MK Distance Project celebrates successful first year

The inaugural run for the club, whose motto is ’the athlete comes first’, took place on September 2017 with only a few runners. One year later, and with membership of the club increasing by the week, participation and results in the Willen Park Run were particularly noticeable.

For the main MK Willen Park Run which took place on the 29th September, the first four runners to complete the race were from MKDP. James Dowsett was 1st with a time of exactly 16 minutes , Matt Chronicle came 2nd with a time of 16.04 minutes, Mintu Sidhu was 3rd with 17.53 minutes, closely followed by Marcus Lovell with a time of 18.05. James, Matt and Marcus all achieved PBs. Amy Milne was the 3rd lady home with a time of 22.09 minutes.

Sunday September 30 saw the junior members of MKDP take their turn to celebrate the club’s 1st anniversary. They also brought home the top positions with Nic Hammett coming in 1st with a time of 7.07 minutes, Sophie Jacobs 2nd with a time of 7.16 minutes, Jack Ratcliffe was 4th with a time of 7.50 minutes and Harley Mackenzie came 7th with a time of 8.05 minutes.

Not only was it great exercise for all concerned with some impressive results, but it was a very social affair for everyone too.

Last Saturday was also a busy day for MKDP runners at both the Cardiff Cross Challenge, the race that kick starts the British Athletics Cross Challenge Series, and in Oxford for the first Chiltern League Cross Country Championship race of the season.

MKDP runners at the Cardiff Cross Challenge were James Dowsett in the men’s U17 race, finishing 12th with a time of 18.32 minutes, Ben West in the men’s U20 race who finished in 20.46 minutes (6th place) and in the same race was Matt Chronicle who finished with a time of 22.38 minutes.

A selection of results from the Chiltern League Cross Country race in Oxford were: Sophie Jacobs, 9th in the Under 13 girl’s race with a time of 11.20 minutes, Nicolas Hammett, 13th in the Under 13 boy’s race with a time of 10.30 minutes, Mintu Sidhu, 14th in the Under 17 men’s race (19.23 minutes), Dani Chatterton came 3rd (20.18 minutes) and Claudia Kelsall achieved 6th place (21.35 minutes) in the Senior Women’s race, while George Wheeler came 8th in the Senior Men’s race with a time of 30.11 minutes.

If you are a runner and would like to know more about MKDP then please go to www.mkdistanceproject.co.uk