Valencia Marathon & parkruns

Consuelo Kennefick, from Striders of Croydon, had an excellent run in the Valencia Marathon last week. She set a new club W50 record of 3 hours 36 minutes 31, which was more than 13 minutes faster than the previous record, set by Maria Gabriel in 2019. This made Consuelo the oldest female Strider to run a marathon in under 3 hours 40, and lifted her to 25th place in Striders’ all-time women’s rankings.

On Saturday morning, in very wet conditions, Striders had 84 finishers in the various weekly parkruns. Marc Burrows was first out of 49 finishers in the Squerryes Winery parkrun (21:14). Cindy Siu was the first woman to finish the Lloyd parkrun, placing 26th overall (25:28). Andy Perks was second out of 92 finishers in the Roundshaw parkrun (20:32). Erik Schrijnemaekers was second out of 45 finishers in the Bethlem Royal Hospital parkrun (21:08). Consuelo Kennefick was the second woman to finish the Riddlesdown parkrun, placing 15th overall (25:16). Lee Flanagan was third in the Lloyd parkrun (20:56), while Selena Wong was the third woman to finish, placing 31st overall (26:39). Andrew Aitken was fourth in the South Norwood parkrun (19:03). Alan Purchase was fourth in the Havelkanal parkrun in Brandenburg (24:34). Ellyw Evans was the fourth woman to finish the Penrhyn parkrun, placing 15th overall (23:46).

In the RunThrough Battersea Park 10K on Saturday, Tim Lawlor placed 11th in the M45 age-group and 104th overall in a personal best of 41 minutes 42.