Category: Reports

15 Mar 2015 – Stathern Duathlon

As a bit of a change to the normal running events six Striders and two potential new recruits made up part of a 142 strong field for this year’s Stathern Duathlon.  A well organised event made up of a 5K run, 18K bike and final 5K run that includes the infamous Mill Hill climb right at the beginning of the bike leg.
First Strider home was Simon Bottrill in 1:21:37 closely followed by Mike Bryan in 1:21:58 then Andy Nicholls  in 1:30:43, John Houghton in 1:33:22, Tony Allen on his debut race in a Striders shirt in 1:35:00, James Bryan  in 1:35:37 and Gary Christmas in 1:37:31 competing along with his son Daniel who beat him in time of 1:30:09.  [Simon]

 

15 Mar 2015 – Loughborough Half Marathon

Seven Striders made the short trip to Loughborough for the annual half marathon.  On a fairly cold March morning, Natalie Teece was the first Strider home on the undulating course, as well as second female and first FV35, in a time of 1.28.39 (45th). 

Natalie was followed exactly 10 minutes later by Luke Eggleston 1.38.39 (145th) and a few minutes later by Michael Cooke 1.43.26 (193rd), Michelle Farlow crossed the line in 1.49.05 (283rd), with Sarah Lawrence 2.09.28 (569th), Sue Pettingill 2.16.38 (624th) and Stuart Gregory 2.19.00 (646th) completing the completing the Strider contingent.  [Stuart]

15 Mar 2015 – Silverstone Half Marathon

It was a cold breezy morning at the Silverstone race circuit as 4 Striders took on the iconic race track and each came away having put in a fantastic effort to register 3 overall PBs and one Course PB between them. All 4 finished well within the top 800 as they joined 9950 fellow runners. Shane Sharkey was the last one home in a course PB time of 1.38.02 – proving that training is indeed overrated if nothing else. Matt Gayton had set himself a 5 minute window as his target and finished almost exactly in the middle of it in a PB time of 1.32.29. 

At the business end of the event, Jim Hatherley and Jason Barton went head to head for the first time since last October’s Leicester Half Marathon – a contest that Jim got the better of by just 8 seconds. It was a slightly different tale this time around as Jay proved to be the victor, finishing an impressive 12th place overall in a time of 1.17.35. There was absolutely no shame in Jim’s performance as he also recorded a personal best time of 1.18.56 – securing 25th place overall.  [Shane]

8 Mar 2015 – Kibworth 6 (LRRL winter league)

With rumours of how tough “that hill” is circling amongst a number of Striders making their debut, 16 Stilton Striders made the journey down to this year’s Kibworth 6.  The third race in this year’s LRRL winter league, again over 500 runners were in attendance in good running conditions.

Headline mention must go to Alex Riley, who finished as 2nd Strider in just under 38 minutes (a faulty chip leaving the exact time yet to be confirmed) in his debut race.  Mark Stoneley also put in a tremendous performance to secure a top 100 finish in his first LRRL race, coming in 99th in 40.28.

Jason Barton and Natalie Teece both continued their great early season form, finishing 15th in 35.25 and 4th lady in 39.51, respectively.  Darren Glover (38.27), Greg Pettingill (40.13, 3rd in his category), Matt Gayton (41.15), Simon Bottrill (41.21) and Rich Gray (41.50) completed the men’s counters.  Abi Arnott (47.06) and Vicki Lowe (47.35, 9th in her category) put in good performances for the ladies team.

Luke Eggleston (43.56), Shane Sharkey (43.45), Dan Valencia (45.11), John Houghton (46.41) and Stuart Gregory (63.21) completed the team, with many Striders putting in course bests and leaving everyone positive that there is more to come as the year goes on.

7 Mar 2015 – No Walk in the Park race 3

A very achy Stuart Gregory made his way to Chesterfield for the 3rd race in the 5km series.  Stuart was accompanied by a field of 80 runners and after a very steady start in the first 1.5km, Stuart briefly managed to increase his pace before dropping back just after the half way point to finish in a rather disappointing but not unexpected time of 28m 09s in 62nd place.  [Stuart]

28 Feb 2015 – Belvoir Challenge

The 25th annual Belvoir Challenge and something like 13 Stilton Striders running the 15.9 and 26.2 mile course in the worst conditions underfoot than many a year.  This for the group I’m with is a precursor to the Snowdonia Trail Marathon later in the year, y`know stick together and all that, which happened for like ooh 100 yards or so.

Ok, when Simon Bottrill says `I`m going to take it easy and see what happens` never believe him, I’ve found to my cost on a few races now he`s deadly competitive, great race today though for Simon home in 4:07 on his first Marathon absolutely great going!

Very nice course this year, superb support all the way round (thanks to Helen Bentley and Mike Bryan), comedy highlight for me was Mr Bentley getting a shoe change at Denton.For me it was a great and enjoyable day out, best Marathon I’ve ever run in view of performance (rather than time) as was told still looked fresh when I came in, ran the lot also! Every hill and mud bog conquered! Very good day to be a Strider.  [Rob]

Results:

15.9 mile – Natalie Teece (12th overall) 2.01, Darren Glover (2.11), Jenni Wisher (2.27), Luke Eggleston (2.36), Matt Taylor (2.37), Andy Nicholls, (2.53), Michelle Farlow (3.02)

26.2 mile – Simon Bottrill (4.09), Rob Beers (4.26), Andrew Bentley (4.33), John Houghton (4.49), Rich Gray (5.07), Gary Christmas (5.57)

15 Feb 2015 – Stamford Valentine 30k

Lovely sunny Sunday made race conditions perfect for the Stamford Valentine 30k.  This was a training run for Vicki Lowe and Natalie Teece on their way to the London Marathon in the Spring.  Great support around the course from Stamford (and Stilton!) Striders Celina and Nick.

Natalie finished as 7th lady in 2.10.18 and Vicki 7th in age category 2.35.24.  [Vicki]