CLC Striders Race report for the 2024 Cheltenham half marathon - Sunday 1 September 2024
On a warm and humid early September Sunday morning, no fewer than 20 CLC Striders joined the mass start for the annual Cheltenham Half Marathon. This year with a revised course, to avoid the gruelling circuit of the Racecourse itself at the finish, the race took in the iconic streets of our Regency town and enjoyed great support from locals throughout.
On the day, the club saw four of its runners place in the top 50, with Rob Green clocking 01:12:02 for 6th place overall and 3rd on his MV40 category, Rob Barnett setting an electric new PB time of 01:15:16 for 13th place overall, Joe Willgoss, returning from injury, registering a very pleasing 01:15:30 for 14th overall, and John Comer crossing the line in 01:23:50 for 40th place overall.
Next home for the club was Tom Burgess, running cautiously as part of injury rehab but still managing a sub-90-minute time of 01:27:16 for 67th overall. Only a week after running 100km on the track, Helen Knight was the 9th lady overall and 3rd in her VF40 category in a time of 01:30:27. Struggling with a virus, Will Pearce had taken on 1:30 pacing duties on the day and battled hard to come in at 01:31:40.
Then came three Striders finishing within a minute of one another – Liam Richardson in 01:33:03, Andy Richardson in 01:33:10 and Sheng Peng (who started almost 10 minutes later than the masses after forgetting his race number and fought his way through the field) in 01:33:47. Matt Ashman and Adam Greenwood finished within sight of each other, too, in 01:35:23 and 01:35:41 respectively.
Gavin Jerman secured a top-10 placing in his VM60 category (9th) with a time of 01:42:54 and Joel Freeland coasted round in 01:44:29. Deborah Rees clocked 01:46:10, Jack Wilde 01:51:20, Helen Howes 01:55:44, Colin Upton 01:56:39, Sam Templeton 02:29:10 and Heather Ip 02:29:51.
Meanwhile, in the 10k race, Morwenna Suleiman clocked 45:15 for 2nd place in her VF40 category and a top-10 ladies placing, while Ed Collier was 5th in his VM60 category in a time of 00:51:39.
All-in-all, it was a good morning’s racing from CLC striders in this, the biggest local road race in the calendar. Attention now turns to the Midland Road Relays later this month and the start of the cross-country season after that.
