By Jayne Hatton
After what has been a beautiful weekend weather wise we’ve seen yet another great round of results from Striders here and over the pond in Paris!
To start with Parkrun a total of 45 Striders attended a Parkrun on 12/04/25, 37 at Ashford and 8 on tour.
Ashford Parkrun
Simon Pharoah was first strider across the line with a time of 18:08, followed by Adam Booth with a time of 21:38, and Dan Green third strider, with a time of 22:21
They were followed by
Terry (fred) Sellen 23:58, First lady Strider was Linda-jean Delport 25:11 followed by Mark Niles 25:44, next up was Chloe Stott in 26:05, Daniel Schwartz 26:17, Carole Thomas 26:28, Josh Stephens 26:45, then Scott Hawkins in 27:07, and hot on his heels was Elle Weekes in 27:08, Michael Ruck 27:19, David Helme 28:54, David Gadsby 28:57, Jason Brice 29:21, Rachel Phillips 29:27, Joe Fowler 29:33, Eloise Pegg 29:43, Harry Lockhart 29:44, Vicky Stevenson 29:45, Catherine Wall 30:50, Tamsin Ritchie 30:58, Peter Broom 31:31, Jayne Hatton 31:40, Don Dewar 31:46, Amanda Watson 31:59, Rebecca James 32:00, James Gray 33:10, Penny Grigg 35:50, Lin West 37:23, Maria Chapman 37:34, Clare Nunn 39:57, Helen Rumsey 40:04, Martin Whittingham 41:42, completing tail walking duties was Paul Diddams on his 100th Parkrun in 53:24 and Pauline Tallett 53:25.
Parkrun Tourism
Harry Scott completed the Dover Waterfront parkrun in 21:42. The week after a marathon that is some achievement!
Lisa Gribbin completed the Levengrove parkrun in 28:14.
Lionel Hammond went solo against his and Donna’s pact and completed the Leybourne Lakes parkrun in 26:37, he was joined by Nicola Crawley and Justine Wearn who tailwalked in 56:30 and 56:31.
Jamie Penfold completed the Squerryes Winery parkrun in 28:00.
Justin Burden completed the Sunny Hill parkrun in 30:09 with Laura Clark coming across the line in 44:26.
Well done park runners and thank you once again to the volunteers – events can’t go ahead without support of the community.
Now Sunday and over the channel to Paris we had a trio of Striders completing the Paris Marathon! As soon as Andrew and Richard figured out the directions to the start line they were ready and raring to go Union Jack shorts and all! Richard Randle stormed across the line in and awesome 4:41:52 sprinting straight to his train home! Following after Richard were Vicky Shrubsole and Andrew Cornwell who crossed the line together in 5:51:34, gaining an awesome PB for both! Bravo l’équipe
Back in Kent and we head over to Canterbury with Micheal Davies at the Canterbury Riverside 10km. Micheal crossed the line in 45:52. Gaining a course PB and an age category award, well done Micheal.
Finally we had the Kent Spring Marathon and Half Marathon. This undulating course is a test for even your seasoned runners so the results I’ve seen today are truly spectacular! I feel privileged to have seen you all run today and I must say you were all looking very strong as you passed us by! First Strider over the line for the Half Marathon was Simon Pharoah in 1:24:01 earning himself a course PB! Next up with a half marathon PB was Steve Rumsey with a brilliant time of 1:53:00, chasing Steve down were Dave Winchester and Chloe Winham, Dave fresh from the Brighton Marathon in a time of 1:54:20 and Chloe with a fantastic PB and first lady strider in 1:54:23! Next up and running together were Harry Lockhart and Eloise Pegg with Harry stepping over that line a fraction quicker with 2:12:26 to Eloise’s 2:12:27! Final tandem pair were Megan Clare and Mat Norman completing their very first half marathon, and what a one to choose, in an awesome Personal Best time of 2:22:20! Well done to everyone on their half marathons today.
Final mention goes to Henrike Grund, not only was she the lone Strider to complete the Kent Spring Marathon with a Personal Best but she managed to knock a huge 15 minutes off of her course PB! Well done Henrike!
Fantastic performances everyone. I’m proud to be an Ashford Strider this weekend. ❤️
Keep putting one foot in front of the other and getting it done.
