by George Philips
Welcome to November and Halloween Week, the nights are drawing in but that doesn’t stop the Striders from heading out. Plenty of ghouls and ghosts could be found in and around this week
parkrun
A cancelled Ashford parkrun can be a Striders Nightmare but it just meant another week of tourism for the Ashford Striders with 46 members taking on the various 5km routes.
Matthew Beasley was the solo Strider at Bedgeboooory Pinetum, a hilly but picturesque course, it’s definitely worth making the trip to. Matt finished in a time of 28.06
Rachel Tomsett Found herself up in Leicestershire with Braun(grave)stone the parkrun of choice, she completed the course with a time of 31.40.
Jack(o’lantern) Farrant headed up north finishing in 20th position at Darlington Spook Park with a time on 20.46.
Slightly closer to home was Andrew, Vicky and Clare who opted for Dover Waterfront (Dover is scary enough as it is) finishing in 31.39, 31.40 and 36.12.
Croakestone (Folkestone, not my best…) could have been mistaken as an Ashford Striders take over with 13 Striders heading down the M20. Simon Pharoah was the first Strider home in a time of 18.09, which also saw him finish in 5th place. Next were Kevan Strand in 21.48, Dan Green 22.43, Linda Jean Delport 24.03, Michael Ruck 24.22, David Helme 29.10, Sharon Gardner 29.11 (a new PB and breaking 30 minutes!) Russ Berliner 29.23, David Martins 30.03, Maria Chapman 31.37, Ned Goulding 32.42, Sarah Martins 32.45 and Kat Silvester 35.25.
Martin Wittingham was completing his Staying Alive parkrun challenge, which requires you to attend 3 Bs and 3 Gs. Martin heading to Gunpowder parkrun and finished in 46.19.
Kingdom parkrun gained a couple of extra witches this week, Nic Crawley and Justine Wearn took on the 3 lap course finishing in 38.55 and 39.00. 🧹🧹🧙♀️
Maidstone Shiver Park had Paul Diddams, Pauline Tallet and Amanda Watson. Another Strider favourite saw times of 42.56, 42.58 and 43.54.
Marion Fitzpatrick headed to Newry Greenway in 31.20
Nonsuch saw another large group of Spooky Striders, Lionel Hammond was first across the line in 27.01, shortly followed by Justin Burden 27.35, Lee Standen 31.17, Katarzyna Janas 33.58, Donna Hammond 35.33, Nige Terry 35.50, Richard Randle 35.52, Dee Millen 36.11, Steve Rumsey 39.26, Helen Rumsey 39.38 and Laura Clark 60.29.
Walmer and Deal Screamfront had Adam Booth finishing in 7th place with a time of 19.41.
Finally another group of Striders headed to Kent’s newest parkrun at White(as a ghost)cliffe Lake. This was actually the very first parkrun to take place on this new course, Josh Stephens finished in 23.35, Hazel Turner in 25.39, Jamie Penfold in 26.19, Tamsin Richie 28.41, Lee Gribbin 28.49, Lisa Gribbin 30.22 and Aimee Donohue 33.07.
Sunday Races
Movember Run
Saturday morning saw Elle Weekes taking on the Morunner Movember Half Marathon in Herne Bay. Taking on pacing duties for a friend Elle earnt her tash coming in at 2.26.53 to break the 2.30 target.
Deal (Haunted) Castle 5 mile race
3 Striders took on the Deal Castle 5 mile race hosted by Deal Tri Club. Well worth checking out there other races as they are well organised and really reasonably priced too! The bad weather cleared ready for the start and it ended up being lovely!
Adrian Green ran and supported a friend on today’s run finishing in 52.32
Isobel Phillips was completing her first race in over a year and her longest run since Grace was born she finished in a time of 52.13, we ran together and I was very proud of my wife today! A big thank you to Jayne, Amanda and Becky who made the journey over to Deal just to support which really helped for the final mile! They earnt a well deserved coffee after!
Gravesend Duathlon
Final result of the week came in the form of a duathlon, New Strider Peter Pickering ran 5k, cycled 20k and ran another 3k in terrible conditions at Gravesend Cyclopark. Despite the terrible conditions Peter found himself standing on the podium at the end of the race in 3rd place getting him a well earned trophy.
