It’s certainly summer now with typically British warm and sticky weather over weekend, ending with a bit of cooling rain. Unusually, this week’s report starts with a Wednesday evening race. Pauline Tallett was on the Cornish coast and took on the Bude Lifeboat 10k, finishing in 1:03:13. Well done Pauline!
Onto Saturday and plenty of Striders were sweating it out around Ashford parkrun, not surprisingly there were no personal bests this week! Keith Haynes was first Strider and 10th overall with 20:25, Jason Kennedy, 25:34, Dave Winchester, 25:36, Darren Laker, 26:52, Graham Troman, 26:55 and first lady Strider Vicky Stevenson with 28:02. Pauline Tallett, back from her trip to Cornwall, finished in 28:18, Don Dewar, 29:23, David Gadsby, 29:31, Amanda James, 30:25, Sharon Gardner, 31:11, Peter Broom, 31:38, Jennifer Watts, 33:37, Victoria Shrubsole who was running her 50th parkrun and finished in 33:49, Lisa Fulcher, 33:51, Lucie Shrubsole, 33:51, Rachel Theobald, 34:05, Kevin York, 34:06, Delia Millen, 34:35, Ash Robinson, 37:06, Sharni Copham, 38:10, Hazel Forrester, 41:58, Nadine Golding, 56:19 and Nicola Crawley, 56:20. Bringing up the rear were this week’s volunteer tail walkers Terry Sellen and Rick Newman.
The other Strider volunteers at Ashford were Andrew Maund, Jason Caldwell, Jason Sanders and Kevan Strand, thank you all for volunteering!
Mark Niles headed to Mote Park parkrun in Maidstone this week and finished in 24:27. Further away but still in Kent, Jason and Justine Wearn went to Squerries Winery parkrun for a challenging trail run, finishing in 32:44 and 32:47 respectively.
A small tourist group went to Mile End parkrun in London, they were: Justin Burden, 23:45, Dermot Carr, 26:49, Siobhan Hagan, 27:44 and Lee Standen, 32:07. Further away still were Daniel and Sonette Schwartz who visited the countryside near Oxford at Abingdon parkrun, finishing in 26:51 and 31:09 respectively. Finally, all the way up in Aberdeen parkrun was Catherine Wall who ran the seafront course in her best overall parkrun time of 30:08.
There were some seriously impressive challenges completed by Ashford Striders members on Saturday, made even more challenging by the hot and humid conditions. Firstly a crazy bunch took on the Dirty Rotten Scramble 10k trail obstacle course at Hole Park. They took on challenges such as wading through water, swims and climbs, working as a team to get round. The results are: Paul Baker 1:56:56, Tamsin Ritchie 1:56:59, David Helme 2:25:00, Adam Thomas 2:25:17, Jack Farrant 2:25:18, Kay Hunt 2:25:19, Richard Coles and Tammy Brooks both with 2:25:20 and Chloe Darling (time TBC). Well done all of you!
Amanda Cooper was in Dorset and completed the Giant’s Head Marathon. This is a tough, hilly trail race with good views of the Cerne Abbas Giant hill figure. Her time was 7:17:23, very well done Mandy!
Lorna Cheshire ran the Clifftop Challenge along the South Kent coast, completing the 15 mile distance in 2:44:32 – well done!
Two of our awesome ultrarunners took on Race to the King, a challenging trail race over the South Downs from Goodwood. Lisa Gribbin and Rachel Misson ran the 50km run together and finished in 8:39:00, fabulous running ladies!
Lastly, the sole Strider racing on Sunday this week was Adrian Green, who ran the Sackett 10k by the coast in Thanet. He did extremely well, winning the V60 Male category in 43:18. Awesome run Adrian!
Congratulations to every who managed a run/bike ride etc this weekend!
Report by Lisa Fulcher.
