Author: Jason Caldwell

We have had it all this week…. Wind, rain, storms and at times even some sunshine but no matter the weather the Striders assemble to pound the streets, parks and hills!!

Let’s start with the highlight of everyone’s weekend, Ashford Parkrun! The icy conditions have finally subsided and allowed Ashford Parkrun to celebrate its 500th event. It was celebrated in style with record 450 runners turning up to run the two laps of Victoria Park.

Now to the timings…….

Simon Pharoah started his weekend with a podium position finishing in 18.19. Jamie Penfold is continuing his comeback with a fantastic PB of 22.31 knocking off a whopping 18 seconds of his previous best. He must have felt Jason Caldwell chasing him down as he finished in 22.51. Dan Green 23.57, Harry Scott 24.35, Mark Niles 25.07, Ian McCutcheon 25.14, Tamsin Ritchie 27.27, Joe Fowler 27.35, Terry Sellen 27.47, Stephen Cleaver 27.59, David Gadsby 29.19 and Stephen Rumsey 29.41 all completed under that magical 30 min mark.

David Helme crossed the finish line in 30.32 closely followed by the mighty five of Chloe Darling 30.35, David Martins 30.45, Vicky Stevenson 30.47, Andy “Coach” Found 30.48 and Kevan Strand 30.55 with Catherine Wall 31.15, and Rachel Tomsett 31.21 not far behind.

Scott Hawkins stuck out his torso to ensure he crossed the line ahead of Rebecca James with times of 32.00 and 32.01. Completing the 32-minute runners were Peter Broom 32.26, Dave Warner 32.38 and David Holland 32.51. Great going!!

Carole Thomas 33.14, Angela Craffey 33.26 were the two runners hitting the 33-minute mark.

Sharon Gardner 34.36, Sarah Martins 34.46, Jennifer Watts 36.07, Dee Millen 36.19, Richard Randle 36.20, Julie Foster 40.27, Ross McInnes, 40.30, Sharon McInnes 40.44, Pauline Tallett 47.36, Sara Dewar 48.35, Don Dewar 48.36, Pam Hunt 54.42 and Sharni Weller 55.32 completed the Striders contingent. Impressive Job!

These events cannot go ahead without all the volunteers so let’s all take a minute to recognise and appreciate how awesome these guys and gals are!!

Striders Park run tourism was also in full flow with 4 events seeing the red shirts running their routes.

Starting with Lionel and Donna Hammond who ventured to Shorne Woods Parkrun and completed the run in 28.39 and 34.48 respectively.

Amanda Watson was the sole runner representing Striders at the busy Battersea Parkrun and got round in 31.04.

Finally, Ingrebourne Hill Parkrun saw Justin Burden 29.08, Justine Wearn 33.47, Nicola Crawley 33.48, Lee Standen 38.27 and Laura Clark 43.11.

Great to see so many Strider’s home and away!

Onto Race Day Sunday with Canterbury being the hottest destination as 19 Striders took part in a rather undulating Canterbury 10 mile road race.

Simon Pharoah was incredibly close to breaking the 1hr mark finishing in a time of 1.01.27. However, this was still a PB for a truly amazing time. Keep it up Simon and that hour mark will be broken in no time.

Keith Haynes picked up a season’s best with a blistering time of 1.08.55. Harry Scott 1.18.54 and Darren Laker 1.26.19 both picked up 10-mile PB’s. Bravo!!

Starting the 1hr 30 min finishers was Emma Konstantinou with a PB time of 1.31.29, Steve Cartwright continuing his fine form with a swift time of 1.35.26 and Gayle Bailey 1.36.10. Seems a sprint finish took place with Eloise Pegg (1.37.24 PB) just pipping Jayne Hatton (1.37.27 PB) to the finish line.

Jason Sanders picked up a season best with a time of 1.38.34 with Richard Randle 1.40.58, Andy Found 1.41.13, Nicola Crawley 1.41.28 and Ash Robinson 1.46.51 also putting in solid efforts.

Mat Norman narrowly missed out on a PB with a time of 1.49.31 pipping Maria Chapman seasons best with 1.49.34 and Megan Clare 1.49.40

Finally, Sharon Mcinnes and Cara Linin had days to remember as they both smashed their PB’s with times of 1.51.19 and 1.51.20 respectively.

