So while we managed our required 3 women scorers, with only 3 men we incurred 4 sets of 'penalty' scores (203 on this occasion - each treated as finishing last M!) and finished bottom team of the 17 competing. Our women managed 15th in the ladies only results.
KFL Race Report - Rob Bright
The opening race of the Kent Fitness League season saw 300 runners descend on Rough Common, near Canterbury which was blessed with untypical cross country conditions - blue skies, warm sunshine and firm ground.
Andrew Pickett of Dartford Harriers started the season as he finished the last, speeding to victory over this demanding 5 mile course. The margin of his victory suggests that he could be favourite to take the championship this time, just failing by the narrowest of margins to win last time round. However, there are still six races to run before that will become clear.
20 year old Martin Pyne was second to his team mate with Swanley's Mike Baron, the leading veteran in 3rd place.
Last season's team winners, Dartford Road Runners were missing some of their faster men . Steve Adams led the club home in 7th place, but they they could only finish 4th in the team race on the day.
Paddock Wood's effort was headed by Gareth Robb in 4th place and former champion Steve Roberts in 6th - and this helped pull the club into 2nd place, their highest placing for a year.
Medway and Maidstone AC also had two scorers in the top ten - Josh Nice (5th) and Clayton Barrett (8th), but lack of quality support on the day meant last year's runners up were pushed back into 7th place. Maidstone Harriers were led in by last year's individual champion David Law in 9th place, still recovering from a back injury which has hampered his form since becoming Kent Marathon Champion in September.
The Ladies' race saw Invicta with two finishers in the top 3. Newcomer Marie Dumerques showed her credentials the previous weekend by finishing third in the Kent XC league - she went two better on Sunday, winning the race by nearly a minute from last year's champion Michelle Flaxton (Dartford Road Runners).
With Sharon Hawkins following in third place and Paul Ross-Davies leading the over 50 men, Invicta posted the best combined team score of the day to take an early lead in the competition.
Grateful thanks are due to all at Canterbury Harriers for their organisational efforts on the day - Steve Clark, Alastair Telford and John Hartley in particular. It is the type of venue which you don’t find at many other cross country events, where you follow a single circuit of public footpaths through a woodland setting. As a middle-of-the-field runner, I found the tree roots a bit problematic at the start of the woods, then there followed a long section of single file traffic where the paths were too narrow to get past the runner in front. Tactics were required to choose every overtaking opportunity - it was not until the second half of the race when I got to run at my own pace (by which time I’d had it anyway !).
Finally, can I remind all team captains to get their registration fees into me asap if they haven’t already done so - they were supposed to have been paid by Sunday !
The next race in the series takes place in the wide open spaces of Knole Park, Sevenoaks on Sunday 30th October. Hope to see you all there.