A fine turnout of 39 (22 men and 17 women) striders took part in the local Great Baddow 10 road race. First Strider home was Mark Newton, who was 2nd overall, closely followed by Chris Burgoyne in 8th and Lee Martin in 9th, gaining the men Team Silver. Gary Chandler in 11th and James Smith in 19th made up the top 5 Strider men. Other mens teams finished 4th 11th and 13th. The female team was led by Sarah Gill, followed by Nichola Hands and Polly Bridgman. Some confusion with Nikki/Ian meant that Nikki/Ian made up the third member of the women's team (According to the results), although Polly should have been the third member of this team. The women overall gained 5th, 8th and 11th teams. Full results are available at http://www.baddowraces.org.uk/2013Results-TITLE.htm

A number of Striders travelled North to the fells at the weekend. As a warm up to the main event, Janet Hill, Tim Brockington, Paul Jeggo & John Williams ran the Bollington 3 Paeks on Saturday, a reasonably gentle fell race, 9k with 370m of climb. Paul settled straight back into winning ways, with his second Vet 50 award in 2 weeks; Janet & John both narrowly missed missed prizes, 2nd in their repective categories.  Full results at http://mh.k313.com/mh/fell/Boll%203%20Peaks%202013%20Results.xls

The main event was the Settle Hills Race on Sunday, with a number of Striders running for the county; the ladies team, Nikki Brockbank (20th lady), Lynn Higgs (Colchester, 27th) and Janet Hill (42nd), finishing a highly creditable 6th; the men also ran well, finishing 10th out of 15 teams, despite the absence of a number of our stars. Tristan Windley was 1st home in 21st place, the other scorers being Chris Sellens of Colchester (33rd) & Paul Jeggo (58th). Also enjoying a fine day out on 11.3k course over the limestone hills of Yorkshire were Jamie Woodyard (95th), Julian Catmull (105th), Jon Legge (110th), Tim Brockington (119th) & John Williams (102nd). Full results at http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/2013/settle.htm and some photos at https://plus.google.com/photos/110439573756197443848/albums/5879978470464936257?banner=pwa

 

There are a number of fell races in the coming weeks. The Orion Fell Race in Epping Forest is on Friday 22nd June. Midsummer Madness weekend, 3 races in 3 days in the Calder Valley in Yorkshire is 22nd to 24th June. This is an excellent introduction to fell running. 30th June is Callow. This is for the more hardcore fell runner, and is not recommended for novice runners. 13th & 14th July is the Brecon Fans weekend; Pen-y-Fan (5.8k/588m) is on Saturday, , Fan-y-Big (16.5k/670m) on Sunday. A good weekend. There will be more about these races on the chatboard for anyone wishing to join in the fun. 

 

 

Finally the results are available – see below for Striders times. First Strider in was Tom Cammack in 6th place, and I beleive that this was his first marathon. Tom was closely followed by James Wright in 8th. The Essex winning mens team was completed by Jon Byford. On the mens side, PBs were won by Ian Brazier, Paul Probert and Andy Hind. First Strider lady was Nikki Brockbank and although not 1st Lady overall, Nikki was awarded the honour of Essex Lady champion, so well done Nikki. Elaine Tribley was first V50 woman with a PB time. The silver Essex ladies team was completed by Kirsty Williams. 02:51:33 Tom Cammack 02:53:11 James Wright 03:11:35 Nikki Brockbank 03:12:42 Jon Byford 03:24:48 Rob Mills 03:26:58 Tom Coen 03:52:42 Malcolm Savage 03:55:13 Ian Brazier 03:57:53 David Moxon 03:58:26 Paul Bridges 04:13:16 Elaine Tribley 04:16:49 Sarah Williams 04:17:58 Caroline Adlem 04:26:57 Paul Probert 04:27:25 Honor Wood 04:33:39 Liz Irvine 04:34:30 Sarah Goodwin 04:37:02 Andy Hind

A fine turn out of Striders at a reasonably sunny yet chilly Halstead and Essex Marathon yesterday and some great performances all round, especially as some had previously run Brighton and/or London marathons a few weeks previously. For some it was their first marathon. Halstead is a reasonably hilly course (not "just one hill" as advised br Mr Brazier). The majority of support is at Pebmarsh and is well appreciated by all runners. Full race results are not yet available but will be posted as soon as they are. ] However, a total of 15 out of 41 medals for Striders in the Essex Championships is an impressive statistic and well done to all that ran. Mens Silver: Tom Cannack Mens Bronze James Wright Mens V60 Gold Malcolm Savage Mens V60 Silver Dave Moxon Mens team Gold Tom Cannack, James Wright, and Jon Byford Ladies Gold Nikki Brockbank Ladies V45 Bronze Elaine Tribley Ladies team silver Nikki Brockbank, Elaine Tribley, and Kirsty Williams Ladies team bronze Caroline Adlem, Honor Wood, and Liz Irvine Again well done to everyone who ran yesterday and congratulations to the medal and trophy winners!! A special thank you to the Striders Support Team whose cheering helped many of us along :-)