NO FEWER than 20 Spa Striders set new personal best times at the annual Coventry Half Marathon in what proved to be one of the most successful events for the club in recent times.
A total of 33 Striders took to the streets of Coventry and were greeted by very good conditions across a course that took runners through the historic sites of the city.
The men flew around the course with Paul Edwards crossing the finish line as the first Strider home in 1:19.48 while Chris McKeown was not long behind in 1:21.01 and Andrew Graham finished in 1:22.27.
Pete Soley (1:23.31), Dan Stannard (1:23.38) and Steve Taylor (1:28.46) all followed in quick succession with new personal PBs
Another glut of PBs were earnt by Andrew Pope (1:38.38), Matt Leydon (1:39.58), Mark Whitehouse (1:40.26), Mike Cox (1:41.59) and Steve Pope (1:43.56).
The club’s female competitors performed phenomenally and winter training was rewarded with huge PBs for Clare Hinton (1:28.16), which saw her take first place in the V35 category.
Fiona Edwards took nine minutes off her previous PB by finishing in 1:31.08 and she raced alongside Susie Stannard (1:31.09) who took second in the V35 category.
Carolyn Wilkinson (1:32.52) and Sue Cox (1:36.04) followed both used the event as preparation for the London marathon, while there were also PB times for Claudine Piper (1:48.36), Lorraine Parsons (1:51.04), Rosie Scares (1:51.15), Sandra Stokes (1:52.45) and Kimberly Fryer (1:57.51).
A total of 37 Kenilworth Runners also took part in the race along with 4,210 finishers.
Stuart Hopkins was first home in 17th position in a time of 1:16.44 and he was followed by Jim Richardson who crossed in 1:21.48 to finish 68th.
There were several new PBs but perhaps the performance of the day came from Sarah Rose who ran a new PB time of 1:23.53 to finish as the fifth fastest lady and she also took first in the VW40 category in what was the second fastest half marathon ever run by a Kenilworth Runners’ lady.
Rachel Siggers also ran well by finishing third in the LV35 category in 1:31.15 and Louise Andrews 5th LV40 in 1:33.09.
Elsewhere at the Cambridge Half Marathon, a combination of hard training, perfect weather conditions and a new faster course helped two Spa Striders achieve huge personal best times.
David Lithgow knocked nine minutes off his personal best to smash through the two-hour barrier to finish in 1:54.06, while Caroline Whitehouse was delighted to finish in 1:31.10 after setting a new personal best by six minutes.
And at the Cancer Research Winter Series Manchester 10km event on Saturday, Kenilworth Runners’ Laura Pettifer smashed her PB by finishing as the third fastest lady in a time of 41.18.
