Stratford Big 10k and Half Marathon.

Report: David Jones.

Below is the report that was submitted to the local press:

Bright sunshine and a glorious autumnal morning greeted the 1355 runners who competed in these two races last Sunday.

The weather was perfect for running and some 45 SUAAC runners competed and they certainly made the most of the ideal conditions.

In the half marathon the club’s Ben Kruze held off the challenge of Northbrook AC runner Adrian McBride to win with a time of 1:11.19, just 5 seconds ahead of his rival. This despite the fact that Ben has recently been unwell.

Jamie Hall from Stratford finished in 3rd place overall with a time of 1:14.25, just 12 seconds off his personal best, this despite having run his 1st marathon just 7 days ago.

Seth Turner (1:27.05) finished in 21st place and James Lake, running his 2nd half marathon, finished in 25th place with a time of 1:28, a 10 minute improvement on his first effort some 7 months ago, this despite him also feeling unwell for the 48 hours leading up to the race. 

The other SUAAC runners to complete the half marathon were George Gherase (1:33.47), Clare Goodwin (1:49.42), Yumiko Turner (1:52.59), Bethan Pearson (2:01.14), Ali Kirk (2:29.08) and Kate Sergent (2:29.28) who was competing in her 7th half marathon of the year.

826 runners completed the 10k race, a race that saw several of the club’s juniors excel with 4 of them occupying the first 7 places.

The race was won by Ian Allen of Spa Striders in 31:57. He was followed by Stratford’s Lambert brothers Zak and Sam in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. 17 year old Zak ran a time of 33:48, over a couple of minutes quicker than his PB at the same race last year. Sam, his 15 year old brother, recorded a time of 33:58 in his inaugural 10k road race.

Superlative performances by the Lambert brothers.

U17 William Mayes ran a time of 35:51, some 42 seconds quicker than his time in this race last year to finish in 5th place. William’s brother U17 James finished in 18th place, his time of 38:53  was 83 seconds quicker than his time last year. Tom Fisher, another of the club’s talented U17 endurance runners was 7th in a time of 36:48. The 6th of the Stratford juniors to finish in the top 20 was 18th placed James Day in 38:34.

Other of our juniors competing were Josh Harrison who did himself proud by finishing his first 10k in 40:40 to finish in 32nd place and new member Nathan Brennan finished in a time of 46:44 to finish in 133rd place.

Flying the flag for the club’s senior runners was Adam Evans (8th – 36.49).

The outstanding performances of so many of the club’s juniors endurance runners is just reward for the hard work they have put in at the club’s coached training sessions.

The seniors work pretty hard as well!

Please follow the link below for a list of competitors who registered as Stratford Athletic Club members ( I note there is an errant Stratford Parkrunner listed!)

Half Marathon:

https://www.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=16418&RId=914&EId=2&dt=0&adv=1

Big 10k:

https://www.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=16418&RId=914&EId=1&dt=0&adv=1

James Lake’s Half Marathon

Report – James Lake

I’ve only raced one half marathon before, some 7 months ago, during which time I’ve made progress on all my other (read: shorter!) PBs – so it was about time I signed up for another one.

I caught Covid a week before the original date, so was (selfishly) delighted to hear it was postponed – but as luck would have it I managed to come down with flu in the days leading up to the second date too… but, it’s our home marathon, so I decided to give it a go. If I hit my target, great, and if I didn’t, at least I had an easy excuse!

I’m sure most of you are familiar with the course, but for any that aren’t, you can break it down into three chunks: a hilly 5k out to the Greenway, an 11k loop out to Long Marston & back, and finally a 5k up the greenway back to Stratford. (The 10k route skips the 11k loop in the middle).

It’s an unusual race start, with the HM runners being slightly further back on the left of the road and the 10k runners being on the right, with the HM starting first and the 10k starting when the lead HM runner reached their start line. Sounds complicated (might just be my rubbish description – see Tempo Events on facebook for a video) but it worked flawlessly and made for a very entertaining and busy first 20 minutes. 

As with most races you quickly settle into a group, and with sub-90 being such a common milestone I found myself pacing a small pack by the time we hit the Greenway towards Long Marston. My pace training kicked in as I settled into the right gear and began to tick the kilometres off.

By the time I made it back to the Greenway for the final chunk of the course, it was noticeably heating up due to the glorious winter sunshine, much to mine and the people around me’s complaints!

This is the point where my sensible pacing started to pay dividends, as I realised I was actually feeling good enough to stay on track for a sub 90, and began to slowly pick people off.

I gave a few people the insider knowledge of sticking to the left to find the most compacted section of the gravel – hopefully that helped one or two hit their targets too!

I was pleasantly surprised to not only break the sub-90 mark but actually to do that quite comfortably, knocking 10 minutes off my previous PB. (Which probably means I ought to try again when I’m not ill… or at least, I’ve got room for another PB in spring!)

