Saturday saw the third Strider Park Run Takeover of the year and this one was just as spectacular as the previous two as the Red Army converged on Victoria Park in Ashford armed with flags, cameras, lots of cakes and most importantly, Pacers, Marshals, Supporters and Runners. 250 people turned up in total and 43 of them achieved a PB and I’d like to think that our pacers played a huge part in helping them achieve them.
Onto the run itself then and Adam Booth and Keith Haynes (pacer)were first through the funnel in 19:49, outstanding pacing Keith! Adrian Green was doing his first ever Park run and paced at 22 mins. Anyone following him would have been well happy (or dead) as he crossed the line in 20:26. Jack Farrant paced at 24 mins and finished in 23:47 (Follow me for more tips on pacing Jack) and Terry Sellen finished in 24:45. Daniel Schwartz got 24:57 with Adam Thomas close behind in 25:12. Dan Green pacing at 26 finished in 25:49 and Stephen Cleaver achieved 26:07. Claire Green paced for 27 and got her followers through on 26:41 closely followed by Chloe Darling on 26:48. The 28 minute pacer was Darren Laker and he got round in 28:12. Mark Niles and Andy Found (29 pacer) got round in 28:52 (Better pacing than Jack Farrant!) with Sonette Shwartz and Mandy Cooper (30 Pacer) making up the sub 30s with 29:39 and 29:53 respectively.
Leigh Freeman recorded 30:34 and Jayne Hatton 31:11 and they were followed by the ever improving Michelle Brice who notched up yet another PB with 31:55…great effort Michelle! Jason Brice pacing at 32 minutes got round in 31:58 and I think he was the King pacer of the day just two seconds off his target time! Another PB was achieved by Melissa Dawkins with 33:02, Well done Melissa! And she was followed in by Chris Kelly (34 pacer) in 34:56. Kevin York got a time of 36:03 and Sharni Copham, celebrating her 100th Park Run, came through in 36:10. Vicky Shrubsole (36 pacer) and Heather Fraser were the next two Striders with respective times of 36:32 and 39:11. Rachel Oliver, pacing for 40 mins, got round in 39:15 and Tail-walkers Joanna Whitehead and Dani Moss completed in 59:39.
Of course a huge thanks to the other Strider Volunteers who helped make the day such a huge success. I’ve already mentioned the pacers so others were Tammy Brooks, Jason Caldwell, Rita Cooke, Sara Dewar, Paul Dunning, Holly Forrest, Brian Forrester, Hazel Forrester, Julie Foster, Lisa Fulcher, Sharon Gardner, Peter Heckel, David Helme, Katie Exon, Amanda James, Rebecca James, Nadine Golding, Sarah Martins, Andrew Maund, Clare Maxlow, Simon Pharoah, Rachel Phillips, Tamsin Ritchie, Ashley Robinson, Chris Sardo, Lucie Shrubsole, Kevin Strand, Kirsty Theobold, Rachel Tomsett, Graham Troman, Dave Warner, Ian Watson, Jennifer Watts, Paul Baker and Dave Winchester.
Despite the huge Strider numbers at Ashford we still had representation elsewhere and most of them were at Woolwich for the Thames Path event. Dermot Carr completed that in 24:56 followed by Peter Broom (30:44), Martin Whittingham (32:38), Siobhan Hagan (40:40), Lisa Gribbin (40:19), Lee Standen (40:20) and Michelle Bryant (40:21).
Paul Baker was at Canterbury and completed in 29:22 whilst Catherine Wall was at Dunfermline and managed 30:54. Lydia Huntley completed University Parks in 25:40 and Justin Burden, Nicola Crawley and Sally Davidson-Daniel were all at Dover and recorded respective times of 22:13, 28:52 and 32:09. Laura Clark also ran at Dover and achieved a PB of 39:12.
Sunday saw a huge number of Striders racing at various locations. Jason Kennedy completed the 20 mile Nuclear Race Oblivion Max in 7:05:41 and Simon Richter achieved 48:00 at the Dartford Bridge 10K.
At the tough, windy Four Castles Half Marathon Jamie Bartlett finished in 2:10:43, Kate Stroud 2:18:26 and Sharni Copham 2:52:02
And finally we had the Vitality 10000 (10K) in London and Jack Farrant led the way there with a PB run of 47:28 and he was followed in by Josh Stephens with another PB run of 55:32. Kay Hunt and Adam Thomas came in neck and neck with 57:02 followed by Siobhan Hagan with 57:27. Lucie Shrubsole was another to achieve a PB with 1:00:12 and yet another PB went to George Cromwell with 1:00:19. Michelle Bryant recorded a 1:02:35 finish with Lisa Fulcher not far behind in 1:04:17. Sharon Gardner completed in 1:05:51 and Vicky Shrubsole in 1:06:45. Michelle Brice finished in 1:07:18 and Julie Foster completed the Strider Lineup in London with a time of 1:25:06. Last but not least Dermot Carr and Angie Craffey both completed the Virtual Vitality 10000 with times of 1:06:04 and 1:20:00
Well done everyone on an excellent weekend of running, Marshalling and supporting. I hope you all have a great week.
Report by Andy Found.
