This week members of Sandbach Striders Running Club competed in two different cake races, multiple parkruns, and a duathlon, amongst the many events that took place.
Thursday saw the final event in this year's Stone Master Spring Treble series, the Barlaston Ups and Downs. Five members of the club entered the tough five mile, two lap hilly course from Oulton cricket club. Big congratulations are due to Tony Taylor, who competed in all three of the series and finished 14th overall. Full results for the Barlaston Ups and Downs for the club were as follows:
| Runner | Time |
|---|---|
| Tony Taylor | 00:34:28 |
| Craig Edwards | 00:37:13 |
| James Halling | 00:44:04 |
| Andrew Ayres | 00:46:20 |
| Liz O'Keeffe | 00:52:43 |
On Saturday, 15 Striders completed the three lap Congleton parkrun at Astbury Mere. There were personal bests for Lisa Highfeld, Gillian Fallows, and Tim Wilson.
| Runner | Time | |
|---|---|---|
| Andy Thomas | 00:19:36 | |
| Martin Coleman | 00:19:44 | |
| Rick Kelso-Davies | 00:20:19 | |
| Lisa Highfield | 00:23:04 | Personal Best |
| Chris Holden | 00:23:58 | |
| David Sharp | 00:24:01 | |
| Gillian Fallows | 00:25:07 | Personal Best |
| Steven Fallows | 00:25:08 | |
| Tim Wilson | 00:25:12 | Personal Best |
| Catherine Winders | 00:25:28 | |
| Rachel Green | 00:26:31 | |
| Liz O'Keeffe | 00:28:26 | |
| John Wright | 00:30:42 | |
| Jill Jenkins | 00:31:30 | |
| Jennifer Timson | 00:34:27 |
Also showing support for the weekly free 5k run, three members helped out and volunteered their time.
Over at the parkrun in Delamere forest, Louise Banks was the sole representative from the club after several members dropped out at the last minute. She said that if a member can travel to Iceland to compete in their first marathon, going alone to Delamere on a Saturday morning, wasn’t much of an ask! She finished 2nd in her category in an impressive time of 25:58.
Julia Dunlop completed her regular Saturday jaunt in North Wales at the Conwy parkrun with a time of 31:28.
Completing his 36th different parkrun course (and 98th overall), Paul Barnett travelled all the way to Pembrokeshire to complete the three lap “stunning course on National Trust woodland”. His quest to get to 100 parkruns should be completed soon. Paul finished the Colby event in a time of 29:22, after coming back from some achilles problems.
Craig Edwards was in action on Sunday (see below), but decided to give his a legs a stretch out at the Hanley parkrun on Saturday morning. He finished in a time of 22:07.
The prize for this week’s furthest from home parkrun, goes to Jaynie Turner, who showed up at the Tamar Trails parkrun. This event is a single lap course taking in woodland around the Cornwall & West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site. She completed the course in 29:28.
Also on Saturday, Elaine Tatham fulfilled a long term goal of competing in the Coniston Fell Race. The race is part of the Fell Runners Association events, has over 1km of climb and covers a distance of 14km around Coniston. She completed the event in 2:16, which considering the recce took 5 hours, Elaine was extremely pleased with.
Over in Saddleworth, Tony Taylor entered the cake race. The Saddleworth runners Cake race entry fee is £5, or free if you bring your own cake (Tony entered last minute, so took the £5 option!). The race itself is 10 miles, and includes 1,700 feet of climb. It’s tough and goes over open moorland, industrial heritage sites and Pennine farmland. Once completed though you can help yourself to as much cake as you wish. He completed the course in 1:21:53, coming in 46th place!
I’m not sure what it is about the April and cake runs, but a second cake based event took place in North Manchester. This was “It’s a Piece Of Cake 10k”, and Rachel Mason ventured over to compete in the undulating event around Boggart Hole Clough, one of “Manchester’s prettiest parks”. She completed the event in 1:03:07 in only her second ever 10k race.
On Sunday Darren Varley, was in action again, this time in Cornwall competing at the half marathon distance. The Saltash Half Marathon is apparently the 4th hilliest road half marathon in the UK. In Darren’s own words it was “Hilly, wet and cold”. Despite this he came in 11th place out of 134 finishers with a time of 1:29:34.
[Darren Varley at the Saltash Half Marathon.jpg]Craig Edwards travelled to Worthing to take part in the Three Forts Challenge Ultra. The event, which covers 27.2miles is known as “The Tough One”. The route passes through Devil's Dyke, Chanctonbury, Cissbury ring and has a total of 3450 feet of climb.
Gareth Evans, Tom Brunt and Gaynor Beckett took part in the Go Tri Manchester Airport Duathlon. The event starts with a 3.1km run through the runway tunnels, followed by a 17.3km bike ride in the leafy roads around Ashley, Mobberley and Wilmslow. A final 3.1km out and back run completes the race. Gareth finished in a time of 57 minutes, with Tom and Gaynor crossing the finish line in an hour and 6 minutes.
In Milton Keynes it was a weekend of running events, which included the Rocket 5k on Sunday. The race, which was new in 2016 is run from the Centre MK to the stadiumMK (home of the MK Dons). Amy Mayell took part in the event, and she smashed her personal best in a time of 33:38.
On Monday it was husband Tom's turn to smash personal bests. He has been working hard to prepare for the Milton Keynes marathon. The route starts and finishes at the stadiumMK, and takes in sites such as Willen Lake, Loughton Valley Park, and yes it does include the infamous concrete cows! Tom was delighted with his finishing time of 3:47:55.
