Kent Fitness League 2017/18: Minnis Bay

The fifth fixture of the 2017/18 Kent Fitness League season was Minnis Bay. It is one of those venues that some runners love and others avoid like the plague. The reason lies at around the 7 kilometre point where the course leaves the main path and the runners have to face the six dykes (or ditches).

In true cross-country style the dykes are generally muddy and possibly also full of water - depending on how wet the weather has been dictates how muddy they are. Typically you'll find a few slightly muddy dykes and one or two really muddy ones filled with water which is sometimes above knee height.

photos: dani / eden summers

The January 2018 race attracted a field of 381 runners which was a record attendance for this venue. This was probably aided by the decent weather forecast. My club, Dartford Harriers, won the team competition, but as we have such a strong team, I was not one of the scoring runners. In the three occasions I have now run here it was the first time I haven't scored for the team at this venue.

Anyway, my race was fairly non-eventful. I started close enough to the front to avoid any holdups and was able to run at my chosen pace/effort level almost all the way round. The long outward 4 kilometre stretch parallel to the seafront was slightly splashy and ensured that my feet were soaked through from an early point in the race.

photos: funk dooby / brian pitkin

I find the toughest things about this course are the long, long stretches of running in a straight line. The course is essentially one huge triangle. Underfoot was generally quite uneven with patches of stones every now and then which I tried to avoid as I was wearing my spikes. The turn inland was followed by more running in a straight line, and then more of the same alongside the railway line.

It wasn't long before those dykes were upon us. One of the runners in the group I was in made a move and got a few spaces ahead which reduced his waiting time for each dyke. By the end of this section he had gained about 20 seconds on me. I've noted this tactic for next year.

photos: funk dooby / dawn granger

I had a further hold-up during a short, twisty, single track trail when the runner in front of me took this a little slower than he had been running. This resulted in the runners behind me gaining some ground. I was well and truly knackered towards the end and after running over the four sand dunes didn't have much left for a sprint finish.

The full results were available a few days later and I was pleased to have beaten my previous year's time. It was only 2 seconds faster, but I'll take it! Lastly, there were quite a few great photographers out on the course, so I'd like to say a special thank you to you all for capturing all the great moments in this race.

photos: dawn granger

Official Results Page: KFL Minnis Bay January 2018

My results:
Overall position: 81 / 381
Gender position: 77 / 262
Age category position (VM40-44): 10 / 25
Official time: 43.17
Rating: 70.99

Other links:

• My GPS data on Strava: KFL Minnis Bay January 2018
• Video on youtube: Relive course flyby video
• Venue guide: Kent Fitness League Venue Guide

Kent Fitness League 2017/18: Fowlmead

The fourth race of the 2017/18 Kent Fitness League (my venue info page) was held at Betteshanger Park. The park was formerly called Fowlmead and, for now at least, the cross country race has retained this name. This venue is the furthest drive of the XC season for me, and it took about 1 hour and 20 minutes to travel there from Dartford.

In fact I almost didn't make it to the race at all - The day before I had an unexplained sharp pain on the inside of my left shin and thought I would have to sit this one out. Fortunately it wasn't too bad on the day and I made the last minute decision to go ahead.

The race is run on a two-and-a-bit lap clockwise course around the country park. Underfoot is mostly hard surfaces, but can be quite uneven at times. I can't imagine there would ever be any need to wear spikes on this course, but trail shoes are quite handy.

dartford harriers [photos: eden / dani]

Every time I have run this race the course has been slightly different. In previous years I remember running a short off-road section that begins with quite a steep, uneven downhill. This section was missing from the course - I'm not entirely sure why, but I would imagine that it was for safety reasons.

The big story from this year's race was the wind. The forecast predicted 45mph winds and I can confirm that it was spot on. It was blowing from the East which meant that there was a headwind along the straight at the end of each lap and it was pretty brutal.

I found that I felt ok on the first lap, but that headwind at the end of lap 1 knocked the steam out of me and I really struggled on lap 2 resulting in a positive split of almost a minute. But that was fine because cross-country can quite often work out like that. On lap two I would have preferred to have been chasing and overtaking, but instead I was the one being overtaken.

dartford harriers [photos: funkdooby]

In the end the wind took its toll and gave me an earache as I reached the final kilometre. Then it was a case of pushing into the 45mph gusts all the way to the finish line. Totally shattered, I wandered over to the cafe to get out of the wind. Yes, I was cold, but it was the earache that most bothered me. Once out of the wind it eased off and I felt fine.

Upon crossing the finish line I had been handed finishing position token 68, which was my highest finishing position of the season so far. The full results were processed and available online a few days later.

Official Results: KFL Fowlmead January 2018

My race stats:
Overall position: 68 / 341
Gender position: 65 / 230
Official time: 34:57
Rating: 72.17

Data etc:
My GPS course data: KFL Fowlmead January 2018
My Relive course fly-by video: KFL Fowlmead January 2018

Additional link: My Kent Fitness League venue information page

Kent Fitness League 2017/18: Oxleas Wood

The third race of the 2017-18 season was run at Oxleas Wood, which is the wooded area you can see to the side of Shooters Hill. This race marked my third outing at this venue over the last four seasons. The first two races of the season had been so-so...

The season opener at Knole Park was ruined by a pain in my stomach. Then at the second race in Swanley I got caught in congestion early on and found myself quite far adrift of where I would have liked to be.

