Rachel Lindley finishes 4th Woman at the Chester Marathon

Rachel Lindley, from Striders of Croydon, had an outstanding run in the Chester Marathon on Sunday. She was the fourth woman to finish, setting a new club over-35 record of 3 hours 06 minutes 02 seconds, and lifting her to second place in the club’s all-time women’s rankings.

Later that day, Striders produced some good performances in the first East Surrey League race of the season, on an undulating five-mile course in Lloyd Park. Jodie Gray ran very well to be the seventh woman to finish, with club colleague Katie Falconer close behind her in eighth. Jessica Polya was 20th and Selena Wong completed the scoring team in 24th. Striders’ men were led by Alistair Falconer who ran very well to finish sixth. Tatsuya Okamoto was 16th, Lee Flanagan 17th and veteran Krzysztof Klidzia completed the A team in 21st. Rob Lines led the B team in 22nd place with Martin Filer 24th, Graeme Drysdale 28th and team manager Andy Perks 30th. For the C team, Chris Morton was 38th, Jon Dean 40th, Julian Spencer-Wood 65th and Jonathan Ibe 69th.

In the Folkestone Half-Marathon, Keith Simpson ran well to win the over-70 category in a new club age-group record of 1 hour 50 minutes 42. In the Berlin Marathon, Sarah Roles ran a personal best of 4 hours 03 minutes 07. In the Isle of Wight Marathon, Debra Bourne was first in the W50 age-group (4:13:54). Steph Upton was the fifth woman to finish the Titsey Trail 10K (48:58). In the Herne Hill Harriers Open Meeting at Tooting, Kevin Burnett set a club over-80 record of 5 metres 02 for the shot. Striders had a total of 74 finishers in the various weekly parkruns on Saturday.

This Saturday (12th) Striders’ men and women will be competing in the first Surrey Cross-Country League Division Two matches of the season, at Reigate.