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Latest News (Updated 27 Apr 2008)

AGM Highlights
Committee: Neil - Chairman. Theresa - Treasurer. Vicki - Secretary. Martin - Race Director. Plus Phil, Tim, Diane, John, Richard and Christian.

Membership fees are now due and must be paid before April 30th. Single £20, Joint £35 and juniors £3. See a committee member with you cheque or cash asap to enjoy a year's membership at the bargain price of 38 pence per week.

Stilton Striders 25th Year Anniversary Running Top
Phil and Theresa now have the 25th Year Anniversary running tops to distribute. Please contact the captains to make arrangements to collect.

Summer Outruns
Here is the list of outruns organised for this summer.

1, April 30th - Carington Arms, Ashby Folville
2, May 7th - Stilton Cheese, Somerby
3, May 14th - The Blue somthing, Skillington, NEW for 2008
4, May 21st - The Plough, Hickling, CLUB HANDICAP RACE
5, May 28th - The Fox, Thorpe Satchville, FRENCH NIGHT, NEW for 2008
6, June 4th - The Wheel, Branston, May be venue for NO WATCH RACE, NEW for 2008
7, June 11th - The Buffalo Run, BARBECUE NIGHT, To be Confirmed
8, June 18th - The Crown, Tilton on the Hill, NEW for 2008
9, June 25th - The Black Bull, Market Overton, NEW for 2008
10, July 2nd - The Rose & Crown, Hose, The Hose Pose Fancy Dress in aid of Air Ambulance (try harder this year to get dressed up)
11, July 9th - The Pub at Redmile, NEW for 2008
12, July 16th - The Blue Cow, South Witham, New for 2008
13, July 23rd - The Blue Bell, Hoby
14, July 30th - The Tollemache Arms, Buckminster
15, August 27th - The Cheney Arms, Gaddesby
16, Sep 3rd - The Crown, Old Dalby
17, Sep 10th - The Wheel, Rearsby

Full details will be available from the first out run at Ashby on April 30th where everyone will get a race diary. Please try to share cars this year. If any has a GPS we could bring back the guess the distant Sweep.

To remind yourself of what it's all about, Big Leggy's news from last year's outruns is here.

Track and Field
Sat 10 - Sun 11 May - Leicestershire and Rutland County AA Track and Field Championships 2007, Safron Lane (Combined Championships with Northamptonshire and Warwickshire).

Charnwood Graded Meetings, Loughborough: Wed 21 May; Wed 18 June; Wed 23 July; Wed 20 Aug; Sun 31 Aug.

Race Reports

London Marathon - Sun 13 April 2008

Seven striders competed in this year's London Marathon. In perfect conditions to start with and a light shower two hours into the race all had excellent runs. First in for the club was Chris Southam, who started with the elite top 100 runners and finished in 97th place in 2.34.48. The 44 year old was delighted with his time and starts again with the top 100 in next year's marathon. Next in was Natalie Fryer in 3.30.59, just missing out on a PB by a few minutes. Third strider was Kirsty Ainscough in her second marathon finished with an excellent PB of 3.45.28. Kirsty was also raising money for the County Air Ambulance. Fourth strider, taking 56 minutes off his previous best time, was Wayne Hackett in 4.02.01. Wayne knew he could do under four hours but went through a rough patch from 18 miles onwards and could not recover enough to take him under the four hours. Next in for the club on her first London Marathon was Laura Ackers, who just got over a cold to run in Sunday's race; still not 100 per cent, Laura finished in 4.08.56, although she had done the relevant training it was harder than she thought. The final two striders ran together: Liz Wildman in her first London Marathon followed a 4.45 training plan and was delighted to finish in 4.42.07; Liz could not believe the atmosphere of the London Marathon and said what a fantastic day it was. Her partner Matt King who is capable of 3.30 sacrificed his own time to run with Liz all the way and finished in the same time of 4.42.07.

