Striders have a Great time in the north-east

Five Spa Striders headed north-east to take part in the Bupa Great North Run - the world’s second largest half-marathon.

Conditions turned cool and wet soon after the mass start, but this dd not deter nearly 55,000 finishers as they headed out on the point-to-point course from Newcastle to South Shields.

James Glover was the first of the quartet home in 1hr 33min 37sec, which earned him 1,452nd place.

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Caroline Whitehouse revelled in the atmosphere to run a new personal best of 1:42:01, finishing just over a minute ahead of team-mate Kate Evans (1;43:54).

Martin Blazeby (2:04:01) and Steve Atherton (2:18:01) completed the Striders contingent.

Kenilworth Runners had two representatives, with Rod Goodwin running well to finish 5,957th in 1:46:08, and Kerry Blakeman’s 1:56:51 good for 12,417th.

Kenilworth Runners’ Neil Smith and Claire Goult were in action on the first weekend in September when they took part in the Wolverhampton Half Marathon and Marathon, respectively.

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Smith ran well to finish 102nd in 1:39:04, while Goult, hampered by a lack of training due to injury, finished 116th overall and ninth lady in 4:06:49.

There were more than 1,800 finishers in the 2012 Maidenhead Half Marathon, held on a fast and flat two-lap course around Maidenhead and Cookham.

It proved to be a good PB course as Kenilworth Runners’ Dave Pettifer stormed around to finish with a chip time of 1:29:46, earning him 187th position overall and second V60 finisher.

His time moves him well into the top 50 for V60 half-marathon times in 2012 and his World Association of Veteran Athletes age grading of 83.9 per cent is one of the highest recorded by a Kenilworth Runner.

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Pete Bryan was first Kenilworth Runner to finish Coventry parkrun 134, finishing seventh in 17:56.

There were also big course PBs for Steve Ramus, whose 19:37 sliced 92 seconds from his previous best set in May, new member Ellie Coulthard, who ran 48 seconds faster than her previous best with 21:37 and Samantha Calder (25:20).

Coventry parkrun (selected others): 14, Phil Fusi (19:04); 16, Mick Williams (19:07); 25, Jon Mettyear (19:36).

Kenilworth Runners’ Phil Gould was the winner of Leamington parkrun 74, finishing three seconds outside his course PB on the 5k course in 17:02.

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Martin Dorrill made his parkrun debut and finished third in 18:31.

Fellow Runner Stephen Page also finished in the top ten, coming home seventh in 19:28, while there was a new course PB for Colin Underhill, who took four seconds from his previous best with 22:24.

Leamington parkrun (selected others): 72, Marie Voice (23:50); 119, Pauline Dable (27:44).

Paddy Roddy returned to form with a second-placed finish at Brueton parkrun 113, running a course PB en route to second position in 16:55.

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