Sneyd Striders Christmas Pudding Run Turkey Trot Half Marathon

There was a good contingent of SDRR runners at the Sneyd Strider's Christmas Pudding run and, despite the cold and wet conditions, there were several excellent performances and a number of PBs achieved.Second claimer Louise Insley ran superbly for a PB of 62:54, which gained her the 1st women’s prize and 25^th position overall. Jack Leafe, running the distance for the first time, also had a great run, finishing 10^th overall, with a time of 59:33. He was closely followed by Andy Hawtin who came in 14^th overall and, whilst Andy was slightly disappointed not to break the magic hour mark, he achieved a big PB for the distance knocking over 2 minutes off his previous PB. Andy Orme was another runner to achieve a PB, finishing next for the Club in 44^th position, in a time of 66:14. Steve Leafe didn’t manage a PB but still ran strongly to finish in 55^th position in a time of 68:16, which gained him 1st place in the MV55 category. Yet another PB was achieved by Dave Lunn, using his experience of running the race for a number of years, to have an excellent run of 85:48 in 232^nd position. Felicity Towns completed the finishers for SDRR in the 10 miler, making light of the wet weather to finish in 318^th position, in a time of 1.45.23. Having had her training cut back by a niggling injury, Christina Hawtin wisely chose to run the 5 mile race, and completed a double for SDRR by winning the women’s 1st prize in a time of 32:57 seconds, which also gained her 8^th place overall. Chris Gunstone, who has been concentrating on shorter distances this year, also ran in the 5 mile race, with a superb time of 31:55 seconds in 5^th position.
Four Club members attended the Turkey Trot half marathon. Shane Chapman was first back in a time of 1.22.40, Tom Bradley was next in 1.29.18. Carolyn Ife was first of the two ladies in 2.21.54, while Heidi Elliott achieved a time of 2.24.40 Shane ran a PB by 20 seconds and found it an enjoyable undulating course, with great support from locals and would recommend it for next year. Tom did the race for the first time and enjoyed the inclines and declines that made the course have some good variety. His time achieved the silver standard time for his age group which he was pleased with. It was Carolyn’s second time at this event and she knocked 13 minutes off last years time. Strangely enough she found the hills seemed a lot flatter this year, must be Inge’s hill sessions! It was Heidi’s second time doing the race and she was trying to pace a friend round to a PB but unfortunately the friend was recovering from a chest infection so failed. She loved the rolling undulations, great local support, hated the hilly estate at the end, and thought it was cold!