RUNNING: SPA Striders had a trio of representatives take on the Warwickshire County Cross Country Championships at Warley Wood in Smethwick on Saturday.
Though numbers were affected by the rescheduled Telford 10k, Striders managed to finish eighth overall with Clare Hinton (29:02), Amanda Wiggins (30:50) and Lorraine Parsons (31:10) all registering good times.
Elsewhere eight Striders made the journey to Telford on the hunt for PBs.
The fast course did not disappoint as Adam Notley (36:41) led the way with a new PB.
Steven Taylor (38:36), Simon Parsons (38:39), Helene Wright (46:35), Jude Baum (47:03), Claudine Piper (47:12), Sandra Stokes (50:51), and Chris Jones (54:20) all performed too.
The ladies finished 3rd team overall.
There was also action in Cotswolds as Mel Venables (2:37:38) led home 13 Striders competing in the Naunton Nearly 19 off-road race.
Venables finished second and was closely following by Paul Edwards (2:42:22).
Anne Hurrell (2:48:11) was next while Bethan Gwynn (2:51:15) was fourth home.
Chris McKeown (3:06:10) and Hartwig Busch (3:07:10) also finished the race.
Claire Murphy, Charlotte Everard and Rosie Banks (3:17:01) crossed the line together – for Claire it was her longest run following the birth of her son in August, for Rosie it was the first time she had ran further than a half marathon and for Charlotte a welcome return from injury.
They were closely followed by Ruth Tennant and Fiona Edwards (3:21:02), Dan Stannard (3:21:23) and Pete Schofield (3:22:45).
