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!"

Monday 20 July 2015

Race Report: Race to the Stones 11/07/2015

I’ve always tried to have the mindset that you should try and find the positive in every situation, no matter how bad. 2 years ago I received my first ever DNF during a 100 mile ultra, the positive? It would lead me to join the Sandbach Striders a couple of months later to reinvigorate my running. Shortly after we found my wife would be having some operations over the next year and I took the decision to take a break from ultras as I wouldn’t have the time I needed to train, the positive? I’d spend a year training for shorter distances and smashing all my PB’s.


And so it was on New Year’s Day this year I would keep a promise I made to myself to get back to ultras and entered Race to the Stones, a non-stop 100k (62 miles) run from the town of Lewknor to the stone circle at Avebury along a 5000 year old path. I always remember being told by a seasoned runner that no matter how well you planned, things would go wrong, the trick is not to let it bother you, take it in your stride, and if at all possible, find the positive in the situation (that sounds familiar). As it was, Race to the Stones would give me the opportunity to exercise this!

With that in mind, on the Monday before the race I found my trail shoes which have served me through thick and thin had developed a hole near the ball of my little toe, new shoes weren’t an option, gaffer tape was briefly considered, but then I found ‘Shoe Goo’ which is a type of liquid rubber to seal the hole, which worked a trick.

The day finally got underway at 8 am, I had my radio tuned to Planet Rock and by sheer luck I started the race to one of my favourite songs, ‘Cochise’ by Audioslave. It’s hard to compress the amount of time I spent running into a race report, but I can tell you the first 10 miles slipped by easily, managing my pace over some difficult terrain through Grims Ditch which is littered with roots and small rocks. At bang on 10 miles (or so I thought, and more of that later) I’d land awkwardly on a root and my left ankle would bend through what felt like 90 degrees. My first instinct was to get out of the way of the other runners as we were on a narrow trail, I hobbled for a few hundred metres hoping I could walk it off. A little further down the trail I started a slow jog and slowly tested my ankle out, it was sore but I’d be damned if I was dropping after 10 miles. Another half mile down the road I’d trip on a rock, cutting my hand and elbow pretty badly, I cleaned both with the hand gel I had in my first aid kit and introduced the runners around me to a whole new set of expletives (if you’ve ever used hand gel on a cut you’ll understand). 
After finally getting running again my now weakened left ankle once again landed awkwardly and bent again, this time though the pain was so bad it made me feel nauseous. A runner behind me stopped to ask if I was OK, I explained what had happened and she told me it was only a couple of kilometres to the next aid station where I could drop out. That sounded like a thoroughly sensible idea, I got to the aid station and asked a medic if they could look at my ankle (hoping they might be able to strap it up for me), they told me they could see it was swollen and there was nothing they could do, I had 2 options, drop out or take some paracetamol, paracetamol it is then!

To be honest the rest of the rest of the day passed in a blur as I ran in ‘autopilot’ trying to ignore the pain. The views were lovely and I spoke with some great people but I could only run when the ground was flat as I would get a bolt of pain from my ankle whenever it didn’t land squarely on the ground. The only thing that really stood out was that my watch was giving me a total distance which just didn’t seem right, I arrived at the 40k aid station where I saw at least 3 people drop out with dehydration. My watch however was telling me I’d run 33k, my gut reaction was to be annoyed, I then figured out it was because I’d set it ‘ultratrac’ which is basically a low power mode giving you a lower accuracy. Bearing in mind my opening comments, I chose to be pleased I’d run 7k further than I thought. I then ran on to the 50k point where I would quite happily stuff my face with pasta and eat the best ice cream you’ve ever eaten!

From that point on I couldn’t trust my watch so based my run on trying to reach the aid stations by certain times which really helped break the race down into manageable chunks. At around 10p.m. the head torch came out and I found myself running through an endless field, I’d of been worried I was lost if I couldn’t see other runners in the distance as I was totally on my own now.

Finally I reached the last aid station where I downed some flat coke and ate some pastries filled with apricot jam while one of the medics filled my water bottles as I was struggling to bend low enough to get to the taps. I set off thinking ‘only 11.7k to go’, whilst I had the distance right the ‘only’ was very wrong! 

I headed off across another field in the dark on my own, with nobody behind me. Within a couple of minutes I became aware of a shadow running to my right, I turned to acknowledge them as they passed only to find nobody there, suffice to say I knew my mind was playing tricks on me as this would then keep happening throughout the rest of the run. I eventually left the field to be directed onto a chalk path which just seemed to climb eternally uphill, there was just no way I could run anymore as the road was uneven and my ankle couldn’t stand it. My ‘shadow’ from earlier was now almost a constant (if somewhat creepy) companion and as I was also being passed quite regularly, it was hard to differentiate!
Eventually I could see the lights of the farm at the finish and soon saw a sign telling me there was only 5k to go. We'd already been 'warned' about the finish, instead of turning right towards the finish which was painfully close we were directed straight on so we could do a mile out to the stone circle, round the stones and back. Finally on the return leg we were directed left towards the finish line. I could now see a crowd of people standing in a pool of light cheering on the finishers ahead of me. Eventually at just gone 1 am, I reached the finish line with a new PB of 17 hrs and 20 seconds to a massive round of applause and cheering to collect my medal. Even better was the sight of Sam and the kids waiting for me as soon as I passed through the crowd.

For more information visit the race website.

Steve F