The first event of this season's Three Counties Cross Country league was a new venue and course in Wellingborough. The course was undulating and had a mixture of surfaces to contend with including some very wet mud, grass and some hard paths. The weather was fabulous sunshine and little wind with mild temperature. The event saw a huge total of 491 overall finishers which included 43 squirrels.

The squirrels start this season as champions of all competitions and are very determined to defend these titles. In beautiful sunshine, NHRR got off to a great start by winning the women’s competition and finishing runners up in the men's, resulting in first overall in the combined team competition.

Katie Harbon won the women's race, while Tom Webb was third male. Women's team captain, Tash Pitman commented she was “Delighted with the team performance to get the squirrels off to a storming start to the new XC season and great to see so many squirrels out supporting each other!” This was echoed by the mens team captain John Auld.

Scoring for the women were Katie Harbon, Rhia Botha, Tash Pitman and Hannah Ridley. Whilst scoring for the men was Tom Webb, Darren Sunter, Stewart Overton, Ben Sewell, Matt Sayers, Shahab Ahmad, Ian Datlen and Steve McKeown.

Dublin Marathon
Grace Cleary ran the Dublin Marathon in 3 hours 50 minutes 26 seconds which was a personal best on a very wet day! Grace described it as “An amazing race, beautiful first half through the city and into Phoenix Park”.  And gave massive thanks to Cara, her coach, for guidance over the last few months!

​Marathon Eryri
Jennie Fraser ran Marathon Eryri for the second consecutive year finishing in 4:40 which was 16 minutes quicker than last year. Jennie was “loving the perfect conditions with liquid sunshine and rainbows to frolic around” in Snowdonia National Park in North Wales. Alice Noakes finished in 5:06 having stormed the final incline of 838ft over 2 miles with an iron will and desire for it all just to be over.

​Exeter Halloween
Elwyn Howell completed the Exeter Halloween 5 miler in a new PB time of 36:18 finishing 3rd male and 6th place overall with a nice trophy to match. He got dressed up in Halloween fancy dress which added to the fun morning. 

On Sunday, five North Herts Road Runners completed the Stevenage Half Marathon, which also hosted the Herts Senior County Championship. After a few days of stormy wet and windy weather, the runners were rewarded with a lovely crisp and sunny autumn morning for the race. Rhia Botha was first home for the club, second female overall, and first female in the Herts Half Marathon County Champion in a superb 1:31:33. James Dalton ran alongside her for the first of the two lap course and finished just behind her in 1:34:54. Rhia said “It was an unexpectedly hilly two-lap course, and we really felt those hills on the second lap”, adding “It was so well organised by the most lovely people.” Other squirrels who completed the race were Ian Harvey in 1:37:38, Alice Carty in 1:52:34 and Farzana Bhatti in 3:13:01,

​Resolution 5k results
A few days prior to this, on Wednesday 11 squirrels were also in action in Stevenage, this time at Ridlins track for the October Resolution 5k. The conditions were rather less favourable, described by John Auld as “very wet! And there was a bit of wind”, although he added that he really enjoyed the race. In the first race, Sam Coxon took the win in an amazing 16:57. He was followed by a pack of four squirrels (John Auld 18:55, Kris Whitmore 19:04, Ian Datlen 19:11 and Andrew Wallis 21:01. Completing the squirrels contigent were Lee Varley (21:40), Lucy O’Connor (24:40 and first in her age category FV55), Mel Flynn (25:11), Linda Aird (27:42), Karen Dodsworth (28:04), and Sheila Leavy (39:49 and first FV65). The squirrels notched up a superb team performance overall, with Sam, John, Kris and Lucy winning the team competition with a combined time of 1:19:46, and Ian, Andrew, Lee and Mel coming third behind the Fairlands Valley Spartans.

​Dashing at Duxford
A little further afield, Hannah Ridley ran the Duxford Dash 5k on Sunday, which is a fast and flat out and back race that takes runners up and down the runway at the Imperial War Museum Duxford. She was delighted to cross the line in a fantastic 20:40.