Thank you to all the SAC members who provided fantastic support throughout the course, whether that was marshalling or cheering on – it kept a smile on my face and my brain suitably distracted.

Congratulations to all of the other Stratford runners in the 10k and the half marathon – it was an excellent turnout from the club. 

Time for some R&R before the XC season kicks off…

Clare Goodwin’s Half Marathon

Report – Clare Goodwin

I had been training for a few months with Bethan Pearson.  We worked out during parkrun that we were doing the same race. I always seem to run 1:56 so I was desperate to get a better time. 

On race day it was good to see the ‘yellow vest’ brigade. It made me feel so much better.  At the start line I stood with Kate Sergent and Beth.  Pip Bell swooped in and did a selfie of us all.  

At every corner of this race I felt so supported with lots of Stratford AC marshals. I made the best start that I could.  At the Greenway Hannah Osborne was looking out for me as I couldn’t see the pathway.  

It seemed like a long stretch coming down the Greenway and Beth overtook me at this stage. Then onto Station Road and into Long Marston. I didn’t enjoy running around that loop. It felt like I was backtracking. I was much happier when I’d got through Long Marston and back onto the Greenway.  

Near the end of the Greenway some ‘speedy Welford snails’ were behind me.  Then they overtook me.  I knew them from my village so we were spurring each other on.  I felt very tired at this point.  The gravel path hurt my feet.  Then into Old Town and on into Stratford.

The support was amazing on the footbridge.  I could hear and see Hannah and Emily.  It was incredible.  Then I could see the finish and over the line I went.  Susan Hunt gave me my medal and Rosie Slocombe hugged me and called me a ‘super star’! 

I was over the moon to run 1:49:42 and break my PB by 7 minutes and I was first lady back for Stratford. 

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The Gower 50

Report – Mark Barker:

Last Saturday I took part in a 50 mile ultra around the beautiful Gower peninsula.

The event was organised by the appropriately named Run, Walk, Crawl. Tthere were 3 distances to choose from, 23 mile trail, 34 mile ultra bach and the 50 miler, although as I later found out it would actually be 52 miles for me!

The race kicked off at 7am at a very dark Mumbles cricket club.  150 runners, on a self navigating route.   We had a GPS tracker attached to our rucksacks in case we got lost or decided to cheat and take a short cut. This was excellent for family and friends to monitor progress, send encouraging messages and in my case to advise when I had gone the wrong way!  

The route was circular, starting off with a fast 16 miles on mainly tarmac, then it was time to switch to the trail shoes waiting for me at checkpoint 2. From here on in it was a slow 36 miles of coastal path. The coastal paths had everything, it started with marshland, which was ankle deep mud, then came the rolling hills, scrambling on rocky cliff paths, sand dune hills, and several miles of beaches. 

It was a glorious sunny day, the spectacular scenery helped me to not think about the distance or terrain.The checkpoints were every 4 to 7 miles, in my mind I tried to keep focussed on the distance to the next checkpoint, avoiding the temptation to think of the distance to the finish. 

The self-navigating route was much tougher than I had anticipated.  Whilst I had the route on my phone it was not easy to read without my glasses!  It was tough going, although physically I was fine, I realised I needed to invest in some running poles, like my fellow runners that were speeding past me on the tough terrain.  

I was 11 hours and 45 miles into the race, as I reached the final checkpoint, the day light was almost gone.  I emptied the sand from my shoes, topped up my water bottles, had a slice of orange, a few crisps, put on the head torch and set off into the darkness for the final 7 miles.  

I had trained on trails in the dark but nothing had quite prepared me for what was to come.  It was completely dark, with only the white spot of my head torch to guide me, the path gradually descended from the cliffs, through woodland, down to the sea.   When I got down to sea level, I approached a river, I could not find any way to cross as the tide was in,  I followed the river to the sea, still unable to find a way to cross and in complete darkness, I retraced my steps and waited for other runners, it was not long before I saw some head torches coming down the hill.   There were 3 other runners who had formed a group and were sensibly navigating the terrain together with the principle that 3 head torches are better than 1!   The group of 3 became 4, as we looked for a way over the river, we found a path going upstream and soon found a bridge.  

We stuck together from there on in, we became good friends in that final part of the race, it was strange as I never saw their faces, just voices with a bright light on their heads! 

My watch pinged to say I had done 50 miles but my new best friends had reminded me there was still 2 miles to go.  The final 2 miles went on forever, partly because we went the wrong way up a steep hill, my brothers were watching on the gps tracker and were messaging  “STOP, YOU ARE GOING THE WRONG WAY AGAIN”!     

Eventually we approached the final footpath taking us back to the cricket club where it all started 13 hours and 44 minutes earlier, finishing together with my new pals!

It was a challenge like no other I had done before, I have learnt a lot about ultra trail running and have unfinished business with the Gower 50, so hope to be back in 2025, along with running poles and my glasses!