<b>SPA STRIDERS
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A LONG summer of training for Spa Strider pair Clare Hinton and Andrew Graham has paid off after the dup picked up excellent results at the Chester Marathon on Sunday.
The well-supported course took runners past all of Chester’s iconic landmarks, with stretches along the countryside.
Graham took ten minutes off his previous personal best time to finish in a time of 2:57.53 which earned him 59th fastest male and fourth position in his age category.
While Hinton also recorded a personal best time of 3:21.41 which was two minutes faster than her previous time as she crossed the finish line as the 21st fastest lady and sixth in her age category.
There were plenty of other postive results for Leamington-based Spa Striders over the weekend.
Andy Roach and Tom Holbrook both raced well in Cardiff where they completed the World Championship course in 1:32.52 (PB) and 1:45.51 respectively.
Striders also raced both 10km and half-marathon distances at the BHF event at Blenheim, where Tom Summerell recorded a PB of 1:48.47 and Kimberley Fryer also ran a PB time of 2:06.08 in the Bournemouth half-marathon.
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KENILWORTH RUNNERS
</b>A TOTAL of 14 Kenilworth Runners took part in the inaugural Heart of England Forest Marathon on Saturday, which was a unique event that started and finished at Henley in Arden School.
The event takes place over footpaths between Henley and Alcester and a tree is planted in the Heart of England Forest for each finisher.
Just one week after running in the Berlin Marathon, Louise Andrews and Neil Sheward took on the marathon distance again and finished joint third in 4 hours and 28 minutes.
Sally Hicks and Rebecca Smith took it a bit more sedately and finished together in 5 hours and 12 minutes.
11 others took part in the alternative 17-mile event where Laura Pettifer produced an excellent run to finish in first position in a time of 2 hours and 46 minutes.
Elsewhere, Matthew Kingstone-Lee clocked his first ever sub two hours and 45 minutes at the Chester Marathon to secure the recently turned veteran 40 runner a place at the 2016 National Marathon Championships in London.
After a trademark steady start, Matthew moved into a faster tempo and at around the 18-mile mark he pass fellow Kenilworth runner Stuart Hopkins.
The undulations however took their toll in the final 10km and Matthew found himself battling the onset of a severe cramp in his right calf.
Fearful that he could find himself grinding to a halt at any point, his pace slowed a little in the final couple of miles but he managed to cross the finish line in 2:43.41 to finish 18th in a field of 2,287.
