Marathon man Paul strides into history

Pride of place goes to Paul Dagg who became the fastest Strider since 1995 when he completed the Leicester Marathon in 3 hours 2 mins 4 secs, placing him sixth on the Striders all-time marathon rankings since July 1983.

Dagg held on for a magnificent 16th place, ensuring he gained an automatic place in the London 2014 Marathon for breaking the 3 hours 10 mins qualifying standard.

Simon Hall, club captain, took a team of four juniors to the Cleethorpes AC’s Bea

h Terrain Cross Country Races. The course was run on a mixture of soft and hard sand, grass and steep sand dunes, making this a really tough but enjoyable experience.

Eight-year-old Sam Metheringham, competing in his very first race, finished in 8 mins 35 secs for an excellent 18th place in the U11 Boys 1700m race.

Three more juniors also made their debuts for the Striders in the U13 Boys Race (2800m) with Max Metheringham (9 mins 42 secs) and Tommy Wild (9 mins 44 secs) finishing in seventh and eighth, only 30 seconds behind the race winner.

Finley Leggott finished third for the team in 11 mins which gave him 20th place

The U13s team finished in fourth place, on the same number of points as the third-placed team and only lost out on count-back.

The club would like to express their sincere thanks to Simon Hall, Jerry McCulla and Mark Hemmings who have been training the junior section.

The weekend’s racing was brought to a magnificent conclusion with the evergreen 66-year-old Paschal Moran finishing in an excellent 16th in the Spires to Steeples Multi-terrain Challenge Race.

Moran completed the 26.75 miles course, which started at Lincoln Cathedral and finished at St Deny’s Church in Sleaford, in a magnificent 3 hours 57 mins.

This Sunday the Striders will be out in force with more than 30 runners competing in the second Gainsborough 5km Road Race.

This race will also see many graduates of the highly successful Couch to 5km programme making their competitive debuts.

The race starts and finishes outside the Gainsborough Leisure Centre, 11am start.

Anyone interested in joining the Striders can find information on the club’s facebook page or www.gainsboroughrunningclub.co.uk