Parkrun roundup
Lots of squirrels took part in parkruns near and far on Saturday. Notably, Elwyn Howell broke the club record for the V60 category, completing Teignmouth parkrun in 20:51. Other NHRR parkrun results are below:

Yorkshire Marathon Festival
The Yorkshire Marathon Festival was celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and hosted a fantastic event offering distances from 5k right up to the marathon.  Katrina Slisane opted for the marathon distance and says she had a great time setting a personal best time of 3 hours and 50 minutes, thanking green group coach Richard Harbon’s advice of an ‘uphill arm swing’ as it drove her up a few nasty hills, especially as the morale started to slip.  Vanessa Rolfe and Allison Blunt also joined the festival, opting for the 10-mile option. They said "The weather was perfect and we were given a very warm Yorkshire welcome along by the spectators, their dogs and even a couple of guinea pigs!  It was made extra special by all the music played along the way from local bands.  We had a great run and were very pleased to finish in 02:00:19 and 01:59:47 respectively."

​This weekend saw the legendary NHRR Standalone 10k take place, a regular fixture of the club calendar across the last 36 years.  Bringing together runners from far and wide, members of the club ran, marshalled, and delivered a standout race, yet again! It is a special race that shares the magic of North Herts Road Runners with the community.

​It is hard to capture in words the magic of the Standalone, but what better way to get a feel for it than the words of some of those squirrels who flew round the course.  Katie Harbon was full of praise “ The race that tests my ability to have a manic weekend helping set up and a (really) early morning and then try and run a 10k with as little prep as possible. I tend to say it’s a case of survival and a lot hope! The women’s and men’s team run Standalone to represent the club but really it’s the Marshalls, race committee and event support who make the race what it is and the success it continues to be. I’ll forever be appreciative of the opportunity to represent North Herts Road Runners but must thank everyone else behind the scenes for a FAB weekend! Wear the vest with pride!”
 
Whilst Shahab ran as part of the winning men’s team loved the support “Privileged to be asked to run Standalone today. Amazing support on the course from the fantastic marshalls and locals. Not exactly a 'fast flat' course but managed a nearly 30 second PB, drawing off a combination of adrenaline and club support.”
 
Lindsay Cook got her first taste of racing Standalone after years of support the organisation of the event ‘After around 20 years of helping out at Standalone 10k, I was lucky enough to have the chance to run this year. I have had a horrible cold recently so it was never going to be a great time for me today, but it wasn't about that! It was amazing to see the race from a different angle, to be cheered on by all the marshals (although that meant there was nowhere to hide lol) and to experience the lovely atmosphere on the course. I felt very proud and lucky to be able to take part in this special event and even though I found the undulations and the warm temperatures pretty challenging, I enjoyed it too. Thanks to everyone who makes Standalone 10k such an amazing day!”

Park(run) Life....
Elsewhere a bevvy of squirrels were out at a variety of Parkrun events on Saturday morning.  Sheila Leavy completed her first sub 40 minute walking parkrun time at Stevenage yesterday in 39:29. Perfect conditions with no wind off the lake – congratulations Sheila.
 
Whilst slightly further afield Lindsey Lucas took on the Sydney event and bumped into a familiar face:
“Having spent 4 days on a train going from west to east we found ourselves full of food and drink and feeling rather sluggish in Sydney. Come Saturday it was time to find a Parkrun. Centennial Park run in Centennial Park was our nearest with a 7am start. As it was a bit far to run to the start we treated ourselves to a taxi. Viv and Bev Rimmer identified each other at the start thanks to the NHRR t-shirts. I didn’t realise there was another club member there until Bev called out “come on North Herts” as we did a short out and back at about 1km. I was left thinking who knows where I’m from? It was lovely to be cheered over the finish line and then we had the opportunity to catch up on where we had been travelling and running over the last month in Australia. Appropriate that Bev spotted our Standalone t-shirts on Standalone weekend.” 
 
Perhaps we’ll get some Aussies at next year’s Standalone after the promo…