Race up Beachy Head keeps three in touch at top
Hastings Runners sent a team of 20 to compete in the fifth race of the East Sussex Sunday Cross Country League series. And the reward for three of them was a place at the top of their age category standings with one race of the series to go.
Paul Lambert was the club’s fastest finisher, completing the demanding course in 33min 19sec to finish 32nd of the 292 which lifted him to fifth position in the M40 age category.
Behind him were the club’s two other age category stars: Martin Noakes, whose time of 36:48 made him first M60 home and consolidated his second place in his age cat table; and Claire Thomas (once again the club’s fastest female entrant) placing 94th in 38:29, a time that sees her well placed in fourth among the F40s.
The race, hosted by the Run Wednesday club, bears the name of its starting point, Whitbread Hollow. From that point beyond the western end of Eastbourne’s seafront, runners traverse 2.5km of ups and downs then must endure a grueling 102m climb and 2k slog to the top of Beachy Head – at which point they turn and gratefully run 3k downhill to the finish.
Roman Pavlenko crossed the line 37th in 33:34, Will Withecombe placed 44th in 34:18 and there were also notable performances by M60 Kevin Blowers (finishing in 38:50), F50 Sue Hull (43:27), F50 Gillian Selman (44:34), F60 Jane Coles (44:52) and F60 Ruth Spiller (45:22).
The following night saw Hastings Runners dressed in something other than green and black for the Sussex Grand Prix Awards held at Three Bridges FC. There, prizes were awarded – by their clubmate and SGP Membership Secretary Catherine Southgate – to Louis Dargan, Lewis Parsons, Ruth Spiller, Sarah Marzaioli and Erica Wilson.
The day before, Parsons had placed ninth in the Dymchurch 10k in a personal best time of 36:00 where Mitch Richards also PB’d with 46:34.
The weekend before had seen a storm of PBs at the Chichester 10k. In a field 1,369 runners, times tumbled for HR club champion Dargan (his PB now 32:41 for the distance), Ashley Vora (34:12), Jess Hayward (49:43), Allan Payne (52:08), Michelle Fox (52:13) and Louise Hart (52:26). Well done, also, to Katy Harrison who PB’d with 1:38:49 at the Bedgebury 10 Mile event.
Going even further... Pete Heasman ran the UK Ultra Hibernal Hills 50k – a race around the hills of Hampshire and West Sussex with almost 1,200m of elevation – in 7 hours 39 minutes. And Joe Cruttenden conquered the Longbridge 100 Backyard Ultra by running a total of 71 miles with an elevation of over 3,000m!
Hastings Runners welcome new members of all abilities aged 12 and over for fun, training and competitive running. Visit https://hastingsrunners.co.uk