Jess has now received confirmation that she's been selected for the Danish Olympic marathon team – well done Jess, what an amazing achievement! She will be running on Sunday 5 August and hopefully a number of us will be there to support you.

Jess' qualification came from running a fantastic 2:34:56 at the London Marathon in April.

We had a great turnout for this event, 27 Stragglers in total (14 ladies, 13 men). The ladies team did very well easily winning the team prize with four ladies in the top five! Since this was a Surrey Championship race, Sarah Winter won the Surrey Championship prize, with Sonia Bandeira and Carys Mills taking 2nd and the 3rd prize respectively. Sarah Winter won the V35 category, Carys Mills won the V45 category and Helen Brett won the V55 category and Dee Smale was second in the V35 category, well done ladies! The men did very well too, Justin West was 2nd overall, and won the Surrey Championship prize, and Noel Hollingsworth won the V50 prize. So a fabulous day for Stragglers! THANK YOU to everyone who ran or helped with marshalling.

We are now putting together teams for the Runnymede Relays - a six-person relay set in the confines of Windsor Great Park and in sight of Windsor Castle. The race starts at 12 noon on Saturday 7th July.

All legs start and finish at the same point so there are no complicated changeovers to organise. Each team is to comprise six runners. This may include no more than 3 senior males (aged 16 to 39). The remainder of the team may comprise juniors, ladies and veteran male runners. Distances include three short legs (2.75 miles) and three long legs (5.25 miles) per team.

To enter or express an interest, please see Nick Brown on a Thursday night, or contact him on email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

39 Stragglers took part in this year's London Marathon, with several more competing in similar events in Brighton, Paris and elsewhere.

As this is the 10th series of the Junior Handicap, we are going to celebrate it with a Special Event on Thursday 5th July. This will involve a Minis run of one lap and a team relay.

To take part, Register online now!

April's Stragmag is now available! Visit the News and Events > Stragmag page to download.

As part of our campaign to raise awareness of The Stragglers in the local community we would really like everyone, if at all possible, to wear our club kit during all club runs and park runs please. Sue Waters, Carys Mills and Roy Reeder currently have all existing stock so please see one of them on club nights if you need any kit.

Dates for the Junior Handicap 2012 season are now available on the Stragglers Juniors' Events page. First race sets off Thursday 26th April!

From 20th February, Kingston & Poly AC will be resuming its series of monthly athletics talks supported by the South West London Athletics Network.
I have included the schedule for the next four months below. As before, these talks are held on the third Monday of each month. All talks will start at 7:30pm and are kindly hosted by the Pure Sports Medicine Clinic at the David Lloyd Centre in Raynes Park. All talks are free to everyone.