Karen places high for Striders in Surrey League

Karen Stretch, from Striders of Croydon, had an excellent run to be the sixth woman to finish in the Sutton 10 kilometre road race on Sunday, which was the second race in this year’s Surrey Road League. She placed 91st overall, recording 40 minutes 55 seconds. Striders’ men were led by Ernie Hann, who had won the weekly parkrun in Lloyd Park the previous day and still finished 22nd in a personal best of 36 minutes 41 seconds. Striders’ second man home was Graeme Drysdale who placed 88th overall in 40 minutes 40 seconds. Stephen Harrison was 106th (41.45) and Steve Massey 141st (43.09). Colin Cotton ran well to place fourth in the over-60 category, recording 47 minutes 08.

Striders’ second woman to finish was Becky Laurence who placed 234th overall in 48 minutes 22. She was followed by Linda Daniel (306th, 53.00), Karen Peake (339th, 56.21) and Pat Edwards (395th, 62.50). Striders had a total of 14 finishers in the Sutton 10K, and 42 finishers in Saturday’s various local parkruns.

Meanwhile Iain Harrison ran the Hamburg Marathon in 2 hours 48 minutes 24 seconds, less than seven minutes outside the personal best which he set in London last year, while Matthew Smith ran the Milton Keynes Marathon in 3 hours 19 minutes 12 seconds.