The fastest of those was by Paul Lambert, who celebrated his recent graduation to the MV40-49 age category by clocking an impressive one hour 21 minutes and 25 seconds. The other was clocked by Simon Linklater, a little further along the demographic in the same MV40-49 cohort, with 1:33:03.
Between them, senior Sam Evans (1:22:58) and MV40-49 Joe Cruttenden (1:32:30) had particular reason to be proud of their runs given the unexpected high temperatures around the 13.1 miles of the Kent countryside course. In fact, most of the field of 2,400 runners were surprised by the heat, and the medics were kept busy. Avoiding such attention were two of the club’s fastest runners in the MV60-69 category – Conal Tracey (1:39:12) and Andy Knight (1:45:30).
In the women’s side of the race, the fastest in the club’s green and black were three in the FV35-44 category – Lindsey Jones (1:49:53) and Alice Tigwell (2:00:09), followed by Klare Beecroft (2:16:16).
Elsewhere, at the Lydd Half Marathon, Lewis Parsons was placed 13th in 1:27:34, with strong runs, too, by David Fairclough and Tom Mann. The organisers at Lydd also stage a 20 Mile race in which Danny Firth came 58th in a time of 2:25:33, Andy Lee won his MV65 age category in 2:48:48 and Matthew Miller also cracked the three-hour mark with 2:57:33. Well done also to Sarah Marzaioli, winner of the FV75 category.
Further afield, Louise Hart (2:04:35) was among the 13,575 runners tackling the Cambridge Half Marathon. And just plain further (!) Pete Heasman and Darren Kilby ran the Steyning Stinger Cross Country Marathon (an up and down race over the South Downs) in around in five hours.
• Hastings Runners were also proudly represented at the Sussex Grand Prix Awards – held at Kings Head, Horsebridge last week – after the team finished fifth out of the 19 clubs taking part in a season-long series won by Hailsham Harriers. The awards ceremony saw age category winner’s trophies handed to Martin Noakes, Sarah Marzaioli and the junior female Rowan Barton-Dibble. Congratulations, too, to Steven Hoath, Paul Lambert, Erica Wilson and Yockie Richardson who all achieved top 10 – or higher – points finishes in their age categories.
Hastings Runners welcomes new members of all abilities aged 12 and over for fun, training and competitive running: Visit https://hastingsrunners:co:uk