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."