientanni had another good result at the Thanet Quicksand 15 on the 21st September, finishing in 9th position out of 121 finishers in a time of 1:54:17.
 

Congratulations to Mario Cientanni who has knocked over 13 minutes of his marathon pb.  On the 7^th September he ran 3:26:00 at the Wolverhampton Marathon.  This was followed by a time of 3:25:18 (chip)/3:27:32 (gun), a week later at the Robin Hood Marathon, Nottingham.

 

Well done to the six Gravesend members who took part in the Shorne Wood 5, a challenging off road 5 miler in the local country park.  Dawn, Pete and Graham helped out by marshalling.

Mark Mellon                32:35   6^th

Mick Spurr                   37:29   24^th

Suzanne Loveridge       42:39   61^st/6^th female

Bill Lancaster                42:58   68^th

Judith Hillier                  48:59   118^th/20^th female

Mark Lownie               49:52   119^th

159 finishers

Meanwhile, new member Claire Gaskill won the award for 3^rd Senior female at Thanet Marathon.  Dave Abery (running for Istead) ran his first marathon finishing in 12^th position overall and second Male over 50.

Dave Abery                  3:14:42 12^th

Claire Gaskill                3:49:40 77^th/9^th female

196 finishers

 

Despite an excellent turnout from Istead and Ifield the overall strength from Larkfield was overwhelming and produced their second consecutive win in this annual contest. Gravesend although down on numbers, still put up a good show, with Mark Mellon doing a great job to finish 4^th.

Looking to the future, unless our membership numbers change significantly I don’t see GRRAC being able to win this event now that Larkfield have come into it.

The event started in 1997 when we invited Istead & Ifield to compete in our Club 10K Championships. They fielded 15 runners and GRRAC the same. The event alternated ever since but in a less equal spread of runners, hence the only time we see the trophy is at the presentation, no wonder I did not recognise it !   I & I have muted that we could join forces for this event so I put it to the Club, please let me know how you feel about this and whether you would support the event if we did?

Last year the result based on Larkfield scoring system was

2007            Larkfield:	Istead and Ifield:	Gravesend RR:
Points:         170	110	37
Runners:        34	33	12

This year the result was based on the original scoring format and with a similar result

2008          Larkfield	Istead and Ifield	Gravesend RR
Points:     180	118	44
Runners:  30	26	14

Economically, the cost of putting the event on now for the larger participation is disproportionate for the smaller club, and in past years even fewer of our members have attended at Istead  than on our own patch.

I believe our course this year to be the best of the three but then I am biased, the other two are longer at 10K ( the original distance.)

If you can e-mail then send me your views to ericpestell@hotmail.com

Mark Mellon:  2:15:28     17th

Annabelle Stearns 2: 20: 28  24th

Mario Cientanni 2:47:49  127th

David wright: 2:.54:05  170th

Liam Hayes  3:21:10    300th

Pete Foster :  3: 14: 20  283^rd  ( Trail Runners Assoc)

Click on the picture for a larger view

Once run, never forgotten. The Beachy Head Marathon (formerly Seven Sisters Marathon) is an off-road gem of a trail race. Gravesend Roadrunner Annabelle Stearns (not in photo) took the Seven Sisters in her stride to record a phenomenal finish time of 3.29.00 setting a ladies course record for the event. Glyn Morris achieved a time of 4.21 and Richard Scorff came in at 5.02 (would have done 4.45 but the munchies were too nice!)