Race date: Sunday, 6 March 2022

Report by Dot Kesterton

Striders who like the road running series will be familiar with the Norton 9 road race. I heard that hundreds of you had made the one hour journey to Norton for the pleasantly undulating course on quiet lanes taking in the surrounding villages of Womersley and Little Smeaton in life before lockdown. A small group of gold and green’s turned up for this one on a sunny early March morning to jostle for position on the matless startline. I’m not sure why there was no start mat, surely not Covid precaution as we were pretty snug at the start of the race.

I appreciated having the least elevation in the first four miles, gradually building into two good climbs at mile 5 and 8 followed by a welcome descent into Norton to finish in a small field where we recovered, collected T shirts, water and had a good chat to fellow runners in the sunshine.

After much heart searching I had invested in carbon soled running shoes just a week or two earlier. I don’t much like having to use more than my own determination, strength and speed to get me round but over the last few races had noticed how prevalent they were becoming. Whether they helped with the race and recovery or not I dont know but 66 minutes for 9 miles just short of my 70th birthday may well be a decent return on my investment.

The race winner was Jed Bartlett, Hallamshire Harriers in 46:37. First woman was Sarah Hunter, Ackworth Road Runners in 54:58. Dot Kesterton, determined not to go quietly out of her age group was First F65 in 1:06.53. There were 395 runners of whom 166 were women.

Striders results