Whitton wins a race with a difference in Kent

Eye Community Runner Lee Whitton picked up his first ever race win in Kent last week, writes Barry Warne.

The aim of the race was to run for as long as you could, rather than the conventional concept of running for the least time possible.

There was very little conventional about the race, called The Cookiethon, organised by the Saxons, Vikings and Normans Running Club, and the idea was to run as many circuits as possible round a 5.36 mile loop in an eight-hour period.

Whitton(29) won by covering a staggering 43 miles in the alloted time.

Never having run further than the 26.2 miles of a marathon, Whitton could have been forgiven for feeling a little apprehensive pre-race, but he started confidently and settled into a top 10 position in the early laps. Tiredness set in, and he was ready to call it a day after covering 26 miles of the physically draining, hilly and boggy course.

However, when his girlfriend pointed out to him that he was in third position, he battled onto achieve a memorable win.

IN THE MOUNTAINS

Nene Valley’s Tracy McCartney became more famous in North Wales than in her home village of Stilton after winning the televised Snowdonia Marathon last year.

McCartney headed for the mountains again for the Coed Y Brenin Trail Half -Marathon at the weekend. Despite being beaten into fourth place by more experienced fell runners, she can still be pleased with her overall position of 30th out of over 500 runners, beating most of the men in the field.

HUNTINGDON 10k

Bushfield Jogger Phil Martin finished fourth in the Huntington 10k on Sunday in a time of 36:43.

Peterborough AC’s Steve Hall finished six seconds later, one place further back.

NOTTS 10

Bushfield’s Mike Daniels ran a time of 67:43, to finish 94th in the Notts 10 at Holme Pierrepont on Friday evening. Former headmaster Eric Winstone (64) was the third over 60 in 75:54.