History

Club History

Striders of Croydon was formed in 1982 by a group of local athletes, most of whom were employed by the Philips Electronics Group, in City House in Croydon.  The Club was originally known as Philips City Striders AC.  In the UK amateur athletics world, Striders could be classed as a “new” Club in that they were established as a result of, and in response to, the marathon boom that hit the UK following the inaugural London Marathon in 1981.

Since our formation we have evolved and expanded to 300+ members.  We are still a friendly and a relatively small Club, with a large mix of age, gender and ability. We positively welcome runners with little or no experience, or more experienced runners who may have just moved into the area.

The emphasis of the Club is on running, although we do participate in summer track and field programmes at junior, senior and veteran levels. ‘Training’ is used is the loosest sense of the word.  Some Striders reap maximum benefit from the range of different sessions which the Club provides and which the training manuals recommend – i.e. A mixture of speed, distance, hill and recovery workouts. There is a wealth of experience from those who have joined the Club that dedicated training pays dividends in improved results.  Other Striders are equally happy to jog around some nice terrain at chatting pace, followed by a drink in the Club bar.  It’s entirely up to you, and the Club endeavours to meet the requirements of all those who run with us.