6 of the team made the 47 mile trip across the county border to tackle the undulating country lanes in the Canterbury 10 miler on Sunday.

My entry was heavily influenced by my desire to return to the Veg Box Cafe in the heart of the city, one of my favourite vegan eateries. More on that later.

The majority of the team made the sensible decision and stopped off overnight, but not Jacqueline and I. We set the alarm for 5:25am and as normally happens in that scenario I woke up and glanced at the clock at 01:00, 02:30, 03:45, 04:40, 04:50, 04:57 and 05:00, finally giving up on sleep and clambering out of bed.

The 75 minute drive, in the dark, albeit on quiet roads added to my weariness and we arrived at Canterbury College more in need of sleep than a challenging 10 mile race.

The event was brilliantly organised. Parking, number collection, the bag drop, all negotiated with little bother. They had a team of masseuses on hand, post race, along with some exercise bikes to shake out the legs.

I got excited when I spotted last years winner and You Tuber “Cole Running” filming himself on his warm up. My thumbs up salute going completely unnoticed leaving me a tad embarrassed. I did manage to congratulate him post race as he seemingly sprinted past us on his cool down, glancing back briefly with a puzzled look on his face as if to say “who the hell are you?”.

With the Goodwood Marathon my main focus in 3 weeks time, I’d done little training at this distance or pace, but knew I was running well enough to threaten my PB.

The pace I needed was 4:30 per km, for 16kms. With a tough climb at the 5km mark I knew I needed to bank some time early in the race and managed to do just that. All that went to waste with a 5:10km up the hill, but I’d conserved my energy and soon found the speed in my legs.

I found myself running alongside some strong female runners (purely coincidental) but was well aware that a poorly timed official photo could lead to a post race interrogation, so I pushed on ahead.

I was surprised how comfortable I felt running around 4:20 per km (7:00 min per mile) on the flat and as the race unfolded I knew I was in great shape.

I wasn’t a massive fan of the route. There was some variation with the odd track, country lanes and a few main roads. We passed through the village of Bridge just before the toughest climb, but at no point did I see the Cathedral spire. I did manage to tap one Power Up sign, but given their location at the foot of the incline it seemed to have the opposite effect.

I was able to record a PB of 1:11:07, knocking a whole minute off my previous best. My current plan has stalled at times with injury and illness but what I learnt was, that if you keep plugging away and be consistent, then you never quite know what’s around the corner.

I loved almost every minute of that race and was overwhelmed with joy to record another personal best, my first for around 5 months. It makes all those tough training sessions, especially during the cold wet winter months, worth the effort.

Matt Draper who like myself is training for a marathon, albeit a far more exciting event and a much quicker time, produced a 10 mile PB of his own. He completed the course in a mind boggling 58:58, despite having ran two 18 mile long runs in the previous 8 days!

Matt has the ability to make running look easy and if you get the chance to watch him run, take a look at his technique and how simple he makes it look. We could all learn a lot from Matt.

Jan Young who has only recently re-joined the team, completed the course in 1:31:10. A similar time to her previous attempt, but on a rerouted, hillier course and also on the back of some tough training weeks.

Jacqueline Scott who 3 weeks ago had never even ran 10 miles before, produced a superb time of 1:40:45, well under her 1:45 target. Jax has made great progress in the last 6-8 weeks and is now hopeful of completing her first ever half marathon in a few weeks time.

The inspiring Sarah Marzaioli ran a fantastic race with some very impressive negative splits. Pacing herself in the early part of the race, her speed gradually increased, over taking a large number of runners in the 2nd half, to come home in 1:43:03.

It’s a great example of how to plan a race and get the pacing right. These events are far more enjoyable if we get to finish strongly, rather than blow up near the end.

Caz Hall managed to achieve her goal of coming under 2 hours for the 10 miles, recording her own PB in the process. The race clock said 2:00:26 but the course itself was a little long. Caz is another of the team training for a spring marathon with London her destination.

After the race we slowly trudged into the City and myself, Jacqueline, Sarah, Jan and her group from Wimbledon all enjoyed a splendid lunch at the Veg Box Cafe. Head to my new facebook group for a review.

On Saturday Susannah Gates was in Wimbledon competing in the VAC Cross Country running an excellent time of 40 minutes at 22 seconds.

Over the past few weeks Matt Button and Ben Brett have both completed their first training plans with Team Orange and I’m delighted to say both are back on board as they look to achieve new goals and keep improving their running.

The Paddock Wood Half Marathon is another Kent Grand Prix race and I’m keen to get a group of us heading up the A21, 3 weeks prior to Hastings Half. It would also be nice to stop for some lunch on the way home to do some team bonding.

If you’re unsure if it fits in with your training schedule then just drop me a message.

The biggest lesson I learnt from this weekend is even if you feel like your training is fragmented and you’re not making progress, stick with it. Keep that consistency and you might just surprise yourself in an upcoming race. The sense of achievement and elation from running a Personal Best is well worth that effort.