For St Albans Striders the spring marathon season was in full swing over the weekend with a number of the club's runners taking part in events across the continent.

First off was seasoned marathoner Jack Brooks who started the Ibiza Marathon at 4pm on Saturday 7th and finished in 4:39:18. He was quoted as saying that it was hillier and tougher than expected. 

Mike Dando, Adam Mellor, and Andrew Hull all took part in the Rome Marathon in hot conditions. Dando completed the 26.2 mile race in 4:10:10, knocking 40 minutes off his PB in the process, while Mellor and Hull ran together in 5:29:17.

In Manchester Linda Cassidy completed her first ever marathon in 5:36:10. Marcus Hooper ran in 3:42:04 and Wai Meng Au-Yeong finished in 5:59:26.

In the Paris Marathon Ruth Kent finished with a new Personal Best of 4:04:40. Andrew Mckillop crossed the line in 3:15:01 while Russell Sessions had a tough race but successfully finished in 3:41:18. 

In other race distances, Ben Scott completed the Sheffield Half Marathon in 1:41:33 followed by Jenna Pickering in 2:25:03. The club had a strong showing at the Sandy 10 mile road race, including Jonathan Scott in 58:04, Gary Warren 1:02:10, Nigel Aston getting a new PB of 1:06:56, and Wendy Walsh crossing the line in 1:10:57. 

Tim and Gemma Searle both got PBs at the Leighton 10K with 38:53 and 52:46 respectively. Phillip Evans also ran a PB and finished in second place overall with 34:38 while Hannah Prentice came in at 52:41.

Finally, Matt Childs got his first sub-20 5K with 19:35 at St Albans parkrun on Saturday. 

On 8th May the club will be launching another round of its successful Run With Striders programme for new people hoping to improve their running, with the tagline 'Fitter, Faster, Further'. Info can be found at www.stalbansstriders.com/club-...

Report by Howard Bull. 

Photo of Andrew Hull and Adam Mellor running the Rome Marathon by Petra Große-Hull.

Additional photo of Linda Cassidy following the Greater Manchester Marathon.