Marathons & 50 milers

Striders of Croydon did well to place third in the East Surrey League road race at Ewell on Thursday. They were led by Tatsuya Okamoto who placed eighth out of 72 finishers, completing the 4.4 mile course in 25 minutes 00. Andy Perks was first in the M50 age-group and 16th overall (26:54), while Stephen Kennefick was 31st (29:40) and John O’Mahony 40th (31:11). Jon Dean was first in the M65 age-group and 43rd overall (31:51), while Mick Turner was 48th (32:49). Striders held onto second place in the final league table. Tatsuya Okamoto, Andy Perks and Jon Dean all won their respective age-groups.

On Saturday, Striders had two of the first five female finishers in the Centurions South Downs Way 50-mile race. Ally Whitlock was the third woman to finish, placing 25th overall out of 401 finishers, and first in the W40 age-group (8:03:44). Rachel Lindley was the fifth woman to finish, placing 38th overall and second in the W40 age-group (8:26:01). Club colleague Kechong Nguyen placed 349th (11:50:29).

James Rhodes ran very well to finish the Manchester Marathon in 2 hours 44 minutes 28, placing him seventh in Striders’ all-time club rankings. He was followed by Martin Filer (2:59:13), Marc Burrows (3:09:40), Ellyw Evans (3:32:12), Mark Kelly (3:54:41), John O’Neill (3:58:27) and Michael Joseph (4:32:53).

Tatsuya Okamoto placed ninth out of 727 finishers, and second in the M40 age-group, in the Santa Eularia Ibiza Marathon (2:55:48). Nick Kyritsis completed the Kent Spring Marathon (which was his 370th marathon) in 4:11:42.

In the RunThrough 10K at Battersea Park, Matthew Stone placed first in the M60 age-group and 25th overall out of 706 finishers (38:16).  Striders also had a total of 111 finishers in the various weekly parkruns.