SPA Striders took 40 of its members to the Sphinx 5 event on Wednesday (June 12) in another impressive week of results for the club.
The Sphinx 5, held in Coventry over a distance of 5 miles, was won by Kenilworth Runners’ Ben Taylor, with Spa Striders’ Ian Allen finishing in second (26:57) – 32 seconds behind the leader.
Mairi Walker then finished in 31:42 as the fifth-fastest lady, with the pair breaking the five mile records for the club in the process.
Chris McKeown (27:54) finished in sixth as the fastest MV35 runner, followed by Neil Smith (28:18, 8th) in the top ten, while Simon Ludford (29:39, 20th), Steve Taylor (29:49, 25th) finished inside the top 50.
Trevor Wilkinson (31:38, 52nd) was first home in the M45 category, followed by John-Paul Hunt (31:50, 57th), Chris Wilson (31:56, 59th), Pete Teevan (32:21, 68th), Michelle Hutton (32:37, 72nd) and Luke Bennett (32:42, 75th).
Joseph McCullagh (32:43, 76th), Jo Fleming (32:58, 79th), Claire Davidson (33:11, 86th), Ben Parkinson (33:14, 88th), Laura Peake (33:15, 89th) and Rob Egan (33:38, 99th) then followed to complete the line-up of Spa runners inside the top 100.
The remaining Striders to complete the event were:
Clare Hinton (34:06), Lloyd Harriman (34:16), Jason Hemming (35:10), Kate Gadsby (35:23), Gethyn Friswell (35:26), Ben Cohen (35:27), Sue Cox (35:59), Anita Lenneis (37:16), Helene Wright (37:38), Ruth Tennant (38:05), Lucy Marcovitch (39:38), Shaun Martin (39:55), Lucy Tugwell (39:59), Doug Rattray (40:04), Dave McNamara (40:52), Sandra Stokes (41:28), Richard Lowery (41:34), Louise Dwyer (41:41), Helen Pugh (44:14), Gary Perkins (47:00), Anne-Claire Bennion (47:39) and Kathryn Houlistan (49:15).
Meanwhile, at the Rothley 10k, Chloe Kinton (44:14) finished as the fourth-fastest lady, whilst Stokes completed her third race in a week at the Offa’s Dyke 15 – completing the course in a time of 2:50:50.
Rich Sykes was the sole club representative at the Lakeland Five Passes Ultra, taking on 35 miles and 10,000 feet of ascent in Grasmere to finish in eight hours and 18 minutes.
Spa Striders were well represented once again at the Arden nine-mile road race, where Walker (50:59) was the fifth-fastest female runner, also leading the ladies team to a first-place finish – followed by teammates Davidson (1:01:13) and Hinton (1:03:09).
The male team also excelled, finishing second at the event, with Allen finishing in third, McKeown in fifth, and Smith in eighth.
At the Birmingham Sprint Triathlon, Claire Westrope was the third fastest in the V45 category, taking 28 minutes off her personal best to finish in 1:39:40, after a 750m swim, 20k cycle and 5k run.
Fiona Ferguson took on the Vätternrundan in Sweden, an overnight 300k bike race that circles Lake Vattern and finishes in the town of Motala, coming home in 11 hours and 34 minutes.
