Striders stretch their legs to nine new personal bests

The race is a popular one with runners as competitors know that oncce they have overcome the five miles of gradual ascents, they have the luxury of a downhill stretch for roughly the same distance before a short climb to the finish line.

The event was certainly to the liking of the Strider contingent, 14 in total, with nine of them chalking up personal best (PB) times, amounting to 25 minutes of improvement. Craig Williamson’s 81:07 and Miia Wren’s 82:20 knocked 8:14 and 7:42 off their respective times from last year while Chris Inman improved by 4:13 by coming home in 79:13.

Wayne Greenfield was the first Strider to finish as he overtook Mat Huteson on the final climb; his time of 62:58 gave him 40th place, a 13 second PB. Huteson was six places and 37 seconds adrift of him.

Craig Ward and Hannah Holmes, a debutant at this distance, were the other sub 80 minute runners, with times of 71:36 and 76:08.

Other PB times were notched up by Glenn Peniston [80:23], Hanna Bennett [82:57], Mick Wood [83:20] and Shaun Boyle [84:30]. The Strider times were completed by Christopher Litherland [80:44], Angela Boyle [81:29] and Vikki Hearn, on a day off from her marathon training schedule, with 91:23.

At the English Institute of Sport Indoor Stadium in Sheffield, Lucy Allan, one of the club’s many exciting young prospects, chalked up a fine second place in the 1000m for U13s Girls at the South Yorkshire Athletics’ Association Indoor Open Series.

On the parkrun front, Ronnie McWilliam continued his astonishing record at Gainsborough by being the first finisher for the 13th time in 13 runs. The other results were dominated by the Humphries family, with Jasper finishing fourth in 23;46, and his brother and mother, Joe and Emma six places further back with identical times of 26:48.

Scott Farley was the third junior to run the muddy course, and he was more than satisfied with his PB time of 29:15. Clare Hardwick and Jonathan Chapman were the other Striders taking part and they both comfortably beat the half hour mark.

On the parkrun tourist front, Cliff Middleton chalked up 23:53 at Cornwall and Anthony Myles ran 31:02 at Sherwood Pines.

The next training session for the Juniors will be at the Trent Valley Academy at 5.30pm next Tuesday. Seniors need to be at Queen Elizabeth High School at 6.30pm on Thursday evening whilst the Tuesday session will start at DW Sport in Marshall’s Yard at 7.15pm.

New runners, beginners and experienced, will be welcome to join the senior sessions. Hi-visibility clothing needs to be worn.