Swanley and District Athletics Club were out in force in Brighton at the weekend with many individuals raising funds for some truly worthwhile charities – Alzheimer’s Society, Cancer Research UK, Families Need Fathers, Motor Neurone Disease and NSPCC.

On what was the hottest day of the year so far, thirteen members of the club joined more than 12,000 runners to take on Brighton’s eighth annual marathon while Jane Goddard, Damian Luckman and Tim Goldsack joined thousands more to complete the Brighton 10k.

Cheered on by huge crowds, including Swanley supporters who had travelled down that morning, first home for the club was Malcolm Parsons with a finish time of 3 hours 19 minutes followed by the rest of the team Mel Alflatt, Christina Bienek Arnold, Stacey Crocker, Justin Deery, Kerry Dexter, Andy Dunmall, Sam, Goulter, Sarah Luckman, Deborah Routledge, Julie Taylor, Mathew Woolston and Kay Zhang.

Swanley’s Justin Deery, who is running both Brighton and London marathons to raise funds for Families Need Fathers, decided to approach the course in Brighton in a different way this year. He ran the first 20 miles forwards and then turned around and ran the remaining 6.2 miles backwards!

Further afield Swanley’s Renate Blacker had a fantastic run finishing the Paris marathon in under 4 hours.

Swanley and Distrct Athletics Club is an established running club with a reputation for being both friendly and competitive.  Our members are of all ages and ability.

Some of us run to keep fit, some to train for races and some just for the fun of it.  If you are new to running or a hardened veteran, there will always be someone to run with.

We are always happy to see new faces so come along and join us!

For further information about the club, and details of the Darent Valley 10K on Sunday 7th May, check out our website: www.swanleyanddistrictac.org