Conditions for the race had not looked promising, with the drive down to Canterbury being shrouded in fog, and our arrival in the cathedral city being met with a heavy shower. Fortunately both rain and fog had cleared by the time we had fought our way through the chaos in the race HQ, as over 1000 people queued alternately for race numbers, toilets and bag storage, and only the cold was left to contend with.

The course is a scenic and undulating route along country roads and paths, with a couple of sharp hills at 4 and 7 miles, and the added bonus of having to run through a ford at one point, wondering just how deep the water is going to be. 

Considering the nature of the course, it was an exceptional performance for so many of our runners to have lowered their PBs. Running for the club obviously inspires people to run above themselves  - another good reason for entering these Grand Prix events.

The race had attracted over 1000 entries, and on the day there were 889 finishers. The standard was also extremely high, with more than 150 runners breaking the 70 minute barrier. Many Kent clubs had turned out in force for the race, and so we can be extremely pleased with our team performance. Based on our own provisional calculations, our men came 6th in the Grand Prix scoring with 304 points, whilst our women finished 10th  with 71 points. 

These results are actually much better than you might imagine at first glance. Experience shows that many clubs will not turn out in such numbers for the other races in the series, and so we can expect to improve our standing over the coming races. To put the result in context, in the same race last year the men finished 10th with 250 points, and the women finished 16th with 21 points. So you can see we are off to a better start in 2012, which suggests we are on track to maintain or improve our Grand Prix position. 

Provisional Grand Prix standings for the top 10 clubs after the first race are:

I have marked with an asterisk those clubs which, based on last year, I do not expect to maintain the same turnout for future races. This gives a clear indication of the potential we have to move up the table as the season progresses. 

Individual results for ORR runners are:

10th   Gavin Kitchingham     58:36 PB

36th   Jason Witcombe  1:02:45 PB 

45th   Ian Hailes   1:03:56 PB

92nd (10th lady) Suzy Yates   1:07:18 PB

98th   Stephen Mifsud  1:07:48 PB

155th   Dave Grierson  1:09:43

162nd   Danny McLaughlin  1:10:46

199th   Neil Hemming  1:11:41 PB

222nd (35th)  Annette Shrimpton  1:12:50

230th   Toby Bates   1:13:00 PB

231st   Rachel McGuinness  1:12:54 PB

236th   Dave King   1:13:05

298th (49th)  Nicola Cotton  1:15:53

363rd   Mark Allen   1:17:20

398th (70th)  Jan Lenton   1:19:02

520th (120th)  Pippa Rudman   1:23:28 PB

680th (195th)  Catherine Bennett  1:32:08

732nd   Eric Enock   1:35:06

755th   Ali Amanat   1:36:34

781st (261st)  Denise King   1:37:49 PB

848th   Simon Hawkes  1:48:29

865th   Beth Wilkinson  1:51:49

I have marked those PB's that I know about, but there may have been more. 

DEAL HALF MARATHON

The next race in the Grand Prix is the Deal Half Marathon which takes place in just two weeks’ time on Sunday 12 February.  Entry details for this can be found at http://www.dealtri.co.uk/events/deal-half-marathon?q=deal-half-marathon-2012 . 

Postal entry closes on Sunday 5 February so there is no time to lose.  Entries will though be taken on the day. 

The Deal Half Marathon is a much smaller race than the Canterbury 10. So far there are only just over 200 entrants, so only a fifth of the number who entered for Canterbury. So don’t be deterred if you finished outside the points at Canterbury or were put off by the standard. It will be much easier to earn Grand Prix points even if you are not a super-fast runner. A relatively small field gives a real opportunity for the club to score big points. But only if we turn up!! So far the Deal Tri website shows only two entrants from ORR. If we are to maintain our Grand Prix challenge, we urgently need more entrants to ensure that we have the 6 men and 4 women who make up a scoring team.   

So please – it all possible – give some consideration to running in Deal on Sunday 12th.  We hope again that it should be possible to arrange to coordinate transport for those who need a lift to the race.

To facilitate this, it would be very helpful if those who are entering the race could e-mail me at kitchinghamgavin@yahoo.co.uk to let me know they have done so, and let me know if they can offer a lift to others or need a lift themselves.

Gavin Kitchingham