Stilton Striders ladies second at Holme Pierrepont GP series

A total of 23 Stilton Striders competed in the Holme Pierrepont Grand Prix series EMN-190716-145740002

The first of four races was over four miles around Rushcliffe Country Park on a wet evening.

Tom Bowden had a reoccurrence of his injury and aired on the side of caution by wisely pulling up, but the rest of the Striders moved on to race two at Colwick Park.

Because of preceding wet weather, the original course was changed to three laps around one lake to make up the five miles.

The second week of the series saw runners move across to the Nottingham Trent Embankment to run 5,000m on a pancake flat course in warm evening sunshine.

It was here and at the final race that the Striders missed Vanessa Walker, who had just completed a tough 100km charity walk over the hottest weekend of the year.

The final race was run in more sunshine over 10km, twice around the Nottingham National Watersports Centre, and it produced some outstanding times.

More than 30 different clubs from the East Midlands and beyond took part in the series with prizes and positions based on aggregated times over four completed races.

Stilton Ladies (Natalie Teece, Nicola Taylor and Vicki Lowe) picked up the second team prize for their superb consistent running, while their ladies’ second team (Julie Bass, Lyndsey Apps and Kirsty Nicolls) were fourth, less than a minute outside the top three.

Striders’ men’s A and B teams finished sixth and 12th respectively.

In the individual standings, Natalie Teece was awarded third place in the vet 35 category, while Julie Bass was third vet 55 lady.

Stilton 2nd claim runner Chris Southam also raced the series for Leicester Coritanians AC and finished fourth overall and first in his vet 45 age category.

Striders age category positions and times – 12th Andy Nicolls 1hr 47min 18secs, 16th Clive Kent 2hr 03min 46secs, Natalie Teece 2.05.47, 6th Paul Jacobs 2.06.43, 24th Rich Gray 2.10.16, 8th Nicola Taylor 2.11.14, 12th Ian Craddock 2.16.22, 5th Vicki Lowe 2.16.41, Julie Bass 2.17.17, 24th Rob Mee 2.25.05, 21st Bruno Torre 2.28.16, 3rd Chris Genes 2.28.18, 22nd Kristy Nicholls 2.38.17, 25th Kathy Walsh 2.42.28, 15th Alison Clarke 2.49.33, 43rd Jenny Kent 3.022.13, 12th Ashley Jackson 3.10.47.