Easter escapades and parkrun PBs

The North Herts Road Runners made the most of the gloriously sunny long Easter bank holiday weekend, with several excellent running performances both locally and further afield.
Kicking off the weekend on Good Friday, four squirrels headed down the A1 to run the St Albans Easter 10k. Starting in Highfield Park, the fairly flat single lap race headed out along the disused railway line on the Alban Way, in an out and back route that included several nice stretches of Hertfordshire countryside (as well as a few slightly less appealing sections alongside main roads!) The weather was beautifully sunny and warm (in fact, perhaps a little too warm!) – conditions that the runners had not experienced in recent weeks! Kat Hinitt was first home for the club in 46:36, followed closely by Rikki Clark in 48:09. Jane Robson (1:01:10) and Julie Taylor (1:02:55) completed the quartet, and all four agreed that it was a great start to the bank holiday weekend!

On Saturday, the North Herts Road Runners were well represented at parkrun events across the country. In Letchworth, James Dalton was first squirrel home, finishing seventh overall in an impressive 20:56, while Kat Hinitt was first lady in 23:39, setting a a new PB for this course. Meanwhile, down the road in Stevenage in a crowded field of 301 runners, Tracy Pitcairn was second lady and first in her age category in 20:43, accompanied by Dan Mallett who finished 19th overall in 20:41, coming first in his age category (VM 30-34) and bagging himself a new PB in the process. Ian Sutcliffe opted for Henlow Bridge Lakes for his first ever parkrun event (after “a lot of persuasion” from fellow clubmate Sue Vaughan), finishing in 30:49 and setting a new age-related club record for his age category (VM 75-79). In Devon, Elwyn Howell ran the Teignmouth Promenade parkrun in 22:27, coming second in his age category (VM 60-64). A full list of this week’s parkrun results is at the end of this report.

Finally, on Easter Sunday, while many of us were lazily eating chocolate eggs, Sue Foot headed to Suffolk to run the Risby Marathon. Describing it as “a picturesque out and back route on a mixture of trail and road with plenty of hills to test your stamina”, Sue was pleased to come in eighth place out of a field of just 14 runners.

The full NHRR parkrun results for this week are: EDEN PROJECT Steve Brenton 21:29; STEVENAGE Daniel Mallett 20:41, Tracy Pitcairn 20:43, Phil Hunt 24:33; WIMPOLE ESTATE Michael Banister 19:05; DELAMERE Joseph Sherry 25:43; POOLSBROOK Brian Judkins 34:42; MERSEA ISLAND William Harrison 19:19; LETCHWORTH James Dalton 20:56, Mike Phillips 22:47, Andrew Underhill 22:48, Kat Hinitt 23:39, Georgina Quayle 24:41, Natasha Pitman 25:55, Philip Flack 29:41, Brian Bailey 32:38, Carina Quayle 32:43; SIZEWELL Nick Malpeli 19:35; TEIGNMOUTH PROMENADE Elwyn Howell 22:27; RHEINAUE: Steve McKeown 20:11, Astrid McKeown 20:51; HENLOW BRIDGE LAKES Lucy O’Connor 24:35, Rob Milburn 26:00, Rachel Annetts 29:43, Ian Sutcliffe 30:49, Sue Vaughan 30:51.

Thanks to Kat for writing this weeks report.