May Day Running

Waddies were taking part in races near and far over the weekend. WebEd and Cathy made the long trip down to Luxembourg to take part in the Night Run on saturday evening. This event is now starting to make its mark on the European marathon circuit - and a record field of 8,000 took part in three events - a full marathon, a half marathon and a mini marathon of 7K.

Those that have taken part rate this event as a close second to London for atmosphere and crowd support - and Saturday's race was up to its usal standard. If you really want to do an overseas race with plenty of buzz and excitement, you should take a look at this one.

Cathy Burke was the sole finisher, completing the course as a training run in 2.29.46. WebEd was the first Waddie, first brit - and, indeed, the first competitor back in the magnificent national arena. His calf pinged after 800 metres but his walk of honour over the finishing line after around 5 minut4es did generate one round of applause.

On Sunday, the Club President assisted by the Vice Captain led a small party of Waddies plus a prospective new member and Tom Tielemans a Dutch work experience student on the 6 mile Bluebell Run. This was very muddy in places and a bridge was found to have been washed away, so the runners had to ford a stream. Later a bridge which has previously been down for a number of years was found to have been replaced, though this did not have to be crossed. Towards the end of the run which was uneventful, but very enjoyable, the group came across another band of Waddies coming in the other direction just out of Wadhurst Park and gazing at a map on a stand.

This band had set off from Uplands earlier on the 11 mile Bluebell Run under the leadership of the Chairman, well-known for his navigation skills, who reports:

"The 11 mile Bluebell run ended up as a solid 13 miler; give or take a spit or two except we were so dehydrated.

At Chittenhurst we realised a puppy was following us and David Jones decided to take the little critter back to its owner. We then tried to negotiate a swap of David for the puppy but the owner would not budge. At this stage we all tried to delicately negotiate the mud; except Fergie decided to blast the way through, with predictable results. We were OK up to the point in the woods where we passed another glorious bluebell floral display; just before the mud and a right hander I recognised up to this point but we failed to find the wobbly bridge.

Before the Merrieweathers House we decided, after a team discussion to head for what we thought would be the Wadhurst direction to get back to Wadhurst Park but could not find a rear access so we returned to the Merrieweathers route. This wasted 1 mile.

We then continued and I recognised the next focal point; a collection of run down farm buildings at the end of the muddiest section of all but after passing the next batch of expensive looking buildings we lost the correct track and ended up asking directions on the only souls seen in the entire latter section. Eventually we tipped up, grossly muddy apart from David who had a speck on the bottom of his shoes, at the Eastern side of Lake Street, so we knew the rest of the way home. It took us 2:30hours and were all very dehydrated as we did not carry water, stupidly. We did enjoy the run and had a good laugh and we cannot wait for next year to repeat the exercise."

......Meanwhile on the Cuckoo Trail, Tony and Kathie Gates were enjoying a 20 mile training run.

On Monday, Peter Burfoot and Tom Tielemans travelled to Whitstable where Tom did a sterling task handing out Bewl Flyers to the runners and Peter ran the 2008 Bailey's Nissan Whitstable 10k which is a Kent Grand Prix Bronze Graded event.

It was sunny and warm with an easterly breeze which cooled the runners as they headed into the wind on the outward leg to Hampton and followed them back along the seafront to Whitstable resulting in some overheating.

Peter finished the event in 41:20 - 1st Male V55 with a pb.

.....Meanwhile in Maidstone, Tony and Kathie Gates completed a 10 mile training run.