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
Paul Nicholls kindly volunteered to
lead this week’s extra-curricular run round Haslington and Winterley.
We arrived at Paul’s house, and having had our crotches sniffed by his
(extremely large but very unintimidating) dog we donned the
head-torches and hi-vis and set off into the wilderness.
The 31st Valencia Marathon, now named the Divina Pastora* Marathon, is one of the highlights of the Spanish road racing calendar. It has recently moved to November to improve the chances of more favourable weather for running and they have also moved the start and finish to the architecturally stunning Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences).
(* "Divine Shepherdess" - the name given to the image of the Virgin Mary)
Near the start and finish at La Ciudad
de las Artes y de las Ciencias.
My first 5k… I’d run 1500m competitively at school,
and as an adult I’ve run most distances from 10k to Marathons, but never
a 5k…
then Mik Escolme started banging on about the Hanley Park Run. So after a
couple of weekend where I was unable to join in, last Saturday I took
the
plunge and went along with Liz O’Keefe and Chris Coppenhall to give it a
go.
The Cardington Cracker.
It's an institution. Over 200 turn out on a cold December day to
pay homage to this annual fell race as part of the traditional runners
build up
to Christmas. It's 9 miles and 2,600 feet of hell but well worth it for
the
carrot soup followed by a few pints of Shropshire Lad in the Royal Oak.
Steven, Giles and Michael layer up ready for the 2009 cracker..
Race report: Free 5K race series, HanleyPark
run #9
What's that you say a free 5K in the Hanley
Parkrun series with a tempting trip to a greasy spoon afterwards, count me in!
Michael, Perry, Christiane, Chris, Giles and Jill
The great thing about the park run series
is it’s simple and easy. All you have to do is register once and print off a
small barcode label, from then on you can simply turn up on the day of an event
and race. No need to worry about filling in entry forms or sending off money as
all the events are totally free ( excluding the optional breakfast).
This particular run take place each
Saturday morning at 9am in a scenic park in Hanley and was to be my second
parkrun. Yes that's right folks Hanley can be scenic too, outside the
boundaries of the shopping centre is its park with a lake, bandstand and
pavilion.
At this event the striders had a good turn
out with myself, Giles, Michael, Christiane, Jill J and Perry all
John and the invisible man tackle the Wrekin together.
I am told that the Wrekin is a very
distinctive hill which dominates the views of mid Shropshire near the town of
Telford. However, on Sunday 20 November, Chris, Mik, and I ran up and over this
hill from several directions but, given the mist on that day, are unable to
confirm this observation.Nevertheless,
my aching legs do indicate that the hill is indeed ‘very distinctive’.
I met with Chris, Mik, Jill and Andre the
dog at the Buckatree Hall Hotel, walked ½ mile to the start and set off on what
appeared to be a jolly jog through the woods. At about 1 mile, I realised that
there were some challenges, the first being the scree slope. This was not therugged scree of the Lake District; it was more
Another nice route suggested by Chris
Brumby that started and finished at The Bears Head car park, I like
these night runs more and more, could it be the pub finish?
Rehydrating afterwards in the Bears Head, Brereton
Well I could put it off no longer. Having managed to find excuses for the previous two extracurricular Monday night runs, I had finally ran out of reasons not to go. I was in from work on time, it wasn’t raining or windy and I had batteries in my head torch. My main concern was being able to see with just a head torch, as I struggle to walk to the end of my drive in the dark.
Five of us met at the Broughton Arms car park in Rode Heath, myself, Chris B, Mik, Perry and Chris C. I was a bit concerned to find I was the only girl, and a much slower runner than the rest, however we all stayed together and ran at a good pace... Probably more comfortable for
On a foggy Autumnal day at the Cumberland Athletics Track in Crewe, a group of intrepid runners gathered with the intention of running 105½ laps. This was the day of the inaugural Crewe Déjà vu track marathon, a gruelling test of mental and physical endurance. The event was conceived some months earlier by three fools from Sandbach Striders over a couple of drinks and it somehow evolved into a proper race. We're still not sure how.
We have around 3gb of photographs from the day and until we work out how to upload that many without our website falling over, here is the
story of the day along with a few selected photographs.
This used to be billed as the fastest marathon in Germany until Patrick Makau broke the record in Berlin earlier in the year. As it stands it's still a fast course, with a total height difference of only 27m. It's a well attended race with around 18,000 runners. The Expo was large and well organised and located right next to the start and finish points a short walk from Frankfurt's central railway station. I collected my race number, chip and goody bag without much difficulty and also was pleased to receive a backpack in lieu of the obligatory t-shirt which unusually were an optional extra. Inside the goody bag were a pack of batteries (useful), some water (obvious), some sweets (tasty) and four painted hard-boiled eggs (I'd have preferred a protein shake...) I also received a voucher for the pasta party the night before the race.
Near the start line
The pasta party was held in the expo centre where the finish line was to be. It was a very glitzy and loud affair with BMW cars in abundance as they were the principal sponsor. The organisation was less impressive however. I arrived a couple of hours before the closing time but they were already out of alcohol-free beer and coca-cola to which we had vouchers for free drinks. Luckily there was still vegetarian pasta and water. I'd be lying if I said the pasta was one of the better meals I'd ever eaten, but it was a decent sized portion and did the trick as far as carb-loading went.
I arrived at the Vagrants Club,
Shavington just before 9am, felt quite
lonely at first (wot no Striders!) but was joined by John Lawton after
about five minutes. There was a good atmosphere at the start with quite a
few runners in fancy dress - mainly for the fun run.
The rocks of the boulder field were treacherously slippy and the slope had reached that gradient where hands could be placed on rock without leaning forward. I moved up carefully, placing my feet so they wedged against adjacent rocks in an effort to stop them slipping. Soon I reached the cloud base and I looked down to my left where I could see other competitors continuing on the grass slope by the stream as they gradually faded
Staffordshire Moorlands AC have announced that this years Christmas Cracker will take place on Sunday the 18th of December.
Here's what they have to say about it:..
Striders at last years Christmas Cracker
"Yes, it’s time to start thinking of fancy dress and bracing
a Sunday morning, battling the elements at the ever popular Christmas
Cracker.
For those who haven’t run it before, the 8 mile multi-terrain course
has approximately 40% run on tarmac roads. The rest is over fields and
gritstone. Between the 2 and 4 miles you
