#MarchMiles #teamnhrr

How far can we get as a club?

Let's see if our collective club mileage for March can take us all the way to Athens - passing some other Olympic host cities on the way...How far can we get?

Athens 2021
Helsinki 1720
Rome 1183
Barcelona 967
Innsbruck 808
Berlin 724
Paris 331
London 39

To participate, make sure that you are part of the North Herts Road Runners Strava group...

Take a look at the video for more information!

On Saturday Susan and I took on the Wolfpack 100 - a 100km Trail Race, to raise money for the Fair Share Charity …..the total raised for the event currently stands at £19,000 plus provided nearly 10,000 hot meals for underprivileged people, which feels great to support, with so many people struggling through the pandemic.

100 solo runners and 75 teams around the country entered (it’s the first time this event has taken place) , and you have the whole weekend to finish, and could split it into multiple smaller runs.
However, we decided , as I wanted to watch the footy on Sunday, to do it all in one go, and with the brilliant Spring sunshine on Saturday, it was awesome fun 

We took a route along the Icknield Way and then the whole Kingfisher Way (twice) to make up the 100km ....we took it nice and steady so we could include the final few hours running in the dark.
As it’s right on our doorstep, I’d wholeheartedly recommend the Kingfisher Way (21 miles from Baldock to Tempsford) as really runnable, well-signposted, super views, and loads of cake shops en-route ....all pre-requisites for a NHRR Run 
We would have finished in daylight if Susan hadn’t challenged me to a Plank-on-a-Bridge challenge, and then the eating-tumbleweed-on-the-nasty-trolls-bridge competition  - I did get my revenge by guiding her through the stinkiest flooded fields I could find .

Tired legs at the end but we got home in time for a Chinese Banquet……a great day out for a great cause

Take a look at John explaining the February Bingo challenge, we're looking forward to seeing how you get on!

Tag #BingoNHRR and the task name on social media or strava and if you want your photo to be shared, email nhrr.instagram@gmail.com.

​Happy Running!

October Ultra-Challenge
By Mike Bullock

Susan and I set ourselves what felt like an impossible and painful challenge for October … to run seven Ultra Marathons and four 10ks between us. As trail races were easier to safely stage, we had decided to show our support to the trail-running community and particularly the guys who work so hard to stage these races. 

Yesterday we completed it at the Spire Ultra ...my October tally is 4 Ultras and 2 10k's, Susan's is 3 Ultras and 2 10k's. I managed a 1st place and two 4th places, and Susan clocked up a 5th and a 10th place.
Yesterday's 53km race was the hardest of the lot, yet the most rewarding, even with 1452m of climbing 

I grew up in Chesterfield in the Peak District as an 18 stone youth with no interest in the hills and forests around me. It has always rankled me to have missed running in such a beautiful part of the country, and when I saw there was an Ultra going round my hometown, I arranged for us to run it with a guy I've not seen since school in 1988, but he started running a year ago and is now hooked. 

The race was postponed twice due to COVID, but finally went ahead yesterday, and I am totally humbled once again by race organisers that work so hard to get races going throughout this difficult year. I can’t imagine they make any money, with all the extra precautions they put on, but they are runners like us, who want to give something back to the sport they love. Also, I'm blown away by the marshalls that stand for 12 hours in awful conditions, and are always cheerful and selfless. They are like angels when your body is just screaming at you to stop running. 

Once upon a time, a race organiser trekking us to the start line in a field in freezing rain, then announcing he had forgotten his stopwatch would have caused an uproar of disgruntled runners, but yesterday it was fantastic to see every single runner see the funny side that after negotiating all the way through COVID our race was hijacked by a missing stopwatch.....after he sprinted 20 minutes back to his car to get the watch, we could start, but it was a great opportunity to chat to other runners and make more running-friends. 

When we eventually got underway in small groups, we missed our start time as Susan was chatting!! So we were allowed to start in the next group 

Within the first two miles there were two river crossings (FREEZING AND DEEP) and more mud and slippery rocks than I've ever seen, and a course that just went up..down..up...down etc . All very treacherous, as proven when Susan face-planted in some particularly stinky mud, and bum-slid down a big hill. ​