Again, apologies for the lateness of the report, however if I have missed a PB shout or your times completely then just let me know and I will update.

Yet again Striders have smashed it out of the park once more and I hope like me, you are all looking forward to the week ahead.

Finally the sunshine seems to be staying put and we have certainly been making the most of it with plenty of weekend/mid-morning and bluebell runs on offer.

We will start with Park Run as usual but not at Ashford as we had two striders that travelled over to Amager Fælled park run in Denmark to celebrate Ascension Day on Thursday 9th May.

Nicola Crawley finished in 27:18 with Justine Wearn, chasing down or being chased by a half naked hunk, to finish in an aesthetically pleasing 31:31.

After a night of Northern Lights spotting for those of us who either got the memo or stay up late anyway a total of 44 Striders attended a Parkrun, 31 at Ashford, and 13 on tour.

Simon Pharoah was first strider across the line with a personal best time of 19:50, followed by Keith Haynes with a time of 20:18, and Mark Niles third strider, with a time of 21:25

They were followed by

Terry (fred) Sellen 24:35, George Phillips 25:09, Kevan Strand 25:20, Harry Scott 25:25, Alice Foulger was first lady strider home with an impressive time of 25:48, Josh Stephens 27:17, Jason Brice 28:41, David Gadsby 29:00, Daniel Forbes 29:04, Jo Mason 29:18, David Helme 29:32, Darren Laker 30:38, Andy Found 30:41, Catherine Wall 31:36, Michelle Brice 31:42, Tamsin Ritchie 32:06, Robert Harris 32:13, Mathew Norman 32:51, Delia Millen 33:17, Sarah Martins 34:07, Brian Forrester 36:26, Hazel Forrester 36:46, Sara Dewar 37:59, Leigh Freeman 38:00, Jennifer Watts 41:39, Lee Standen 41:41, Danielle Moss 43:01, Carole Thomas 44:15.

Thanks to all the Ashford Striders volunteers this week at Park Run. It can’t go ahead without the volunteers and Ashford Park Run is getting busier and they’re struggling to get the volunteer positions covered. If everyone did it once every few months we’d be fine.

Parkrun Tourism

Nicola Crawley and Justine Wearn, still in Denmark decided one Park Run wasn’t enough and so went on to complete the Amager Strandpark parkrun as well with Nicola finishing in 26:44 and Justine Wearn in 30:08.

Harry Lockhart completed the Bexley parkrun in 24:21.

Jamie Bartlett completed the Canterbury parkrun in 30:31.

Justin Burden completed the Colchester Castle parkrun in 24:28, Alongside Laura Clark who finished in 35:54 with Lisa Gribbin in 38:08.

Claire Green completed the Dover Waterfront parkrun in 24:26.

Amanda Cooper completed the Folkestone parkrun in 29:12.

George Cromwell completed the Maidstone River Park parkrun in 29:21.

Daniel and Sonette Schwartz completed the Poppintree parkrun in 27:03 and 30:34 respectively.

Jamie Penfold completed the Shorne Woods parkrun in 25:06.

This week started with a Bank Holiday Monday and so there was a race to attend. Richard Randle and Dee Millen headed over to Whitstable to complete the Furley Page Whitstable 10km. Both managed to knock it totally out of the park and grab themselves a PB with Richard finishing in 50:11 (Dee said no one mention the 11 seconds) Dee stormed across the line in 1:07:35 just before the rain clouds closed in.

On Saturday we had Elle Weekes competing in the Brighton Backyard Ultra. This is an event that see racers completing as many laps as they can but they are restricted to 1 hour per lap. Elle had the heat and hills to contend with on course but still managed a very impressive 5 laps totalling 21 miles!

Sunday saw a couple of events with Strider attendees.

First up was Rob Harris who made his way over to Maidstone for the Maidstone Riverside 10 Miler, Rob finished with a course PB of 1:38:44.

Rounding up this week’s events is Jason Kennedy who took part in Nuclear Fit which is a Hybrid event over 6km of distance including lots of different challenges. Jason completed this in 1:01:17.

As always please shout if I have missed anyone off or any details and I will, of course, amend it.

Keep everything crossed the sunshine stays, have a great week everyone.