This Week's News: 27/04/2015

The lighter spring evenings now allow a more varied race schedule with events now taking place on mid-week evenings. Members of Sandbach Striders participated in two such events this week. 

Liz O Keeffe at the Milford Murder

Firstly, Liz O’Keeffe ran the Milford Murder, a 5 mile trail race starting on Milford Common in the Staffordshire village of Milford. Liz finished in 55:56 

Tony Taylor and Darren Varley completed the 5.3 mile route of the ‘Round the Runway’ race in the village of Mobberley. As the name suggests the route takes runners alongside the runway at Manchester Airport. Darren finished in 31:28 with Tony narrowly behind finishing in 33:30.

Tony Taylor at Mobberley Round the Runway

Tony was in action again just two days later at the Wrexham Open 10 Mile Race. Tony finished in a time of 1:05:56 which earned him 13th place overall and 2nd place in the male V50 category.

Twelve Striders were in action at the free weekly 5k parkrun at Astbury Mere in Congleton. Lynsey Astles and Gillian Roycroft both earned new personal best times in the second parkruns since joining the Striders.

Sandbach Striders at Congleton parkrun

The full results were as follows:

20:33 Heather Carter
24:19 Rachel Green
25:54 Denis Culloty
27:36 Liz O’Keeffe
27:53 Helen Child
28:23 Lynsey Astles
28:23 Terry Coppenhall
29:18 Thomas Taylor
29:22 Darren Varley
29:53 Gillian Roycroft
31:52 Isobel Bennett
32:19 Claire Dalton

Also in parkrun action was Michael Escolme who ran a recently launched parkrun in Wilmslow. The route consists of two laps of the Carrs park near the centre of Wilmslow. Michael finished in 25:17.

Mary Chadwick and Michael Escolme at Wilmslow parkrun

Alice Bober ran the Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders 10k fun run in Regent’s Park, London which aims to raise funds to support the valuable work of the humanitarian-aid organisation. 

Alice Bober at the Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders 10k

Darren Varley completed his third running event in four days by competing in the Blackpool Half-marathon on Sunday. This race always proves popular with runners thanks to its flat course along the promenade with its views of Blackpool Tower, the three piers and the Golden Mile. Darren achieved a personal best time of 1:23:52 despite being amongst a group of runners who missed the turnaround point due to a marshall leaving their post.  Darren was joined on the run by two other Striders husband and wife team Elaine and Matt Wood. Matt finished in a time of 1:54:36 and was followed quickly after by Elaine who finished in 2:10:22. 

Darren Varley at the Blackpool Half-marathon

Sunday also saw the most important date in the running year with the 35th running of the London Marathon. Sandbach Striders Running Club were represented by six runners.

Steve Farnell, Martin Coleman, Francis Gilchrist and Jason Bulley at London Marathon

The full results were:

03:24:02 Martin Coleman
03:36:02 Steve Farnell
03:38:53 Jason Bulley
03:42:43 Francis Gilchrist
04:23:01 Paul Nicholls
06:07:05 Karen Lovatt

Paul Nicholls at the London Marathon

Sandbach Striders are a friendly, supportive and welcoming running club serving the communities of Sandbach, Middlewich, Alsager, Holmes Chapel and beyond for over ten years. As well as a varied running programme the club has an excellent social calendar and for those runners looking to improve, Sandbach Striders have a number of fully-qualified running coaches to offer advice on training and ensure the safety and well-being of its members. They also organise the Sandbach 10k, a popular local running event which this year in its tenth anniversary promises to be the most fun and family friendly running event in the North-west.