Leigh Striders Outings

NINE Leigh Striders took part in the London Landmarks Half Marathon this year: Charlie Phillippe, Phil Higgins, Rupert Chappell, Tom Davis, Elizabeth Underwood, Malcolm Keys, Sophie Bartlett, Angela Beckwith and Sarah Nash.

This event, organised by Tommy’s (a charity that funds vital research into miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth), started by Pall Mall, finished by Downing Street, and passed Nelson’s Column, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Walkie Talkie, Monument, Tower of London, London Eye, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

Over 18,000 runners in total took part in a run that had DJ’s, choirs, brass bands, and even a drummer to encourage the participants.

Leigh Strider David Harding took part in the Mascot Dash where, despite being somewhat disadvantaged by his outfit, he finished in fourth place!

Mr Harding said: “After running for the Tommy’s charity for a number of years at the London Landmarks Half Marathon I was invited to represent them in the Mascot Dash, a 100 metre ‘run’ against other charity mascots at the finish line in Whitehall.

“It was quite challenging due to the high winds and inappropriate (for the conditions) costume, but so much fun and for such a wonderful charity.

“After the race I was invited to cheer everyone on from the top of the open top Tommy’s bus on Westminster Bridge, which was incredible.”

Brighton Marathon – The Brighton Marathon had a record number of 13,000 runners taking part, four of whom were representing Leigh Striders – James Burns, who finished in 3.29.41, Andy Collier in 3:37:26, Toby Dando in 4.24.17 and Cat Googe in 4.48.58.

In addition to raising £6k for Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital (along with her husband, David) with marathon fundraising efforts to date, this was a PB for Mrs Googe, which she was absolutely delighted about.

She said, “After a difficult couple of weeks I had no idea how it would go, but I just decided to get out there and run it as best as I could and if it felt too much gave myself permission to do what felt right.

“It’s hard to run 26.2 miles and I had to dig deep a few times, but it didn’t feel as hard as London last year and I didn’t feel as broken at the end, and I knocked ten minutes off my time last year and got myself a PB!

“Doing my first marathon when I turned 50 last year ignited something in me and now I’ve got my second one under my belt, the (possibly bonkers) plan of a marathon every year of my 50s still feels exciting.

“I started running six years ago and couldn’t manage more than two minutes without stopping and had zero thoughts of ever running a marathon. Like so many things in life if you keep putting one foot in front of the other you can make incredible things happen.”

Picture – in the race photo Mr Harding is on the right in the rainbow costume.

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