Stilton Strider and Belvoir Triathlon Club representative Wayne Hackett made his first outing of the year at the Dambuster Duathlon, Rutland Water. The event comprising of a 10km run, 26mile bike and a final 5km run in very strong winds. He finished the event in a total combined time of 2hs 36mins. [Wayne]
Category: 2015 reports
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]
1 Mar 2015 – Derby Runner XC, Whitwick
Four hundred runners lined up for the sixth, and final, race of the series at Holly Hayes wood. Although flat(ish), the 5.4 mile woodland track was narrow,muddy and rocky with four stream crossings to focus your concentration. Greg Pettingill was the only Strider present, coming in 78th in 38’02” and 4th MV50. [Greg]
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)
22 Feb 2015 – Sleaford Half Marathon
Three Stilton Striders were among the 578 runners battling a cold and windy Sleaford Half Marathon, parts of which would be better described as cross-country!
First Strider home was Greg Pettingill, 58th in 1.30.41; followed by Sarah Lawrence, 409th in 2.01.28 and Sue Pettingill, 510th in 2.14.06. [Greg]
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]
11 Feb 2015 – Leicester City 5k winter race 4
For the fourth and final race in the Leicester City 5k Winter series we finally had some good running conditions. The air was still but not muggy, no rain, snow or ice and it was cool without being cold (awful conditions seem to have gone hand in hand with this race, the same way that sunny too-hot conditions are associated with LRRL races)! Three Striders made up part of the 71-strong field having completed every race in the series.
Jason Barton was involved in a three-way sprint for the line and finished in third place – only two seconds behind the winner(!) in a time of 17.29. Shane Sharkey was next back in 17th place (21.12) after what felt like a strong sprint finish to see off an unattached runner, however this was nothing compared to the scrap that Ben Pickard had as he finished 20th in the field. Having spent the entire race on Conrad Webbe’s (West End) shoulder Ben made his move as he approached the 3 mile mark. Edging ahead he saw the end in site but Conrad was not done yet. What resulted was a 6 min/mile sprint which saw both runners crossing the line in (21.27).
Both runners finishing ahead of Jay in tonight’s race were from Beaumont Running Club meaning that we did not get the accolade of first team back (their third place runner finished in 19.44) and there was no series team prize (although with two firsts and two seconds I fancy our chances of it), however, Jay was crowned male series winner having had three podium finishes across the series where 3 from 4 count. [Shane]
8 Feb 2015 – Markfield 10k LRRL winter league race 2
Fourteen Striders competed in the second winter league race, which was run in almost perfect conditions. With racing experience and the intervening “technical sessions” most Striders ran at a faster pace then at the Barrow 6. Will this trend continue at Kibworth?
First Strider home was Jason Barton in 23rd overall, 36:18; followed by Jim Hatherley 30th, 36:47; Darren Glover 83rd, 39:07; Natalie Teece 124th (7th female) 40:47; Greg Pettingill 128th (4th in category) 40:56; Matt Gayton 164th, 42:11 (pb); Shane Sharkey 188th, 42:52; Luke Eggleston 219th, 44:01; Ben Pickard 258th, 45:17; Neil Jaggard 292nd, 46:16; John Houghton 316th, 47:06; Vicki Lowe 334th (7th in category) 47:57; Louise Houghton 406th, 50:37 and Stuart Gregory 571st,61:56. [Greg]
7 Feb 2015 – Rab Mini Mountain Marathon
Andrew Easom Bentley & Mike Bryan took to the snowy hills of the Peak District to take part in the Rab mini mountain marathon. We had a map, compass and 4 hours to get to as many randomly placed check points as possible. Each check point was allocated a number of points between 10 & 40 depending upon how far away they were or how difficult to navigate to. The winner of the day managed 440 points in 3h 57, we were delighted to come in 58th out of nearly 200 runners with 286 points after a 4 point penalty for arriving 4 minutes over the allotted 4hour time limit (not bad at all) . To sum up a fantastic day had by all. [Mike]