The FEELING HOT, HOT, HOT edition, remember sitting in your front room with your trainers laced up staring pitifully out of the window into the dark, dismal night; watching the rain pound the pavements, listening to the wind howl, feeling the temperatures plummet to minus whatever, freezing your bits off and thinking do I really need to run tonight?
All but a distant memory! Now us hardcore runners are faced with soaring temperatures never seen before in the UK, sweating from every orifice and then some, (don’t even get me started on the chaffing, now that pain is VERY real.)
However, this weekend, once again in true Ashford Striders fashion, you fought adversity and got on with the job in hand with Ashford parkrun still out of action, many Striders took to the roads far and wide to satisfy their parkrun needs.
Parkrun Tourism.
Canterbury
Kevan Strand took on Canterbury parkrun at the University of Kent, and with a few challenging ups and downs along the Pilgrims Way, he managed an impressive time of 22:38.
Horsham
Danielle Moss got up nice and early to travel to Horsham to complete her weekly parkrun and on a three lap course along with 400 other runners Danielle managed her fastest 5k time this year in 41:30. Fantastic!
Middlesbrough Flatts Lane
Tamsin Ritchie managed to run Flatts by name but not by nature Lane, undulating, yet shaded parkrun, recording a time of 28:43. Well done Tamsin.
Lullingstone
At this time of year, Lullingstone is definitely worth a visit, and whilst Lisa Fulcher will confirm after her visit yesterday, the wonderful views of the lavender fields certainly outweigh the fact that this is a somewhat mountainous course ! Lisa however managed a time of 40:59, so very well done to her.
Next Saturday is The official Strider tourism to Lullingstone. This is the time of year to visit this one if you haven’t done so already. The views are outstanding,
Cyclopark
A few of the usual suspects made the trip to Gravesend to complete the x2 out and back tarmac course. Justin Burden gave another impressive performance and came across the line in 23:26, Hazel Turner 2 minutes later 25:36, Michelle Bryant 31:23, closely followed by Lisa Gribbin in 31:48 and Siobhan Hagan 32:09. Well done everyone.
The Leas
Peter Broom travelled to Minster On Sea on the Isle Of Sheppy to take in some of the sea air, and crossed the line in 31:32. Well done Mr Broom.
Mote Park
Nicola Crawley travelled to Maidstone to run this relatively new parkrun. She arrived nice and early so kindly helped set up the course giving her a parkrun credit, well done to her, even more of a well done to Nicola for smashing her course time on the undulating course with a time of 26:45.
Les Golding Herne Bay 10k
As temperatures rose on Sunday, only a mad person would travel to Herne Bay to run. That is exactly what our vice chair/kit gal, Nicola Crawley did! Not only did she run, she ran in a blistering time of 54:39 ! Well done.
The next couple of days (Monday and Tuesday), just in case you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard, is going to be hotter than a very hot place.
My advice DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RUN, find somewhere cool in your house, resist the urge until these mad couple of days pass.
Well done everyone this week and have a great week of running.
Report by Justine Wearn.
