by Ashley Robinson
This week was mental health awareness week and what better way to raise awareness than a week of running, socialising and being a part of Ashford Striders!!
Tuesday saw Ashford Striders take part in the East Kent Summer Relays with the first race being held in Folkestone.
Results for the
Senior Male Team A – Simon Pharoah, Frank Remigio, Keith Haynes and Steve Greatorex finished with a time of 51.44.
Senior Male Team B – Konrad Gryniewicz, Matthew Gilbert, Adam Thomas and Matt Dewitt finished in 1hr 00.56
Male V50 Team A – Andy Found, Richard Randle, Kevin North completed in 49.41.
Senior Female Team A – Jayne Hatton, Megan Clare and Elle Weekes completed in 52.55.
Female V45 Team A – Emma Konstantinou, Vicky Shrubsole and Vicky Stevenson completed in 53.29.
A fantastic effort by all those that signed up and took on the course and best of luck for the remaining upcoming races!
Now onto the weekends action.
54 Striders attended a Parkrun on Saturday with 38 at Ashford, and 16 on tour.
We shall start with Ashford and the first strider across the line was Keith Haynes with a time of 20:07, shortly followed Jack Farrant (Although I haven’t seen the Tiktok video yet….) with a time of 21:02, and Harry Scott third strider home with a PB time of 21:10. Hot on the heels of Harry was Kevan Strand 21:29 and Konrad Gryniewicz 21:42, who also scooped a PB!
Terry Sellen 23:04 pipped Dan Green 23:07 to the finish line with Harry Lockhart 23:26, Stephen Rumsey 24:22, Linda-jean Delport 24:40, Michael Ruck 25:11 (PB), Josh Stephens 25:12 and Scott Hawkins 25:16 following in behind.
Also crossing the finish line in under 30 minutes were David Helme 28:34, Vicky Stevenson 28:44, Pav Jagoda-Souch 28.45 (PB) Amanda James 28:49. Finally Catherine Wall who was attempting to hit a sub 30 went out and smashed it with a time of 29.25! Fantastic Effort!!
There was another cluster of Striders crossing the line with Don Dewar 30:14, Eloise Pegg 30:18, Rebecca James 30:19, Jayne Hatton 30:20 all getting within the 30mins range.
Great running also by Richard Randle 32:22, Jamie Weller 34:29, Lin West 36:24, Rachel York 37:18, Kevin York 37:19, Clare Nunn 37:42, Sara Dewar 37:55, Helen Rumsey 38:07, Victoria Corby 38:53, Rita Cooke 39:07, Timothy Corby 41:17, Julie Foster 42:06, Leigh Freeman 45:21, Mark Niles 47:15, Rachel Tomsett 1:01:35, Nicola Crawley 1:01:37.
As always, this spectacular parkrun can not be held without the volunteers and again the Striders were helping out in force. Special thanks go to Jason Caldwell, Maria Chapman, Andrew Cornwell, Nicola Crawley, Lisa Fulcher, Vicky Shrubsole, Daphne Stafford and Amanda Watson!!
Parkrun Tourism
Now onto the crazy fools who probably get up earlier on a Saturday than they do for work to get their tourism fix!
Starting with where it all began at Bushy Park. 3 Striders attended the incredible historic, busy parkrun for their own milestone! Lionel and Donna Hammond both completed their 25th Parkrun with times of 26.35 and 31.28. Joining “The Hammonds” was Dee Millen who completed her 100th Parkrun with all the 3’s (33.33) Great achievements to all three of you!
Just down the road from Bushy Park was Jamie Penfold (23.51) (YouTube video to follow I am sure 😊) and Elle Weekes (34.05) while also out chatting away and giving away free socks!!
Down in Orpington was Justin Burden (27.24), Lee Gribbin (28.31), Lisa Gribbin (34.35) and Laura Clark (45.30) as they completed the great named Hoblingwell parkrun.
Flying solo this week at Mote Park was Justine Wearn with a time of 32:49.
The Martin’s completed the Sittingbourne parkrun with Sarah completing in PB time of 28:02, and David finishing in 29:35.
There were two more solo striders this week with Mollie Hoban travelling to the Leas parkrun in Minster and crossed the line in 44:23 and Isabelle Froissart completed the East Grinstead Parkrun in 30.47
Finally, down on the seafront was Simon Pharoah who completed the Dover Waterfront parkrun in a cool 17:46 and Danielle Moss who crossed in 48:15.
A great showing of Striders across the Parkrun scene! Well done to every single one of you!
All that running and that was just Saturday 😊
So, what happened Sunday, I hear you ask, well let’s get into it……………
Harry Scott, hot off the back of a parkrun PB signed up for the Sevenoaks Duathlon. This consisted of 5km run, 25km cycle and if that wasn’t enough another 3.5km run for good measure. All this and in a time of 1hr 52.38! Fair play Mr Scott!
Emma Konstantinou and Dave Winchester travelled to Rye for the 10-mile race and crossed the line in close proximity with times of 1hr 32.39 and 1hr 31.20 respectively. I have seen the elevation chart on that race so that is great running!!!
Jamie Bartlett was also in Rye tackling the 5mile option and completed in a brisk 45.49 picking up course and seasonal PB!
Back in Hackney again, George Cromwell and Chloe Stott took on the half marathon and both finished with PB’s with blistering times of 2hrs 04.35 and 2hrs 02.10. Fantastic efforts!
The final runner of the weekend was Lisa Gribbin who was the sweeper at the Chislehurst Half Marathon crossing the line in 3hrs 00.10.
With summer fast approaching there is plenty of runs / races coming up so check out the Spond page to keep up to date!
