Another scorching weekend saw Ashford Striders out and about doing crazy things in crazy temperatures.
To kick off this report, you may recall that on the 1st July, Justin Burden completed the first of the Rye Summer series in a time of 48:23 the 2nd of the races was on Friday evening and in blistering conditions he managed a fantastic time of 50:52. Super well done Justin.
Ashford Parkrun
Our hometown parkrun was well attended this week, with a large number of Striders running the new course. Some crazy people even tagged the 3.1 HOT miles onto their long slow runs, Madness!
Keith Haynes made it across the line first in 22:54, followed by Justin Burden 23:11, Terry Sellen 26:14, Adam Thomas 28:17, Jamie Bartlett 29:09 and Amanda James 29:59 all coming in under the 30 minute mark. Steve Rumsey was next with a time of 30:38, David Gadsby 31:28, Rachel Theobald 31:33, Kevin York 31:34, Jason Wearn 31:44, Nicola Crawley 31:51, Michelle Bryant 31:53, Leigh Freeman 31:56, Catherine Wall 32:02, Siobhan Hagan 32:23, Don Dewar 32:28, Vicky Stevenson 33:45, Rita Cooke 34:08, Rachel Oliver 35:12, Justine Wearn 37:25 an injured Sara Dewar came hobbling over the line in 39:14.
As always thanks to our Strider parkrun volunteers Jason Caldwell and Lisa Fulcher, please remember to do your bit and volunteer when you can.
Parkrun Tourism
Kate Stroud took the short trip to sunny Folkestone and completed the course in 29:08, whilst Martin Whittingham also decided a trip to the seaside was in order and ran Hastings in 31:09. Peter Broom completed a pretty, 100% trail parkrun at Rushmore Country Park near Leighton Buzzard in 35:43, even managing to, as a tourist, ‘bang the gong’ !!
Mark Niles parkrun of choice was at Prospect Park in Reading and completed it 22:38. Rachel Tomsett was in the Peak District this week and ran Bakewell parkrun along the Monsal Trail. This trail was once a railway line, an out and back flat route she completed in 39:20. Well done to all of you tourists out and about this week.
Superhero Striders (KAB)
Leigh Freeman & Sara Dewer travelled down to sunny Margate to complete the Kent Association for the Blind Superhero Run. Leigh took on the 10k course and in blistering conditions came across the finishing line in an impressive 1:11:31. Leigh didn’t just run this for the kudos and the bling, she also raised, at time of print, a whopping £500 for KAB in the process. Absolutely fantastic Leigh, well done.
Following on from Sara’s parkrun whilst injured exploits, she threw on her Superhero cape once again and ran as a guide runner with her friend Rick Newman to complete the 5k option of the race in 45:54. Fantastic.
I’m sure you will agree our two Strider members were true superheroes. Well done girls marvellous.
As far as I’m aware there wasn’t any Striders that actually ran the Mount Ephraim 10k this year, however a number of kind hearted Strider souls gave up their time and marshalled for this race. Thank you and well done to Amanda & Rebecca James, David Helme, Jason Caldwell, Lucie & Vicky Shrubsole Sharon Gardner and Tamsin Ritchie.
Jolly well done to everyone that got out and about this week. The weather has certainly been challenging to run in. Not wanting to wish our British Summer away, but I for one am looking forward to running in cooler conditions next week. Have a good one everybody.
Report by Justine Wearn.
