On Sunday [15 May] I ran The Stelling Minnis 10K. This was a first time for me although I had been aware of the event for some years. I had not entered previously because it was usually 1 week before The Canterbury Half Marathon[ sadly canceled this year after I had done most of the training] and not being a motorist devilishly difficult to get to by public transport. The small village approximately half way between Canterbury and Folkestone/Hythe also seemed further than I would like to cycle before a race. However studying my Anquet digital OS map I worked out a nice route using minor roads of about 9 miles. I downloaded this on to my Garmin Forerunner and using its navigation mode found myself at Race HQ in good time with no difficulties.
Ed: Keith Gilbert of Canterbury cycles to most of his local events and is no youngster. Keith reports on his latest journey into the North Downs.
The course set in The Kent North Downs was very undulating, so no PBs today! It was rural and scenic, using relatively traffic free roads and the weather was nicely cool. There was a particularly severe and longish hill coming in at about 6.5 K , at it’s base chalked across the road was “keep on going” and about half way up “go go go”, a nice touch! I came in 86th out of 155 finishers, timed at 52:44. I like to keep my 10Ks sub 55 and considering the undulating course I was quite happy with my result. A very nice event, which deserves more support, they can enter 400. The cycle home was easier since it was generally down hill as opposed to the climb getting to the event.
On Sunday it’s The Sittingbourne 10K. So until then, keep on running!
