A DOZEN Spa Striders headed over to Silverstone for the first race in the East Midlands Grand Prix Series last week.
Silverstone is a very popular race with all clubs in the area and on this evening attracted a field of over 1,100 runners with the standard of runners very high. The 10k course is all run on the race track and has the potential to be a fast race.
On this evening, conditions were warm and blustery so not ideal but four of the Spa Strider contingent still managed to run a personal best time for the distance.
The ladies were led home by Carolyn Wilkinson who finished 14th lady and 4th FV40 in 40:54. Carolyn and Clare Hinton ran most of the race together with only the final sprint to the line to separate the pair.
Clare had an excellent run, finishing in a personal best time of 40:55, 15th lady and 4th FV35. Next was Dawn Clark in 42:47, 26th lady and 7th FV35. She was followed by Kate Evans who finished in 47:30 (81st lady and 7th VF45.
Gail Bates finished in 58:50 (897th overall). The ladies senior team finished 3rd overall (out of 25 teams).
There were strong performances from the male Spa Striders too, with Victor Garanto finishing 29th in a time of 35:58. He was followed by Will Johnson in 37:17 (49th).The next three Striders all ran personal best times, Andy Graham 38:31 (81st), Rob Thompson 39:11 (95th) and Ben Parkinson in 39:58 (118th).
James Civil finished in 46:07 (364th) and Kevin Pantling in 56:54 (846th).
CONDITIONS were back to being a bit muddy with the recent rain, but that did not deter the 300-plus runners who took part in Leamington parkrun and Striders were well represented.
Tim Down ran a personal best time of 19:11 to finish 6th overall. David Phasey also ran a PB of 20:16 (15th). David Maule was 39th in 21:21. First Strider lady was Clare Hinton (4th lady) in 21:42.
Other Strider results: Jonathan Pool (100th) 24:00; Doug Rattray (114th) 24:45; Gary Perkins (202nd) 28:19; David Evans (319th) 35:37.
THREE Spa Striders were further afield on Saturday as they took part in the Mallorca 70.3 Triathlon – a Half Ironman triathlon event which consists of a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride around the island mountains and a 13.1-mile run along the coast.
Richard Shephard had a fantastic performance, winning his 35-39 age group category in a time of 04:18:59. Jonathan Young finished in a time of 5:19:12, closely followed by club-mate Rich Sykes in 5:22:53.
THE STRATFORD 220 Triathlon is set around the historic town of Stratford and Sunday’s event consisted of a 400m swim, 23km cycle and 5km run.
Spa Strider Victor Garanto performed well over the three events to finish in 4th place in a time of 1:08:40. Jeremy Shapley was 86th in 1:21:02.
WET and windy conditions did not deter nine Striders who competed at the Bosworth Half Marathon on Sunday as they tested themselves on the undulating course as the club makes final preparations for the annual Hilly 100 Relay competition.
This race, the Leicestershire & Rutland AA Championship, is a regular feature in the Striders Summer Race Series and the club came away with first place in the men’s team competition due to fine performances by Will Johnson who was 9th in 1:22.41, Kevin White 17th in 1:25.07, Andy Graham 21st in 1:25.42 and Tim Stooks 41st in 1:29.14, who also set a half marathon PB.
Trevor Wilkinson ran the race as a training run, coming 66th in 1:33:24.
There were good performances from the Spa Strider ladies too – Helen Wilkinson (1:40.44), Dawn Clark (1:44.34), Caroline Whitehouse (1:47.47) and Becca Stooks (2.15.36) completed the Strider contingent.
