CLC Striders race round up - For the weekends of 14/15 and 21/22 October 2023
Saturday 14th
England Masters Cross Country Team Selection Race - Markeaton Park, Derby
Super-veteran David James was the first Strider this autumn to get his cross-country campaign underway in this tough and highly competitive qualifying race for selection for the England team to compete in the British and Irish Masters Cross Country International (to be held in Glasgow on 11th November). David battled hard for 9th place in his V70 category, with the top three finishers qualifying to represent England.
Sunday 15th October
Manchester and Bath Half Marathons
Back on terra firma on a beautiful crisp and sunny autumn morning, three Striders took to the roads to race the Half Marathon distance – in Manchester and Bath. Up in Manchester, Alex Johnston ran a superbly judged and well controlled 77:37 as he continued his focussed build-up to competing in the Valencia Marathon in December. Meanwhile, down in Bath the irrepressible Helen Knight clocked a superb 84:47 in her first road race wearing carbon shoes – a PB by over 2 minutes and a LV40 club record to boot. Helen was 4th lady in her age group in what was a strong and large field. Also, VM50 Strider Tim Brock ran a brilliant PB time of 1:33:09 on the day.
Saturday 21st October
Plym Trail Marathon
Club Ultra specialist Rob Bircher ran a chatty and lowkey 4:57:26 in this very wet, beautiful and challenging trail marathon on Dartmoor, finishing in 11th place overall.
Sunday 22nd October
Leeds Abbey Dash 10k
Storm Babet having blown through, CLC Striders had a drier day to race on Sunday, with Kate Telford going comfortably under 40 minutes up in Leeds for 3rd LV35 in a time of 39:31. While Gary Farquharson narrowly missed out on his target time of 42 minutes, finishing in 42:09.
Abingdon Marathon
Closer to home, club faithful Gavin Jerman ran a solid marathon over at Abingdon, making his training count and clocking 3:47:33 for a new MV60 club record. Ryan O’Donnell was going well at the half-way mark, in sub-90 minutes, but was forced to pull out due to a longstanding Achilles injury, and so did not finish the race. For a variety of other reasons – and showing how hard getting the training right and being ready for race-day is – sadly, four more Striders didn’t make it to the starting line.