The Wimbledon 5K Dash marked not only the end of the Stragglers Road Series but also the finale of the club’s Surrey Road League Campaign.  We competed against 34 other clubs across 7 races nominated by the league.  In each race, the finishing positions of our top 3 runners were aggregated, and our best 5 team scores from the 7 races made up our final overall total score.  This score determined our final league positions.

There was also an individual competition organised by age categories for everyone completing at least 5 of the 7 races. The races making up the Road league were:

• Richmond Half-Marathon  Sunday 30th April
• Sutton 10km  Sunday 7th May
• Dorking 10 miles  Sunday 4th  June
• Richmond 10km Sunday 18th June  
• Elmore 7 miles  Saturday 15th July
• Elmbridge 10km  Sunday 23rd July
• Wimbledon 5km  Sunday 13th August

In all 7 races, the support from The Stragglers was magnificent with over 266 individual appearances reflecting the increased participation in the club, not only at the traditionally well supported races like the Richmond and Elmbridge 10Ks but also the likes of Elmore and Dorking races.

So how did the Stragglers do?

Ladies

The ladies continued their upward momentum following their cross-country promotion to Division 1 with a very strong showing with a final 4th place position (moving up from 10th last year).  A mere 6 points ultimately separated them from the very top spot won by Ranelagh.

A review of the season shows that the ladies picked up their best points total at the Richmond Half, Sutton 10K, Dorking 10 Mile and Elmbridge 10K, but saved their best until last with a maximum 35 points scored in an exciting finish at Wimbledon helping to consolidate their league position.

In the individual competition three Stragglers featured having completed 5 races, Kate Suttle in the senior lady category and the ever-present Sabine Duffy in the F35 category and Helen Davies in the F45 respectively.

 

Men

The upward trajectory of the club was not just confined to the ladies, with the men now also ‘starting to punch their weight’.  A final position of 7th was achieved by the men,  improving significantly on their finishing position of 12th in the previous year.  For the men the Sutton 10K, Dorking 10 Mile, Richmond 10K were all ‘happy hunting grounds’, but the Elmore 7 and Elmbridge 10K were where we scored our highest points.  Like the ladies, the men were able to enjoy the end of the season looking down on a veritable ‘who’s who’ of Surrey running clubs (and 26.2!).

In the individual awards, there was also plenty to talk about with both Dan Greenslade and Martin Vivian featuring in the M40 category and the Malcolm’s (Davies & Fletcher!) finishing 4th and 8th in the M50 competition. The best result, however, was left to the M60 category with Phil Davies picking up the Surrey League silver medal for his fine form over the season.

Thank you to everyone who ran over the season and supported such a great team performance and here’s to next year!

Final results can be found on the Surrey Road League website.

Below is Phil Davies receiving his M60 silver medal.  Congratulations to Phil.