By Sharon Gardner
Race Report W/E 04/05/2025
Good evening everyone, I hope that you’re all enjoying a lovely bank holiday weekend!
Welcome to a new year of being a Striders Member and congratulations to you all for being part of the greatest running club in red 😁 and, as we saw at Victoria Park on Saturday, what a club we are – the photos speak for themselves! We even managed to get a group photo of most of our Spring Marathoners!
Saturday saw us hosting and supporting Parkrun as we do a few times each year. Obviously, it is our reputation for outstanding bakes that has meant it has always been a well attended ‘takeover’, and we were so close to beating the Parkrun record of 450 but fell short by just two!
This week’s Parkrun was a special one for a number of reasons! Firstly, our Introduction to Running group graduation! After a 10 week course, beautifully put together and managed by Julie Foster, with help from one of last year’s graduates, the lovely Cara Linin, our new members graduated by completing the 5k in Victoria Park, receiving graduation certificates and celebrating with well earned cake and Kudos! Well done everyone!
We also had a special guest in attendance, Andy Baines-Vosperber, who was there along with his 24.7kg sand bag that he carries on his shoulders to represent a bag of worries. Andy is a longstanding Samaritans volunteer and the 24.7kg weight is to represent the Samaritans being available 24/7. His ‘Share the Weight’ campaign is, in his own words, ‘a man on a mission to ask a million people to share the weight on his shoulders’, while also normalising asking for help and sharing our worries. Andy wants to spread awareness that we all carry our own invisible burdens, and that it really does help to share them, to reach out for help and talk to someone. Andy has been to many a parkrun and amazingly completed the London Marathon last week, all while carrying the weight on his shoulders, thankfully there are people that are willing to share the weight along the way!
Being the hosts for Ashford Parkrun, we as a club covered all bases; marshalls, pacers, timekeepers, cake monitors and photographers and of course, runners in the field!
Jack Farrant, training hard for a sub 20 minute parkrun, just missed out on his target but was first strider across the line, and 10th overall, with a very respectable personal best time of 20:03. Next was Frank Remigio pacing 20 minutes and coming in with a time of 20:04, and then Adam Booth was third Strider, pacing 22 minutes and coming in with a time of 21:46
They were followed by
Josh Stephens, with a 23:33 PB, Keith Haynes, pacing 24 minutes, came in on 23:54, Jason Wearn 23:56, Elle Weekes 24:46, Konrad Gryniewicz, pacing 26 minutes, came in on 25:29. Mark Niles was next with 25:31, Michael Ruck 25:49, Scott Hawkins, was pacing 28 minutes and came in at 27:58, Daniel Schwartz 28:14, Chloe Darling 28:30, Andy Found 28:49, Amanda James 29:00. Darren Laker, pacing 30 minutes, came in at 29:23, then Jamie Bartlett 29:48. Kat Silvester gained a lovely new personal best with 30:40 and was followed by Catherine Wall with 31:00. Next was Andrew Cornwell 31:37, Michelle Brice 31:52, and then star pacer, Victoria Shrubsole came in at 32:00 on the nose! Next through the funnel was Lisa Gribbin 32:31, Rachel Tomsett 33:10, and Sharon Gardner, pacing 34 minutes, came in at 33:33, Delia Millen was just behind with 33:48, and then hot on her heels was Lin West 33:51. Marion Fitzpatrick came in at 35:12, Jamie Weller 35:35, Vicky Stevenson, pacing 36 minutes, came in at 36:05, Kate Bushell finished in 36:15, Lionel Hammond, doing a lot of sharing the weight, came in at 37:19, Sharon Mcinnes was pacing 38 minutes and came in at 39:07, Helen Rumsey 39:07, and then Nige Terry 39:19. Jason Brice, the last of our pacers, pacing 40 minutes, came in at 40:16, followed by Heather Fraser 40:31, Rita Cooke 40:35, Danielle Mackenzie 40:46, and Rick Newman 41:51. Doing a fine job of tailwalking were Gayle Bailey 59:12, Justine Wearn 59:18, and Nicola Crawley 59:19.
Parkrun Tourism
Angela Craffey completed the Aberbeeg parkrun in 31:04.
Justin Burden, Lee Standen and Laura Clark were in Catford and completed the course in 26:46, 28:37, and 43:48 respectively.
David Helme completed the Dover Waterfront parkrun in 27:32.
Isabelle Froissart was at the Squerryes Winery parkrun and completed it in 31:39.
Eloise Pegg was back on home ground and completed the Whitley Bay parkrun in 26:16(PB).
Last but definitely not least was Martin Whittingham. On a mission to complete his Parkrun ‘Alphabeteer’ challenge, he rounded it off by completing the York parkrun in 42:39.
As we covered the volunteering at Parkrun as a club, under the expert guidance of Edwin, I’ll just say a generalised thank you to everyone in attendance. Volunteers are the crucial element to keep races going so that runners can run them. If you can offer your time to volunteer, it really is massively rewarding and appreciated by all! Thank you!
With a distinct lack of running races this week, I am going to give a mention to four of our members who took to two wheels and cycled for the 15th Anniversary of the Pilgrim’s Hospices Cycle Challenge. There were various distances available with Andrew Cornwell and Vicky Shrubsole taking part in the 50 mile distance, and Richard Randle and Julie Nicholson taking on the 30 mile version – very well done to you all!
Have a great week everyone! ❤️
