Race Date: Sunday 11th February 2024
Popular with Steel City over the years as a stepping stone to a spring marathon the club had two finishers this year in this undulating and highly rural excursion into deepest Rutland. In it’s 30th edition the team from Stamford Striders put on yet another excellent, well organised race.
It’s February so the gloves are on with Phil Gregory working hard up one of the slopes. (David Babbs)
Phil Gregory had intended to use this as a training effort at 5 min/km pace (8 min miles in English) but with good conditions he found himself chugging along and feeling quite good so why deliberately hold back. Then, ahead, he spotted a white cap and yellow vest looking just like our very own Malcolm Baggaley but when he passed him with less than five miles to go it turned out to be an impostor from Nottingham based Formula One CC. Finishing strongly Phil also passed Sarah Allcard although everyone struggled on the perilous final lap of the school playing field with racing shoes now needing a good clean. Did the F1 team arrange a quick tyre change into XC spikes?
Stamford, notorious for its t-shirt, excelled itself this year with this effort.
First home ahead of a field of 527 finishers was William Strangeway (Lincoln Wellington) 1:38:18 with Rachel Doherty (Higham) leading the ladies home in 1:35:55. Sarah Allcard was first F50. A feature of the event is the prize for the first Valentine pair, Shannon Barton (Higham) and Conor Goodwin-Tindall (Stamford) with a combined time of 4:05:55.
| Pos | Name | Cat | Time |
| 135 | Phil Gregory | M40 | 02:17:20 |
| 148 (1) | Sarah Allcard | F50 | 02:18:51 |
Stamford St Valentines Day 30k
There is a fable that the pace run at Stamford is a useful predictor for your marathon time. This suggests that both Phil and Sarah are capable of sub 3:15 in a couple of months time. No presuure there then.
Sarah Allcard just behind the chap with the white cap. Phil is less than a minute behind at this stage. (David Babbs)