Race Report by Roger Silvester

I’ve wanted to do this run for a few years just because it’s one of the very few races in Kent to start in the evening. It certainly didn’t disappoint.

Myself and John Adams were the only Coastal Representatives but we turned up at 6pm to collect our numbers with John bagging the No 1 due to his surname.

It was the first warm weather of the week but partly cloudy and a lovely breeze made it perfect for running.

Over 300 runners started just off the playing fields if the historic village. A bit of a bottle neck to start with but we were soon running along lovely narrow country lanes eastwards towards Westwell where there was a loop around the village at the halfway point.

The Marshalls were great and very encouraging and I was able to keep up a decent pace along the roads. There was one uphill stretch in the village which I felt I covered well only to be told by an Ashford Strider runner that the big hill was coming up!!

…… and it was horrendous!! Probably about km 6 , shallow to start with but increased steeply towards the top where there was the best placed water station I have ever seen ! I did disappoint myself and despite the encouragement of a young lad I had to walk the final part - telling myself if I had tried running it wouldn’t be any faster.

However, at the top the route ran along the Pilgrims Way and it was just spectacular running downhill through the trees with the evening sun rays shining through. Oh I so wanted to take photos but it was now all downhill to the finish line for the last 2 miles so had to make up lost time on the hill.

I was really pleased with my final push finishing in 57.49.

John ran his fastest 10k of this year in just over 1.05 and without running for some time I know he was pleased with the result.

We both really enjoyed the evening and I would thoroughly recommend to any other Coastie looking to run something a bit different at 7pm on a Friday evening 💙🧡