Wednesday 21 May saw St Albans Striders host the first race of the 2025 Hertfordshire Midweek Road Race League, with Striders teams dominating the results. This is a series of four 10k races over the coming weeks, with Striders looking to defend their 2024 title.

Will Lindsey (32.16) and Freya Weddell (35.08) were victorious in the men’s and women’s races, setting the tone for Striders in what would be a fantastic evening of results. In the men’s race, Striders put on an impressive performance to gain first place overall, with Adam Yorwerth following Will to second place (32.36), and Stefano Federici the next Strider home in eighth (33.43). The women were also triumphant, with Freya followed by Catherine O’Connor in third (37.34) and Hannah Burkhardt in fifth (38.01).

Across the board there were excellent results for Striders, with a number of Personal Bests and over 80 Striders competing, as well as a huge number of volunteers taking the time to make sure the event ran smoothly.

In addition, Striders topped the veterans categories, with Stacey Ormerod (38.51), Kate Dixon (39.32) and Lucy Waterlow (40.02) putting in notable performances for the women. And for the men, in addition to Stefano, Paul Adams (33.56) and Steve Buckle (34.01) led the field home for Striders.

Outside the midweek league, but still very locally, several Striders competed in the St Albans Backyard Ultra, running laps around the perimeter of Verulamium Park. This was an ultra-endurance race where runners completed a 4 mile loop every hour, on the hour, until only one runner remained. Laura Lane and Leanne Sheldon were joint second women; and Jonny Pennell and Jamie Nelson were in the final seven runners, completing 12 and 11 laps respectively.

Further afield, the Edinburgh Marathon took place this weekend in strong winds, but with lots of impressive Striders results nonetheless. Thiago Fernandes was the first Strider home in 3.09.39, with both Graham Jack (3.27.23) and Michael Hodge (3.29.13) breaking 3 hours 30. And amongst the Striders women competing, Clare Watkins completed the marathon in 3.35.17, with Zhongdan Ma (3.40.25) and Jess Laitner (3.45.23) not far behind.

The British Masters Track and Field competition also took place this weekend at Horspath in Oxford. Paul Stack won silver in both the mile and the 10,000 metres, with a new age group club record of 5.17 in the mile. Andy Jordan also took bronze in his age category in the 10,000 metres.

Nathalie Myfanwy was 17th woman at the Bognor Regis 10km on the 18th May, whilst Phil Leach took part in the picturesque Isle of Canna 10k, taking a 3 hour ferry from mainland Scotland to run across the steep shoreline of the island in 56 minutes.