The term “family” is often used to describe our wonderful club and Saturday was further evidence of the strong bond between the members at Hastings Runners. Such is the camaraderie, the group travelled together by minibus, departing at the crazy time of 5:30am, kindly organised by Sarah Bendle.
The Run to the Sea starts at Horsham and leads runners through a mixture of terrain, including some wonderful trails and beautiful downlands, covering a total of 50 kms and finishing on Brighton seafront. Many congrats to Sally Grainger who won the FV60 age category, supported en route by Kevin Blowers, just a matter of weeks after completing the London Marathon. Despite the damp conditions Darren Kilby improved on his time from 12 months previous. Jan Young was celebrating her birthday in the perishing cold, with the slightly odd combination of a survival blanket around her shoulders and an ice cream in her hand. Richard Cross and Simon Trevena both finished in high spirits, despite their self confessed lack of preparation.
Hastings Runners “A” team (Darren Kilby, Kevin Blowers, Sally Grainger, Rob Thomas & Amanda Link) came 2nd and the “B” team (Luke Evans, Cassie Colvin, Lucie Smitalova, Richard Cross & Jan Young) 4th in the team competition with combined times of 28 hours 15 mins and 30 hours 34 mins respectively.
CENTURION PETE AVOIDS THE CORONATION!
Whilst most of the country was glued to their TV sets on Coronation Day, Hastings ultra runner Pete Heasman tackled the Centurion Thames Path 100 mile event over the weekend. Starting at Richmond Town Hall and finishing in the centre of Oxford, the route followed the river path for most of the way. Steady rain throughout the first day meant that some sections became extremely muddy, and nearly 40% of the 300 runner field dropped out. As per usual, Pete eschewed the normal ultra runner preparation and jumped straight in having run no further than 10 miles in training! With the aid of a gin and tonic in the final few miles, Pete finished in a time of 27 hours 30 mins.
