About us

Sandbach Striders was born back in 2003. Since the early days, membership has grown with a firm ethos of the club being not just about running but social activities as well. The club is affiliated to UK AAA and has its own qualified coaches. Many other special events take place on various nights too.

The club meets on Wednesdays at 18:30 and Sundays at 09:00 at Elworth Cricket Club.

Whilst many members compete in races from 5k to Marathons, the emphasis remains purely on keeping people motivated and having fun. Why not scan through our race reports to see what we’ve been up to? Having read them, you’re sure to see why Sandbach Striders has developed the motto of being

"No Ordinary Running Club!"

Thursday, 29 September 2011

Race Report: Great North Run 2011

What a great weekend... an excuse to visit old friends and a beautiful area of the British Isles!

Claire and Catherine

Saturday: The weekend started with a day trip to York (well...Clare worked and Catherine shopped!) followed by a leisurely drive up country through beautiful Yorkshire villages... Saturday night consisted of babysitting 5 and 7 year old boys (whilst M&D celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary) whilst following our tried and tested pre-race routine of red wine, nibbles and pasta.

Sunday (race day): At around 7am, feeling slightly dehydrated (we blame the celebratory pink bubbles – those bubbles steal body fluids you know!) and we headed for South Shields, to park the car near the finish and catch the metro to the start...
The start: following all the usual pre-race carbs, fluids and loo stop we fought (literally!) our way into the starting cages and we were ready for the off! Just over 9 minutes
after Mo started the race we crossed the start and off we went (you could see us on the BBC race coverage)...

Race highlights include... the being squirted in the face with water by Geordie teenagers (there was just a little too much pleasure in their eyes for our liking!); the life saving ice- pops at mile 6 (it’s very warm running in your school uniform!); the Red Arrows flying over Tyne Bridge as we crossed (again if you’re quick you’ll see on the BBC coverage moving into the middle of the screen for the club ‘jazz hands’ pose); the rain from mile 9 (we seriously needed cooling down!) and the coastline view with 1.5 miles to go. We squeezed (again literally!) down the finishing straight in a very respectable 1 hour 56 having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and taken in the sights of the north-east.
The whole event was brought to an end with an amazing acrobatic display by the red arrows (a fitting tribute to pilot Red 4)...all in all a wonderful experience!!!

For more information about the Great North Run , click here.

Clare

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