Run Report: Mow Cop Hill Training 26/03/2012

Monday night hill training - Mow Cop

Heather, Kay, Perry and Paul enjoy a post-training drink

Race Report: Sport Relief 25/03/2012

 Fun was had by all...whether it was a six lap slog of a hilly field (Terry, Jo and Jason), 

alternating 2x(run[in the hilly field]-walk[around the monkeys]) for 4 miles (Catherine, Clare, Garry, Molly & Heidi plus friends Vicky, India, Jessica and Charlie) or a brisk walk with the monkeys for 1 mile (Cheryl and Hannah) followed by shopping (Cheryl, Hannah and Terry...!), we all had a fabulous time. The weather was beautiful, the costumes were fabulous (thank you Michael!) and we raised over £200 for Sport Relief... 

If you haven't sponsored us yet, but want to please pop to: http://m-my.sportrelief.com/sponsor/Pheasicals4

Clare

Race Report: Stafford Half Marathon 25/03/2012

The weather conditions were excellent for the Stafford Half Marathon.  Cool to start off with and heating up as the day progressed.  With over 2,500 entries  I edged my way to the 1hr 50 mark. I felt that I should really try and push forward.  However, I forgot how turny twisty the actual course was. 

Liz at mile 2

I saw a few faces I recognised and heard a lot of Geordie accents in the line up. The race

Race Report: Wife Carrying Championships 18/03/2012

Wife carrying has a long and murky history. Some say a gang of nineteenth-century Finnish robbers stole other men’s wives, carrying them away. Others say that these robbers ran around with their own wives on their backs in order to be strong and fast enough to make off with large bags of loot. However it began, it’s now a serious sport practiced on three continents and, as a thoroughly weird race, it was only a matter of time before it came to Michael Escolme’s attention.

The Estonian hold

Having talked me into agreeing to let him enter back in January, Michael and I did an evening’s training in which he carried me up and down the stairs in the Estonian hold. 

Race Report: Walsall Arboretum Parkrun 17/03/2012

As I was heading down south this weekend to take part in another race (in a seperate race report coming soon...) I thought I'd take the opportunity to run only the 2nd Parkrun at Walsall Arboretum. It's probably a bit too far for it to be a regular run of mine especially as Hanley is but a short jaunt down the M6. Also, the rumour mill has word of a possible new Parkrun event at Astbury Mere in the not too distant future.

Standing on the road looking down on the race start

The venue was easy enough to find being onnly a couple of miles of main road away from

Race Report: Cholmondley Cross Country 18/03/2012

The preparation I put into this race was not the best. I did a Half Marathon in July 2010 but had done nothing competitive since and was feeling shamed by the exploits of the more competitive members. I saw a poster advertising the race at the Bluestones crossroads

and printed off an entry form without looking at the details. Having dispatched my

Welcome to our new Member of the Month!

Give a big welcome to our new website feature - the Sandbach Strider member of the Month.

The member for this month is none other than Alan Pearson!

Race Report: Wuthering Hike 10/03/2012

Towards the end of 2011 (due to a significant reduction in available training time) I made the decision to not run any long races during 2012 & to concentrate on lots of short, quick 

Michael, Giles and Chris on the cobbles of Howarth's main street

races to try & improve my speed.  This started well but I find short races very hard - you

Race Report: Liverpool Half Marathon 18/03/2012

Myself, Paul Nicholls, Gordon Hutchins and Cheryl Hutchins ran the Liverpool Half Marathon on Sunday 18^th March 2012. The traffic was surprisingly clear for a big city Marathon and there were plenty of parking spaces available that are literally only a few minutes from the start for a fiver. 

All smiles before the race

  
I had been warned by Perry Wyatt, who ran the race last year with Paul, to get a good

Run Report: Torchlight Run 12/03/2012

All winter I’ve wanted to go on one of our club’s torchlight runs so when Jason mentioned on Sunday morning that this was the last one of the season, I just had to go. Well I’d asked for and got a head torch for Christmas and all it had been used for was fetching the logs in!

So just before 7pm, 7 of us and a dog (Andre) set off from the Bear’s Head towards the

Race Report: Stafford 20 11/03/2012

With only six weeks until the London Marathon, today’s race was a good opportunity to test myself and my race plan. I was chauffeured to the race by John Lawton (thanks John) and we met Bob (the real one) and Liz at the Stafford University campus. 

Perry

Race Report: Thames Towpath 100 03/03/2012

How do you write a race report for a hundred mile race?

Team Moose: 0 down, 103 to go.

I mean, I should really try to explain the sheer enormity of the weekend whilst not  boring you to tears with a mile by mile account of the torture.......and that's not easy.

AGM Reminder: Wednesday 14th March 2012

Just a quick reminder that there will be NO club run this Wednesday.

We have something even better than running planned... It's AGM time!

Please do come along and support your club.

Race Report: Pennington Flash Parkrun 25/02/2012

Well it was the morning after the night before, the night before being the Striders' awards ceremony, and myself and Michael met to go and run the Pennington Flash park run. So with a belly still full of cheese and crackers and the hilarious memory of Michael demonstrating the Lithuanian wife lift with the help of Catherine we headed off.

Book Review: Wild Trails to Far Horizons by Mike Cudahy

Book Review

Wild Trails to Far Horizons: An Ultra-distance Runner

By Mike Cudahy

"When I stand at the beginning of 100 miles of moor, mountain, valley and meadow, I am standing on the threshold of a dream." - Mike Cudahy

Race Report: Golden Fleece Circuit 03/03/2012

I found out about the inaugural Golden Fleece Circuit via the LDWA (Long Distance Walkers Association) website. Many of their challenge events are open to runners as well as walkers and are usually very pleasant, scenic events that are exceptionally good value for money.

Enjoying the free post-race veg stew!

Race Report: Cloud 9 04/03/2012

Cloud 9 Fell Race

I ran the Cloud 9 for the first time after months of pestering from Paul, Perry, and Christiane. Bob gave up his number to me for free, so thank you Bob. I hope I did you proud, and really hope they change the name on the system, I never really fancied being called Bob :-).

Congratulations to Jason on completing the Thames Towpath 100!

Congratulations to Sandbach Striders' very own nutcase Jason Bulley on completing the Thames Towpath 100!

I'm sure you'll agree that this is an incredible achievement