A day to remember for Kim at the Poppy Half Marathon

Challenging conditions were not enough to halt Kim: “I was really pleased as it was my first half marathon in two and a half years and since having my son.

The course was tough with really high winds and piles of shingle washed up in the tide. I was in first place until ten miles, so I still need to work on my endurance, but it’s so much more than I expected.”

This was the seventh running of the popular Poppy Half Marathon in Bexhill-on-Sea which also included 5k and 1/4 marathon Fun Runs on the flat Bexhill seafront prom.

First male for the Harriers in 30th place was Jack Chivers with an excellent time of 1:29.45 in these conditions.

There were also great performances from Kat Barrett (1:39.19) and Michelle Pearce (1:45.04) with personal best times and Barry Tullett (1:31.15) and Peter Cobbett (2:04.58) with podium finishes in their age groups. A special mention also to Irene Parsley (2:19.12) who competed in her first ever half marathon.

Full results

Jason Russell (1:30:10); Carl Bicknell (1:38:47); Linda Tullett (2:05:54); Natalie Chivers (2:26:48).

Further afield, Phil Payne and Andy Biggs took on the Athens Marathon on Sunday - the 32nd staging of the race from Marathon to the Panathinaic Stadium in downtown Athens. More than 35 thousand runners participated in the race, with a record number of foreign participants. Both Phil and Andy finished in excellent time and under 4 hours for this tough course with Phil carrying 10kg on his back as training for the Marathon des Sables next year.