Davie Stafford’s training has seen a steady improvement in times over a range of distances as a number of Stevenage Striders took to racing over the past week.
Sunday was no exception when he took to Richmond Park and ran his best half marathon in over two years to finish 27th out of over 2,300 runners in a season’s best of 1:26:27.
Running conditions were good last Wednesday when 23 Striders took on the club handicap 5k, a fifth run of the six-race series for 2016.
First home was new member Julie Kempson in 32:50, closely followed by Rebecca White (32:51) and Helen Harris (31:17). The first man home was Peter Monk in 28:27.
Fastest lady on the night was Jacqui Brown in 24:45. Over the series Paul Marshall leads the pack. The last race is on October 12.
Some 222 runners battled it out at Fairlands Park Lakes for this week’s Stevenage parkrun.
First Strider was Ken Marshall finishing 66th in 24:37 and not far behind was Frances Levy who came 68th in 24:48 and was sixth lady to cross the line.
Russell Andrews was 70th in 24:51 while Kealaen Hislop crossed the line in 100th place in 27:21.
Chloe Marshall returned to running after giving birth and completed the course in 159th with 31:16.
Other results: 119th Richard Bates 28:55 (PB); 134th Nicola de Laune 29:59 (PB); 139th Helen Harris 30:14 (PB); 160th James Marshall 31:23, who ran with his wife Chloe.
Lisa Liversidge and Lorraine Wyatt took on the tough Harvest Trail run on Sunday, finishing in one hour one minute.
Club coach Chris Leigh took on his 42nd marathon on Sunday, the Ponton Plod. He improved on his last few trail marathon times in a time of five hours 36 minutes.
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