The Trunce

Neil's long distance season continued with a trip to Oxspring a small Yorkshire village between Sheffield and Halifax on Monday night to compete in race 2 of The Trunce, a nine race series through the Summer on the same course. Starting on a farm track, a steady uphill took the runners over the fields to a sharp descent (a bit of a queue here at a kissing gate) down to the river for the first of three crossings through knee deep water. Through a small hamlet then back over the fields to the foot of the first big climb followed by another descent into the woods to the river. Back onto the road for about 800 yards to the river and another climb before retracing our steps along the farm track to the finish. A tough course of 4.25 miles with 550 feet of climbing Neil finished in 36.39 in mid field.

Belvoir half marathon - Sun 30 March

Sunday 30 March saw eleven Striders join the field of 500 for the Belvoir half marathon run in perfect conditions from Hose Village Hall-through to Harby Langer, Colston Basett, Long Clowson before returning to Hose to finish at the village hall. An outstanding run from Striders top runner saw Chris Southam finish in 1st place in 1-13-38. The first three were close together at 1/2 way when Chris said he
felt good and knowing the course pushed on to win by 45 sec. 2nd Strider Darren Glover 1-23-17, Simon Maggs 1-27-35, Wayne Hackett 1-39-28 (pb), Clive Wright 1-43-41, with the first four to count in each team Striders men were the 4th Team.

Stilton Ladies however went one better finishing 3rd team with Natalie Fryer 1-38-34, Laura Ackers 1-38-44 and the ever improving Kirsty Ainscough in a pb of 1-42-46. Supporting them were Vicki Lowe 1-47-42, Joanne Shore 1-53-45 and Julie Duley who just went over 2hs in 2-00-18.

Caythorpe Canter

Report from Neil Jaggard and Gary Christmas:

"We arrived to register at 8.29 for the Caythorpe half marathon when a wave of madness overtook us and by 8.30 we had decided to enter the full multi-terrain marathon. So with no preparation, no dieting, no 4 month training program, no pre-marathon races, and no tapering off we embarked on our quest.

"Starting at the back of about a 35 strong field we moved through halfway in 1 hour 56 mins. Stopping to glance at the map from time to time as the course was not very well marked we headed out to Ancaster. Neil then made his move and reached the 21 mile feed station in 3 Hours 10 mins for 6th place with Gary about 12 mins behind in 10th. On for about a 4 hour time and then it happened. Oh the shame, Oh the embarrassment of the pathfinder taking the wrong turning. About 2 miles from the finish Neil and a runner from Dead End Runners, sorry West End Runners, who had already taken the wrong route at least twice earlier followed the yellow marker tape, which turned out to be bogus and not anything to do with the race, and ended up wasting time map reading not to mention the 2 extra miles. Reaching the finish in 4 hours 29 mins we crossed the line together for 9th and 10th losing three places to those taken the correct route. Gary turned up three minutes later in 11th expecting me to be washed and changed and tucking into the after race goodies (no soup) only to find me ranting about my navigational skills and the fact that I had blown the chances of a good time.

"Never mind I am over it now and we both enjoyed the race and showed you can run a marathon on the spur of the moment. When do the London entries come out?"

Livingstone Relays, Loughborough University - Sun 23 March

On Easter Sunday Stilton Striders had two teams competing in the Livingstone Relays at Loughborough University. This has been run since the 1920s and most recently at the University. The men's team of 4 runners each running a loop around the campus of 3 miles finished in 14th out of 38 teams:
1st leg Darren Glover 17.28
2nd leg John Creswell 18.31
3rd leg Christisn Davidson 17.27
4th leg Martin Booth 17.42

Total time: 1hr 11min 08sec

The Stilton ladies' team came 14th out of 19 teams. There were three in each ladies' team completing the same course:

1st leg Katherine Voyce 25.31
2nd leg Lucy Underwood 24.47
3rd leg Imogen Brooks 23.25

Total time: 1hr 13min 43sec

This was Lucy's and Imogen's first competitive run for the club.

Earlier reports are on the results page.

Seniors

Wednesday - 7 pm - run from the Sports Centre at the King Edward VII School in Melton Mowbray.

Juniors

Check with Diane Underwood or Richard Cox for details of training.

Information

For more information on Stilton Striders email Tim Hicks at Stilton-Striders@supanet.com