The Senior Women got off to a solid start at the first Chiltern Cross Country League meeting on Saturday. Out of a field of almost 200 runners, the top 3 Striders were Hannah Rayden (21st), Megan Steer (29th) and Lily Seach (30th). Lucy Jones, Lauren Eckley and Mandy Attree completed the team of six, putting the Striders in 4th place out of 17 teams in Division 1, with 4 more league races to go across the season. There were also some fantastic individual performances in a very strong field of some 350 runners in the senior men’s race. Jonny Pennell was the 1st strider home in 43rd place followed by Paul Greaves (127th) and Nigel Aston (194th). Colin Braybrook (205th) was 4th in his age category.

Sunday saw the start of the Sunday Cross Country League with the first event of five taking place in Cheshunt. Jonny Pennell completed the weekend XC double and was the 1st men’s Strider home in 5th place, closely followed by Jonathan Scott in 6th. The 1st female strider home was Freya Weddell.

There was great representation of 17 Striders at the Great South 10 mile Run in Portsmouth on Sunday with a field of over 12,000 participants. Megan Walker finished in a superb 13th place in the female race in 1.01.27. Barnaby Walker was the first male Strider home in 1.01.10 (47th place) and Max Campbell was 229 male overall and 3rd in his age category, knocking an incredible 7 minutes off his PB in a time of 1.03.35. Other noteworthy performances were from Stuart Middleton (PB in 1.05.16), Hannah Burkhardt (1.07.29) and Alex Hasell (1.09.51).

Patrick Hawker finished in a superb first place at the Maidstone half marathon in 1:18:38 earning himself a PB. Elsewhere Adrian Jones completed his first marathon at Chelmsford in 4.05hrs coming 2nd place in his age category and Ivan Ghouse completed the Oxford Half Marathon in 1.37.34. Further North, Partick Hayes came 38th in the Yorkshire Marathon, in a fantastic PB time of 2:50:33. Also and delivering great performances in this event were Philip Evans (2.52.45) and Leanne Sheldon (3.48.51).