Race Reports

Striders of Croydon faced strong opposition in the first Surrey Cross-Country League races of the season on Saturday. Their men placed ninth in their Division Two match at Epsom Downs. They were led by Tatsuya Okamoto who ran well to finish 35th, completing the eight-kilometre course in 28 minutes 52 seconds. Andrew Aitken was 42nd

Striders of Croydon had eight finishers in the Manchester Marathon on Sunday. They were led by Mark Lankester, running his second marathon within a month, who did well to finish in 3 hours 15 minutes 04 seconds. Striders’ next two finishers both ran well to record personal bests, with James Burree finishing in 3 hours

Striders of Croydon had 14 finishers in the Virgin London Marathon on Sunday. They were led by Graeme Drysdale who ran very well to finish in 3 hours 00 minutes 47 seconds. Striders’ oldest finisher, Steve Corfield, also ran well to finish in 3 hours 16 minutes 47. Striders’ women were led by Rachel Lindley

Tatsuya Okamoto, from Striders of Croydon, had an excellent run to place first out of 220 finishers in the Beckenham Half-Marathon on Sunday, recording 81 minutes 48 seconds, and finishing more than a minute ahead of his nearest rival. Club colleague Peter Johnson placed tenth (92:37). Andrew Aitken also ran very well to place fourth

Peter Johnson, from Striders of Croydon, ran very well to place fourth in the M55 age-group in the Veterans AC 10000 metre championships at Wimbledon Park on Wednesday. His time of 41 minutes 16.67 seconds was a Striders age-group record for this distance on the track, being almost 40 seconds faster than the previous record,

Rachel Lindley, from Striders of Croydon, produced another very good run to be the first woman to finish the Coldham’s Common parkrun in Cambridge on Saturday morning. She placed eleventh overall out of 347 finishers, completing the five-kilometre course in 19 minutes 08 seconds. Ellyw Evans was the second woman to finish the South Norwood

Rachel Lindley, from Striders of Croydon, had an excellent run in the RunThrough Olympic Park Half-Marathon in Stratford on Sunday. She was the third woman to finish, placing first in the W40 age-group and 46th overall. She set a new club W40 record of 87 minutes 01 second, which was more than seven minutes faster

Matthew Stone, from Striders of Croydon, ran very well to place 15th out of 112 finishers, and first in the M55 age-group, in the Serpentine five-kilometre road race at Hyde Park on Friday. His time of 17 minutes 48 seconds was a new Striders mens over-50 record, being five seconds faster than the previous record

Ally Whitlock, from Striders of Croydon, had an excellent run on Monday to set the fastest known time by a woman for the Vanguard Way. She completed the undulating 68-mile route from Croydon to Newhaven in 16 hours 26 minutes 52 seconds. Rachel Lindley ran very well to be the third woman to finish the

Marc Burrows, from Striders of Croydon, ran very well to finish first in the Fontainebleau parkrun in France on Saturday morning, recording 21 minutes 29 seconds. Matthew Stone also ran very well to place third in the Lloyd parkrun (19:16), while third places were also achieved by Rob Sharpe in the Riddlesdown parkrun (20:12) and