Marathon season begins!

Striders of Croydon produced some good performances in the Brighton Marathon on Sunday. They were led by Liam Redmond, who ran well to place 173rd in a very large field, recording 2 hours 59 minutes 56. Graeme Drysdale placed fifth in the M55 age-group and 350th overall (3:10:36). Niamh Vincent was the 58th female finisher, placing tenth in the W40 age-group (3:25:05). She was followed by Josef Freedman (3:39:38), John O’Neill (3:58:19) and Michael Smaldon (4:08:28).

In the Southampton Marathon, Striders were led by Yasmin Anderson, who placed 27th in the W40 age-group (4:33:56). She was followed by James Harrison (5:14:32), Jeremy Tonkin (5:35:08), Kerry Kane (6:02:27) and Elsa Santana (6:02:27). In the Berlin Half-Marathon, Sarah Allport recorded a personal best of 2:38:46, which was almost 48 minutes faster than her previous best.

On Saturday morning, Marc Burrows ran well to place first out of 71 finishers in the Tokoinranta parkrun in Helsinki (19:03). Stephen Kennefick was third out of 154 finishers in the Bethlem Royal Hospital parkrun (19:53), while his wife Consuelo Kennefick was the third female finisher, placing 24th overall (23:17). Phil Coales was fifth out of 535 finishers in the Hackney Marshes parkrun (17:21), while Lee Flanagan was fifth out of 248 finishers in the Lloyd parkrun (19:39) with Steve Corfield sixth (19:50). Striders had an impressive total of 112 finishers in the various weekly parkruns.

On Sunday morning, Thomas Finch ran well to place first out of 85 finishers in the Lloyd junior parkrun, completing the two-kilometre course in a personal best 7:47. Club colleague Toby Lee-Smith was third (7:56).