It was a mixed bag for St Albans Striders at the final scoring match of the 2019 Scott’s Travel Midweek Road Race League (MWRRL) at Trent Park. Club captains Jenny Maddocks and Errol Maginley were successful in securing a large turnout for the club, with 94 runners out of a total of 418 in the race, and five other clubs competing. At the top end, Steve Buckle put in a fine performance to come fifth overall in 35:10 in the off-road and undulating 10K route. He was followed by Chris Wrighton 17th in 36:50, Jonathan Scott 24th in 37:06, Rowan Daly 25th in 37:17, and Simon Fraser 38th in 38:08.

For the women, Maddocks was first Strider, and 8th female home in 43:13, with Claire Kremer 12th in 44:10, Wendy Walsh 15th in 44:23, Kathryn Penfold 23rd in 46:54, and Karen Sheard 24th with 47:09.

Unfortunately, in a very competitive field, the other clubs were able to exploit some Strider injury absences and push the club into 3rd place in both the men’s and women’s races on the night. The end result was that Striders emerged 2nd at the end of the season in the men’s competition, third in the women’s, and collectively a narrow third in the league’s top division. On top of that, Striders’ Vet Men finished 3rd, and the Vet Women 2nd after the four scoring races.

The following weekend saw St Albans Striders take part in races all over the world. In Ware, Clare Stephen and Amelia Neill ran the annual ten-mile race in times of 1 hour 26 minutes and 2 seconds, and 1:51:06 respectively.

Matt Bedford ran the Hadleigh Park 15-mile race in 2:20:03, followed by Alison Campbell in 3:10:13. They were both second in their age categories.

Allie Park-Crowne was 7th female and 1st female veteran runner in the notoriously hilly Wales 5km race in Tenby. Fleur Harvey was first VW45 at Bakewell parkrun in an impressive 22:02. Jack Brooks ran his 491st marathon along trails near Hever Castle in 5:37:04. Ian Hirth meanwhile completed the mountainous 28.1 mile Zermatt Ultra Marathon in 6 hours and 42 minutes.

Report by Howard Bull