PAUL EDWARDS was the first Spa Strider home in a 29-strong contingent in the Sphinx five-mile race in Coventry’s War Memorial Park.
It was the latest event in the Warwickshire Road Race League and Edwards clocked 29 minutes 41 seconds, one second ahead of Adam Notley (29:42). Ste Taylor (29:59), Chris McKeown (30:37), Pete Soley (30:57) and Dan Stannard (32:01) completed the scoring team.
There were also strong performances in warm conditions from Andy Bonjour (32:24), Jamie Phillips (32:24), Chris Wilson (33:07), Rob Mantell (33:50), Hartwig Busch (34:14) and Paul Quinney (37:43).
Mel Venables (32:33) led the women home, also taking second place honours, followed by Laura Peake (34:52), Kate Gadsby (35:08), and Anne Hurrell (35:53) to make up the quartet to score for the WRRL team. Bethan Gwynn (35:57), Clare Hinton (36:02), Sue Cox (36:46), Helene Wright (38:35, PB) Catherine Friggens (38:36), Jude Baum (38:54), Rebecca Lonergan (41:05), Amanda Wiggins (41:48), Lorraine Parsons (41:53), Sandra Stokes (41:55), Julie Heaton (43:03) and Kathleen McCann (47:58) completed the female contingent.
Dawn Clark and Dave Lindsay took on another midweek event in the East Midlands Grand Prix series in Harborough, Dave finishing the five-miler in 35:16 and Dawn in 37:47.
In scorching heat on Sunday, Striders took on the Arden Nine-mile Road Race, another WRRL event.
Again, Paul Edwards (55:32) led the men home, followed by Ste Taylor (56:19), Chris McKeown (56:58), Adam Notley (58:00), Jamie Phillips (1:01:27), Rob Mantell (1:02:20), Simon Parsons (1:03:57), Nick Varey (1:07:07), Trevor Wilkinson (1:07:35), Pete Teevan (1:08:18), Hartwig Busch (1:09:27), James Civil (1:13:05), Mike Cox (1:17:09), James Robbins (1:24:33), Gary Perkins (1:33:23).
Mel Venables (1:01:21) led the women home for the second time this week and was third lady. Sue Cox (1:12:58), Catherine Friggens (1:13:56) and Rosie Banks (1:14:47) made up the WRRL scoring team. Claudine Piper (1:16:75), Roz Cox (1:17:12), Sandra Stokes (1:18:29) and Kathleen McCann (1:38:01) performed impressively.
In off-road racing, Charlotte Everard was first woman at the Inov-8 Maverick Trail Race in the Cotswolds, finishing the tough course around Sudeley Castle in 2:09:38. Rich Sykes finished in 2:21:32.
Chris Jones completed the Wales Trail Half Marathon in 2:46:47. Bethan Gwynn (1:54:08) was third woman at the Hampshire Hoppit Trail Half Marathon and Lucy Tugwell took on the Arrow Valley Park 12km multi-terrain race in Redditch, completing the course in 1:00:58.
In Striders’ triathlon section, Lorraine Parsons and Doug Rattray took on the Olympic-distance Dambuster Triathlon at Rutland Water. Lorraine finished in 2:58:35 and Doug in 3:12:59. Claire Westrope and Simon Parsons competed in a relay team with Claire taking on the 1,500m swim and Simon the 10k run.
Andy Bonjour and Steven Hession completed the Staffordshire Half Ironman, Andy making a fantastic debut at the distance to cross the line in 5:19:25 and Steve in 5:31:16. Gethyn Friswell completed the Windsor Olympic-distance Triathlon in 2:55:07.
