This weekend’s running endeavours started at midnight Saturday morning when Ruth Goddard and Rachel Misson lined up at the start of Escape from Meriden. This is an event that starts from a village at the centre of England and the challenge is to choose your own route to get as far as you can on foot within 24 hours. Ruth and Rachel planned to reach at least 30 miles as the crow flies to claim a silver medal and they achieved this, completing 37.5 miles. A fantastic achievement – self navigating a route mostly in the cold and dark, very well done ladies!
Later that same morning saw club members lining up at the start lines of parkrun across Kent and further afield. Our local Ashford parkrun was well attended as usual and once again Keith Haynes was the speediest Strider finishing in 20:16. Close behind was Kevan Strand who ran a new PB of 20:28, then Jason Caldwell 21:21, Terry Sellen 24:27, Adam Thomas 25:16, Richard Randle 26:00 and Jamie Bartlett 26:53, Vicky Stevenson was the first female Strider to finish this week, completing her 200th parkrun in 27:02. Andy Found was next with his bandaged wrist in 27:53, then Dermot Carr with a new PB of 28:11. Amanda Cooper ran 28:15, followed by Jason Sanders 28:26, David Gadsby 28:29, Justine Wearn 29:44, Jason Wearn 29:47, Jo Mason 30:05, Sharni Copham 30:57, Peter Broom 31:38, Martin Whittingham 31:40, Jennifer Watts 32:55, Sue Abbott 33:24, Clare Maxlow 34:36 and Rachel Tomsett with a fast walk of 48:23.
Julie Nicholson, Lee Standen, Lisa Fulcher, Sharon Gardner, Simon Jackson and Terry Sellen were the Strider volunteers that helped make this week’s Ashford parkrun happen.
Justin Burden just needed to run Dartford Heath parkrun to complete all of the Kent parkruns, so he visited this trail event with a small group of Striders and finished in 25:02. Accompanying him were Hazel Turner 25:52 and Michelle Bryant 31:04.
Several other Striders attended a range of Kent parkruns. Sally Davidson-Daniel finished Royal Tunbridge Wells parkrun in Dunorlan Park in 39:25. Tamsin Ritchie ran the clifftop course of Margate parkrun in 34:20. At Folkestone parkrun, Dave Warner crossed the line in 30:04. Mark Niles made his second visit to Malling parkrun and beat his previous time in 21:31.
On the other side of the Thames, Siobhan Hagan visited a very muddy Hackney Marshes parkrun, finishing in 27:26. Furthest travelled this week goes to Nicola Crawley, who was in Germany on a very cold morning and ran Obersee parkrun in 25:41. Nicola was the first lady to finish – out of a total field of just 10 runners! Well done Nicola!
Also taking place on Saturday was the Sussex Downs Half Marathon. A hilly and muddy race through lovely Sussex countryside, it was attended by two Striders. Becky Somerford and Cristina Adams ran the race together and finished in 3:12:56 and 3:12:59 respectively, which was a PB for Cristina. Well done, both of you!
Finally to the only race attended by Striders on Sunday this week, Ashford Tri Club’s 666 Trail Run. The race is named for a 6.66 mile route through King’s Wood in Challock, however in the world of trail running, posted distances tend to be rather approximate and it was actually nearer 7 miles. This was a challenging, muddy race, taking in many of the steepest slopes in the woodland, two of which could only be scaled with the help of a rope! Striders finishers were Tamsin Ritchie 1:12:02, Richard Coles 1:18:39, Jason Sanders 21:03, Lisa Fulcher 1:35:10 and Amanda Cooper 1:35:27. Well done everyone!
Some great running as always Striders, especially with all the rain we’ve had recently making anywhere off road into a mud bath! Keep up the good work.
Report by Lisa Fulcher
