Four North Herts Road Runners tackled stifling heat and challenging hills at the popular Hitchin Hard 10 kilometre race on Sunday.  Rhia Botha won the ladies race and came fourth overall in a sizzling 47 minutes and 4 seconds, while Nathaniel Rosa also made the podium, coming third in 44 minute and 11 seconds.  Caroline Thrussell was pleased to finish in 54:16 without any niggles and David Weston took the sensible run/walk approach to dip under the hour in 55:06.  James Dalton made sure he got value for money as despite being 4th placed at halfway, he ended up running 17km as a marshal mistakenly pointed him on the half marathon route!  Nevertheless, he put his best foot forward and finished 17km in an impressive 1:20:05.  Half.   Both Rhia and James did the 10km as part of their Sunday long run!

Two teams from North Herts Road Runners tackled stifling heat and demanding terrain at the Greensand Ridge Relay - a 34.4-mile, six-stage event starting in Leighton Buzzard and finishing in Northill, Bedfordshire – and still came away smiling.
 
The ‘Faster Squirrels’ were delighted to take third place in the mixed male /female team category with a combined time of 4 hours 22.23. Their excellent result, achieved despite losing a handful of minutes to navigational mishaps on the testing section through Maulden Wood, was built around a tremendous 1.01.53 performance over the 9.1-mile third leg by team captain Katie Harbon. Backing her with determined running were Paula Holm, Ben Ryan, James Walsh and Astrid McKeown, before a strong 30.41 run on the final 4.7-mile leg from Steve McKeown, who described it as ‘a fabulous day, an iconic race in my calendar’.
 
The second team from North Herts – the ‘Fast Squirrels’ – finished in 5.12.20, with first leg runner Jo
Harbon enjoying what has become ‘one of my favourite running days’. She handed the baton to Michael Over before Richard Baker, Richard Harbon and Sue Vaughan took over. Matt Ankers rounded their run off in fine style.

​Lucy O’Connor and Brian Judkins both braved the ‘very warm and particularly humid’ conditions at the Shuttleworth 10k Hoohah, Lucy reporting she had ‘forgotten how hilly the first 5k are, and there is no shade until later on’.

​Both ‘managed to scrape through’, with O’Connor taking first place in the F60 category with a 59.38 clocking and Judkins crossing the line in 1.23.39. ‘All worth it for the delicious flapjack at the finish’, according to O’Connor.

First up was the third Mid-Week League (MWL) fixture in beautiful Trent Park in Cockfosters on Thursday evening, where 57 North Herts Road Runners raced cheered on by a large support squad.

Wednesday evening saw seventy six North Herts Road Runners and their loyal support crew head south on the A1 to St Albans for the second of the four 10km races in this season's 10km Midweek League series.  This race proved popular with 455 runners competing along the flat out and back tree lined Alban Way footpath, a disused railway line.  NHRR were delighted to finish second overall, behind St Albans Striders on their home turf and well ahead of Trent Park in third. The ladies were third behind St Albans  and Trent Park and the men were 2nd to St Albans. 
 
Katie Harbon won the ladies race in convincing style, followed home by Astrid Mckeown 19th, Rhia Botha 20th, Rachel Arnott 21st, Tracy Pitcairn 25th, Tash Pitman 26th, Sophie Thrussell 30th and Jane Clarke 39th.  The men packed their whole 12 man team into the top 48 to finish a stunning 2nd with St Albans Striders winning. Led by Ben Hadman 3rd and backed up by, Tom Webb 7th, Mike Roberts 10th, Andrew Leach 13th, Wayne Bell 21st, Stewart Overton 23rd, Ed Price 24th, Sam Coxon 26th, Tom Boble 33rd, Tom Barclay 41st, Ben Sewell 47th and Vince Wright 48th.  After two races the Squirrels are second in the league, siz points behind St Albans Striders, one point ahead of Orion and three points clear of Trent Park.  Head coach Karen Dodsworth commented “It's still all to run for with our next race down at Trent Park”.  Both the veteran men and ladies raced hard to finish second, behind St Albans.  NHRR vets are joint leaders overall in the vets competition, 4 points ahead of St Albans.