25 July 2021 - Super squirrels shine in the sun to bring back some gold

The Doug Anderson 5km was on Wednesday in Bedford Park, Bedford. The met office had issued an Amber extreme heat warning and the temperature at 7:30 was 27 degrees, with 'feels like' 30 degrees. None the less, 8  North Herts Road Runners squirrels participated amongst the 291 finishers. It was a great club event and the first one available in some time. The heat made it very hard and the water on the course was very much appreciated. It was great to sit in the garden of the local pub afterwards with some team mates and recover some fluids over a chat. Matt Sayers said “the race was great, but my highlight was the post race pint.” Despite the heat there was some fantastic performances. The mens team of Tom Webb, Mark Vaughan and Stewart Overton won the mens team competition. And the team of Mark Vaughan, Stewart Overton and Matt Sayers won the veteran mens team competition. Despite the heat, Mike Banister ran a personal best time for 5km. In the individual competition, Matt Sayers won the over 45's mens and Mark Vaughan won the over 50’s mens competition. The whole team celebrated by picking up Sue Vaughan!
First home was Tom Webb who finished 4th in the race with 16:28. Not too far behind was Mark Vaughan who took 7th place in 17:11. Finishing 11th and 12th in the race was Stewart Overton and Matt Sayers who worked together brilliantly and both finished in 17:31.Mike Banister made the top 20, finishing 19th with 18:16. John Auld finished 36th in 19:14. First lady home for the club was Natalie Lawrence in 19:47. Sue Vaughan completed the squirrels turnout finishing in 28:10.

Parkrun was back this week in many places across the country and there was a good turn out from NHRR, 24 in total - most of which ran the local course at Letchworth. Paula Holm said that the event was very well organised and everybody was socially distancing and giving each other space. She “was delighted to run the slightly longer course and come home first lady”. Other courses ran by Squirrels were Oxford, Stevenage, Wimpole Estate, Keswick and Market Rasen Racecourse.
Carl Haskell ran at Oxford with Abbie Haskell and Vicky Haskell. They finished in 25:37, 56:50 and 56:51 respectively. Ian Harvey ran at Stevenage finishing in 21:16 with Georgina and Carina Quayle also finishing in 26:21 and 30:00 respectively. Vince Wright and Jillian Boys ran at Wimpole Estate finishing in 21:55 and 27:06 respectively. Glyn Blakey ran Keswick in 24:28. Andrew Underhill ran Market Rasen Racecourse in 20:59. 14 squirrels ran at Letchworth, James Fox lead the way finishing in 17:39 followed by James Dalton (21:44), Matt Roberts (23:06), Paula Holm (23:07), Kat Gourd (25:24), Steve Benton (25:56), Rhia Botha (26:04), Ellie Scott (26:20), Christian Allen (27:37), Bob Davis (29:02), Amy Murch (30:36), Carl Goodrum (31:33), Philip Flack (31:43) and Brian Bailey (38:15).

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