I came into the Oxleas Wood race with more of an aggressive mindset - the previous year I had started too slowly and got caught in congestion during the early part of the wooded section. I wanted to avoid that this time around, and so did the race organisers - Plumstead Runners. So this year the beginning of the course was lengthened in order to thin the runners out before entering the woods.

oxleas wood (oxleas meadows) [photos: 7t]

The race start time was set for 11am, however a couple of minutes beforehand it was announced that there would be a 10 minute delay. The weather was pretty cold (it always is here) and there had been an early morning frost, so to keep warm I started a second warm-up session of light jogging until we had our two-minute warning.

As I mentioned, the course had changed a little this year. So the beginning was a little different and involved a large loop around a line of trees and bushes adding a couple of hundred extra metres to the course. I'm not entirely sure if it helped further down the field but I can confirm that I entered the woods and didn't have to deal with any congestion. My start had been more aggressive than before, but to be honest, I was never going to go too crazy early on.

My race featured a bit of overtaking and a bit of being overtaken. I struggled on some of the inclines but I fared better on the flatter sections. I rolled my left ankle but I appear to have gotten away without doing any damage. I wore my spikes for this race because I found them really beneficial the year before. However, the ground was much dryer this time around and I reckon trail shoes would've done the job nicely.

oxleas wood [photos: eden summers]

After 38 minutes and 14 seconds, I crossed the finish line, weaved through the funnel and collected my finishing disc, which I was surprised to see was number 80. Bear in mind that I had finished in 146th and 135th in the first two races, so to be well within the top 100 was a bit of a shock. Not only that, but I had run a new course best despite it actually being a few hundred metres longer. To be fair, the course was the driest I have ever seen it, so was a lot faster than it usually is.

Official Results Page: KFL Oxleas Wood Results 2017
Overall position: 80 / 460
Gender position: 78 / 324
Official time: 38.14

My GPS Data: KFL Oxleas Wood 2017
Video: Relive course flyby video

Kent Fitness League 2017/18: Swanley Park

Following my disastrous start to the 2017-18 Kent Fitness League season, I headed over to Swanley Park to take part in the second race of the series, hoping that I'd have a better race without a repeat of the stomach issues that ruined the season opener at Knole Park.

I started the race on tired legs that had already run a parkrun and raced the Foots Cray Meadows Kent Cross Country League race the day before. The course at Swanley was the same as it was the season before, you can read about it here, so I won't go into great detail about it.

A year beforehand, I had got a brilliant start and completed the course without encountering any hold-ups. This time around, I found myself pinned into the middle of the pack at the start and encountered a great deal of congestion throughout the first few kilometres.

This was topped off by coming to a dead stand still as the pack filtered through a narrow pinch point just over a mile into the race. This poor start meant that I was already way off where I would have expected to be (probably 40 seconds adrift after the first two kilometres).

The rest of the race consisted mostly of reeling people in and overtaking them (which was fun), but no matter how hard I pushed there was no way for me to regain the ground I had lost early on. I finally crossed the line in 136th position in a time of 38.22, which was 59 seconds slower than a year earlier.

A change I did make for this race was that I wore my trail shoes instead of my spikes, which I had regretted wearing during 2016's race. Swanley Park had not suffered much with the recent rain and the grass/dirt areas were generally pretty firm. I was much happier in my trail shoes, so was happy with that decision.

My Results:

• Position: 136 out of 566
• Gender position: 126 out of 379
• Time: 38.22

Links:

• KFL Swanley Park 2017 Official Results
• KFL Swanley Park 2017 GPS data
• KFL Swanley Park 2017 course fly-by video
• KFL Swanley Park 2016 blog post
• KFL Venue Guide

Kent Fitness League 2017/18: Knole Park

The 2017/18 Kent Fitness League cross-country season got underway at the stunning Knole Park in Sevenoaks. For details on car parking, toilets and an in-depth course description please have a look at my main Kent Fitness League information page or my blog post from 2016's race.

The run up to the race had been pretty good, topped off with a sub-20 5k at Southwark parkrun just two weeks before the race - this meant I was in roughly the same shape (if not slightly faster) as I was a year earlier. 2017's event saw slightly fewer participants than the record-breaking 2016 event, but there was still a very high turnout of 493 participants.

At the starter's orders we all shot off on our first KFL outing of the year. I had already had a decent warm-up and flowed with the pack as we negotiated the early part of the course. By the time I was nearing the top of the long, gradual incline I could feel my stomach starting to tighten. I held my pace and focussed on my breathing in the hope that I could bring it under control.

It seemed ok until I hit the short, sharp downhill section at the far end of the course. At this point the feeling in my stomach changed to a stitch or possibly a stomach cramp on my left hand side, and it was the worst running pain I've ever had. My pace slowed and runners from behind started to stream past. I shuffled on, maintaining a pace, but it was not much more than what I would run during an easy run.

All the way through the second lap, runners continued to catch and pass me, and there was nothing I could do. The pain was too intense. Then, with about a mile left in the race, another pain which felt more like a traditional stitch appeared on the right hand side. I had no choice but to stop and walk - I strategically picked the incline into the woods to do this so as to lose less time than on the flat.

At the top of the incline I shuffled back into a run and before I knew it, I had completed the last kilometre and crossed finish line. I was handed finish token number 146, which is my worst ever KFL finishing position.

After looking forward to this race for so long, it was a huge disappointment that it panned out how it did. However, I mustn't linger on it and I suppose I should be happy that I finished only about two-and-a-half-minutes slower than in 2016 despite the horrendous race I'd just had.

Links:

• Official results
• My GPS data
• The relive fly-by video of the course