Congratulations and thank you to everyone involved in our successful cross country season this year. Team TRAC finished runners up, 2nd in both the Combined Team League and the Mens Team League and 4th but level points with 3rd in the Ladies Team League.
We had some individual successes too with Elly Maggs the F45 Champion and Julie Williams the F60 Champion.
All TRAC team runners have contributed this season, and thank you to everyone who has stepped up and filled gaps where needed in the teams each fixture. We also hope you all enjoyed it and are already looking forward to next season!
Some great individual results but of note: Elly Maggs finished in 6th position overall for the season with Georgie Judge close in 8th. Matt McCarthy finished in 13th position overall for the season with Lee Hardie in 16th.
Thanks to all the contributors behind the scenes who keep things running smoothly.
And of course again thank you to all involved in putting on the successful home fixture at Minnis Bay earlier this year.
Cheers Jo and Phil
Thank you to Brittany Crombie for the excellent race report for today’s event at Mote Park:
This morning, Team TRAC travelled to Maidstone for the final fixture of this year’s KFL Cross Country season.
Coming out of retirement after 23 years, this course at Mote Park was a first for all. Usually, the season finishes at Blean Woods but the baton was handed over for the benefit of bird conservation at Blean.
As usual, there was plenty of pre-race chatter, with the question of whether to wear spikes or trail shoes echoing around the TRAC tent. Conversations with race organisers suggested that spikes were off the table, with apparently too much of the course on pavement to justify them. However, “to spike or not to spike” was still very much the question.
The race was set to be 9.5km, weaving through woodland and shrubland, around a lake, and up and down various hills.
Runners set off from the start line into a gentle uphill, which then flattened before descending and curving around a pond. They were then directed up a very muddy slope before entering the first section of woodland. Runners had to navigate tree roots, hanging branches, and muddy puddles, before heading back down the hill, onto a section of pavement. Rather than continuing onwards, runners were funnelled back to the start line. This was not part of the planned route… It was announced by an unsurprisingly stressed sounding race organiser over a megaphone that a marshall had directed runners the wrong way early on. The race was paused and, against a background of grumbling and jeering, runners took shelter from the worsening rain. Which meant more time for conversations about spikes versus no spikes!
After what I’m sure were some panicked discussions (and hopefully not too much finger-pointing at said marshall), the decision was made to restart the race from the beginning, cutting out the first muddy slope, reducing the total distance by 0.5km.
Runners headed back to the start, a sense of deja vu settling, before the gun was fired for the second time that morning and runners were off. In the short time that the race was paused, some additional rain had fallen on top of the year’s worth of rain that we’ve already seen these first two months of 2026. As you can imagine, the course was muddy. Almost the whole way. There were shouts and screams from all directions as people tried (and often failed) to stay on their feet. Even the flat sections posed the risk of slipping. Post-race reports include it being muddier than Glastonbury festival and it being more like skiing than running…
As the final fixture of the season, pressure was on for both male and female teams to perform well. The men had a second place position to keep and the women were only points from third place.
In spite of the conditions and erroneous start, TRAC performed incredibly well. All runners should be very proud of themselves for contributing to such an impressive season finish!
Thank you to all of the runners for sacrificing their Sundays to run around muddy fields; to the marshalls, volunteers, race organisers, medics, etc who make the races possible; to the bakers for keeping energy levels up; and especially Phil and Jo who have worked so hard to coordinate things this season.
Bring on the summer road relays!
Link to KFL website for a multitude of race and season results available!
https://kfl.canterburyharriers.org/#
Next club event is the Club Championships race down the road at Minnis at the Smugglers 10k. Its absolutely not too late to join in and we look forward to seeing you there. (More info on Club Champs on the website).
