There was a strong turnout at the St Neots half marathon on Sunday with 16 Striders competing in a field of 850 runners. The first finisher for the Striders was Steve Buckle who came 5th overall in time of 1.13.31 which was a new M40 club record by just under a minute. He was followed by Jonathan Pennell (8th in 1.15.26). The first female Strider finisher was Helen Cartlidge (1.33.51), closely followed by Clare Watkins (1.34.00) which earnt them 5th and 6th in their age category and top 25 across the female field overall. Other notable performances were Mark Howland (1:36:06), Laura Hicks (1:38:11) and Andrew Maher (1:40:10)

Further South the Striders had 5 athletes representing Hertfordshire at the Brighton 10k which incorporated the Southern Inter-County Championships and boasted a large field of 1,200 runners. Megan Walker finished 8th female athlete and Heather Hann 12th in fantastic times of 35:46 and 36:41 respectively which were both personal bests and for Heather over a minute improvement on the Veteran 35 club record which she already held. Their contribution led to a silver medal for the Hertfordshire team. Not to be outdone, in the men’s race Will Bowran finished 19th (32:42), Stefano Federici 26th (33:01) and Matthew Cooper 36th (33:57) narrowly missing out on the bronze medal. Also taking part for Striders was Matt Holman in 39th (34:07) which was a new PB.

The Striders were also represented at the Wendover Woods 10k on a challenging undulating course in the beautiful forest trails in the Chiltern Hills. Richard Evans finished 5th overall in 44.33, followed by Fergus Sheridan (10th in 48.42) and Jack Gaughan (49.44).