Striders help celebrate 500 Lloyd parkruns!

Striders of Croydon had an impressive total of 47 finishers in the 500th Lloyd parkrun on Saturday. They were led by Lee Flanagan who ran well to place third of the 299 finishers, completing the muddy five-kilometre course in 19 minutes 24 seconds. Club colleague Phil Coales was fourth (19:47) with Simon Ambrosi seventh (19:59). Striders’ best age-grading was achieved by veteran Steve Corfield who ran well to place ninth (20:33) with another veteran, Matthew Stone, close behind in tenth (20:43). Paul Finch was 14th (21:33), Richard Lee-Smith 15th (21:38) and John Punt 16th (21:51).

Striders’ women were led by Steph Upton who ran very well to place first out of the 125 women taking part, also beating most of the male runners as she finished 34th overall in 23 minutes 47 seconds. Jodie Gray was 68th (26:05), just ahead of event director Debra Bourne who placed 70th (26:08). Claire Mitchell was 112th (29:18), Annie Cripps 126th (30:13) and Sheena Hammond 131st (30:44).

Elsewhere, Robert Lines was second in the Riddlesdown parkrun (20:49) while Krzysztof Klidzia was third in the Folkestone parkrun (18:23) and Andy Perks was fourth in the Squerryes Winery parkrun (23:25).

On Sunday, Simone Luciani placed 12th in the Due Perle Half-Marathon in Santa Margherita Ligure in Italy, recording 75 minutes 16 seconds. This lifts him to eighth place in Striders’ all-time half-marathon rankings.

This Saturday (8th) Striders will be competing in the final Surrey Cross-Country League races of the season. Their men are at Lloyd Park, while their women are at Richmond Park.