URWFRC at the 2004 Thanet 20

Ashley, Nicky, Wooney and Nick B

Do you fancy running a two-lap course around cabbage fields near Manston Airport?

So started the first posting for Thanet 20 last November by Scotty. Little did he know that this thread would attract over 600 postings and see 32 forumites enter!

Scotty went on to say in his first email that this race may not be everyone's cup of tea, as it involves an outward section of three miles, followed by two laps of seven miles and then a return to the finish.

The course is mildly undulating, with lots of long, straight, very flat sections by the side of cabbage fields and a nice stretch alongside Manston Airfield (which, did you know, boasts the longest runway in the South other than Heathrow). A chance for any plane spotters out there to run alongside a 747 (Race The Plane?) or to see the Spitfire in the RAF museum at mile 3.

I drove down on the Saturday afternoon in atrocious weather and could only think of poor Potting Shed, who was camping overnight at Canterbury. Hopefully he had remembered to pack his inflatable as well as his tent!

Father Jack and Potting Shed had enlightened us all with their pre-race hydration technique - no doubt inspired by an article in Runner's World explaining that Guinness is in fact good for you.

In pre-race postings, we had arranged ourselves into four groups: Speedsters (2:30), Wannabees (2:40 would be nice but anything under 2:50 would be great), Realistics (sub 3) and the Get Me Rounds ('who cares as long as I finish').

Top man: Nigel Cook in full stride

After the playful threat of light rain at the start of the race, we were soon let in for a torrent of sleet, driving rain and winds after about 30 minutes, ie, too far from the start to get a coat on (maybe those track races do have an advantage after all). Jim Rourke got it right though: having started the race in a green bin liner, he was still seen wearing it at mile 13. Meanwhile, the rain storms lasted for about half an hour, ensuring rivers of mud in the roads.

The Wannabees stuck together and kept near-perfect eight-minute miles thanks mainly to NickB and his GPS system. He set the pace and ensured that the rest of us stuck to it, slowing us down on the downhill sections and encouraging us to speed up on the uphills. The 10-mile point gave an impressive view of blue and yellow URWFRC shirts as Pathfinder led us followed by NickB, Nicky, Jim the Plum, Ashley and Wooney.

Roy Taylor (269) sets a steady pace

The Get Me Round group, including M. and Cathryn, battled through the weather bravely.

Special mention must also go to Walkman, who entered with an expected finishing time of five hours and beat his target by five minutes. Some races may not welcome such times but this is not the case with TRAC and great effort was made at race HQ to ensure that water was available. Two marshals even walked out to join Walkman (304) on his last mile.

Dave Bennett (171) at mile 15

Of the forumites, David Bennett led the field, finishing in 74th, with Cornflakes the first forumite lady in 96th.

Scotty and Itchy had chatted throughout the race, but in the final mile or so Itchy decided to pull away, pipping Scotty to the line by under a minute.

Like all Thanet Roadrunner events, this was another huge success and shows what can be achieved by meticulous planning and leaving nothing to chance (except the weather, perhaps).