IT WAS a bumper weekend for Spa Striders with 61 runners racing Leamington’s inaugural half marathon and six taking on the Holkham Outlaw half Ironman in Norfolk.
Despite the increasing temperatures and hilly route, there were some fantastic results.
Chris McKeown (1:19:48) led the Strider contingent home coming in at 11th place overall, and going sub-80 minutes at this distance for the first time.
He was closely followed by Ian Allen in 1:20:40 and Neil Smith in 1:20:47.
Behind them were Adam Notley, Chris Liddle, Paul Edwards, Simon Ludford, Pete Soley, Pete Teevan, Juan Martin, Rob Egan, Dexter Teale, Graham Donoghue, Ben Parkinson, Robert Thompson, Richard Sharman, Cam Gow, Daniel Fleming, Sean Warren, Andrew Roach, Andrew Pope, Matt Leydon, Mark Whitehouse, Paul Quinney, Thomas Price, Mark Hone, Ian Davis, Kevin Baskerville, Iain McArthur, Matthew Palmer, Ash Hogg, David McNamara, Lloyd Harriman, Pete Schofield, David Lithgow and Gary Perkins.
Laura Peake (1:35:36) comfortably stormed home to be first Strider lady and fifth lady overall.
Claire Hinton (1:37:38) and Carolyn Wilkinson (1:41:51) followed her in.
The remaining ladies battling the heat and loving the ‘Cubbington carnival’ of hoses, music and jelly babies were Bethan Gwynn, Kate Gadsby, Katherine Lambeth, Vicki Smith, Fiona Edwards, Anita Lenneis, Ruth Tennant, Catherine Friggens, Ruth Rinze, Clare Bryan, Claire Westrope, Sandra Stokes, Florencia Brea, Mairi Subhag Walker, Roz Cox, Ves Hill, Natalie Dellar, Lauren Hayes, Kathleen McCann, Hannah Smith, Lisa Edgerton and Kathryn Houlistan.
Despite challenging conditions in Norfolk, six Striders took on the Holkham Outlaw half Ironman.
Andrew Bonjour, fresh from qualifying to represent Team GB at the ETU European Sprint Triathlon Championships in August, finished in 5:07:18.
Rosie Banks (5:37:34) and Anne Hurrell (5:59:52) raced the distance for the first time, both finishing fifth in their age categories.
Amanda Wiggins (6:06:43), Doug Rattray (6:12:34) and Lucy Tugwell (6:40:05), also in her first race at this distance, completed the line-up.
Finally there was also Strider success in cycling, with Tim Beresford getting a podium finish at the Bristol Bikefest MTB race, finishing 3rd in the male masters pairs.
