Christmas Day park runs

Debra Bourne, from Striders of Croydon, ran very well to be the eighth woman to finish the Winter Wanderlust 50K, along part of the North Downs Way from Detling to Wye in Kent. She placed first in the W50 age-group, recording 7 hours 29 minutes 46.

In the Serpentine 5K at Hyde Park on Friday, Striders were led by Steve Corfield who placed first in the M60 age-group and 41st overall out of 240 finishers (18:05). Liam Redmond was 47th (18:19) with Graeme Drysdale 59th (18:45) and Andy Perks 64th (18:58).

In the Ribble Valley 10K on Sunday, James Rhodes placed 130th out of 1316 finishers (34:49). Four days earlier, James had placed first out of 91 finishers in the Bethlem Royal Hospital Christmas parkrun (19:56), with club colleague Andrew Aitken third (20:15). Kara Boaks was the first woman to finish the South Norwood parkrun, placing 17th overall out of 188 finishers (21:21). Phil Coales was second out of 215 finishers in the Lloyd parkrun (18:38). Ellyw Evans was the second woman to finish the Dolgellau parkrun, placing tenth overall out of 59 finishers (23:49). Rachel Lindley was the third woman to finish the Scunthorpe parkrun, placing 28th overall out of 546 finishers (20:16).

On Saturday, Marc Burrows was second out of 111 finishers in the Pymmes parkrun in Edmonton (18:03). There were third places for Graeme Drysdale in the Bethlem Royal Hospital parkrun (20:57), and for Erik Schrijnemaekers in the Lousberg parkrun at Aachen in Germany (20:31). Striders had a total of 118 finishers in the various weekly parkruns.

In the Lloyd junior parkrun on Sunday, Toby Lee-Smith was second out of 86 finishers (8:26), while Zoe Siu was the second female finisher, placing fourth overall (8:48).