It was another fantastic weekend of racing for St Albans Striders, with strong representation and top-notch performances across multiple events, both on the road and the cross-country field.

Road racing

Seven Striders took on the Bedford Half Marathon, delivering some outstanding results in a competitive field of 600 runners.

There were podium age category finishes for James Chasen, Max Campbell, Katherine Caris-Harris and Paul Stack. James (01:21:30), Max (1:29:18) and Katherine (1:53:43) secured first place in their respective categories, with Paul (1:28:00) taking second in his. 

At the Baldock Beast Half Marathon,  a picturesque half marathon on an undulating course, Becca Doidge produced a superb run to claim third female overall, alongside a new personal best of 1:32.

Meanwhile, at the Winchester 10km, Laura Johnston stormed to first place, also achieving a personal best of 40:03 in the process. 

Cross country

Away from the roads, senior athletes from St Albans Striders and younger athletes from St Albans Athletics Club tackled the challenging rolling parkland of Hardwick Country Park, County Durham at the prestigious English National Cross Country Championships as the championships were hosted in the North East.

Going head-to-head with many of the top athletes in the country and across different race distances, the event started off with a great run from Gabriel Fernandez taking part in the Under 17 Male race over the 6KM distance and finishing 202nd.

This was immediately followed by both the Male and Female Under 15 races over a distance of 4KM.

For the Female athletes, Paloma Theobalds recorded a standout result with a finishing position of 78th out of 211 athletes in a time of 15:14, and backed up with a strong run from Isabelle Walsh finishing in 150th with a time of 16:44.

For the Male athletes, Isaac Gibson-Dunt recorded the standout result with a finishing position of 56th out of 261 athletes in a time of 13:08. Conor Treloar (75th in 13:21) and Zachary Jones (119th in 13:42) contributed to a very strong team result.

Not to be outdone, the Under 13 Girls were next to tackle their challenging 3KM route with Ella Pinder recording the standout result with a 96th finishing position out of 217 athletes in a time of 12:47 with backup from a strong run by Eleanor White finishing 141st in a time of 13:30.

For the Senior Striders Athletes, Alex Morgan competed in the Under 20 Junior Men and recorded a time of 43:36 and a finishing position of 131st over a longer race distance of 10KM.

The standout result for the Senior Women, racing over a distance of over 8KM, was recorded by Catherine O’Connor finishing 89th out of 531 athletes in a time of 33:31. This was backed up by a strong run from Claire Buttenshaw who finished 352nd in a time of 43:54.

The Championships were concluded with the Senior Men’s race over a distance just shy of 12.5KM and a massive field of 1046 athletes. For the Striders, Steve Bowran finished 872nd in a time of 61:06, and Mike Jack finished 1015th in a time of 71:46 to wrap up the yellow and blue contributions to this superb event hosted by local running club Sedgefield Harriers.