Gold Rush at the Olympic Park

The road running season got off to a flying start when 10 North Herts Road Runners (NHRR) headed to London to compete in the British Masters 10k Road Racing Championship on Saturday. Held in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the fast course and perfect conditions produced some great running and excellent results.

In a quality field first home for the club and in 4th place was Andrew Leach in 33:37 which secured him gold in the MV50 category. Next home in 9th place was Mark Vaughan in 34:14 taking the MV45 title. James Walsh finished 43rd overall in 38:28 closely followed by Adrian Sherwood in 45th place in a time of 38:34. The top performances from Leach, Vaughan and Walsh was rewarded by securing the MV45 team 10k championship title.

The road running season got off to a flying start when 10 North Herts Road Runners (NHRR) headed to London to compete in the British Masters 10k Road Racing Championship on Saturday. Held in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the fast course and perfect conditions produced some great running and excellent results.

In a quality field first home for the club and in 4th place was Andrew Leach in 33:37 which secured him gold in the MV50 category. Next home in 9th place was Mark Vaughan in 34:14 taking the MV45 title. James Walsh finished 43rd overall in 38:28 closely followed by Adrian Sherwood in 45th place in a time of 38:34. The top performances from Leach, Vaughan and Walsh was rewarded by securing the MV45 team 10k championship title.

First home for the NHRR ladies and FV65 winner was Yoko Gordon in a time of 44:12. Other squirrels racing included John Auld 41:03, Jo Harbon 52:32, Karen Dodsworth 55:23, Sue Vaughan 57:39 and Vanessa Rolfe 1:08:43.  Rachel Annetts was also in London running the Sri Chinmoy 10 Miles at Battersea Park finishing 3rd FV50 in 1:29:29.  Not satisfied with your average 10k Spencer Bevan took on the tough One True Grit obstacle race and despite going the wrong way finished 2nd in an impressive 54 minutes.

It was First Saturday of the Month time on Norton Common again with 78 runners enjoying some spring sunshine, first finisher for NHRR’s was James Keogh in 5th place with a time of 20:02 followed by Dan Williams in 6th place in 20:19. John Cooper was 12th in 22:20 while Sheena Scaplehorn was first lady home for the club in 25:29. Other Squirrels taking part were Oliver Garbas 22:48, Stephen Lummis 24:16, Christian Allen 24:31, Bob Davis 26:32, Steven Tracey 26:40, Ian Sutcliffe 27:21, Jeni Spurr-Jones 29:50, Dawn Power 29:56, Lindsay Cook 31:32, Rebecca Finch 33:32 and Helen Govey 35:49

Only two squirrels in parkrun action this weekend. Brian Judkins finished at Darlington South Park in 31:57 while closer to home Lucy Goff completed the Wimpole Estate course in 26:16.

Across the channel and continuing with the spring marathon campaign a small contingent of NHRR’s ran the Paris Marathon. In unseasonably warm weather Jenny O’Sullivan managed to produce a personal best of 4:43:11, also running were Michelle Grudzinski finishing in 4:44:46 and Michelle Stokes in 4:49:57.

Closer to home in Bedford four squirrels completed the Oakley 20. Caroline Thrussell fresh from running the Barcelona Marathon last month finished in 2:47:31, next home was Barbara Sayers in 2:49:23. Kat Burr’s first attempt at 20 miles saw her finish in 2:54:22 and Jon Stow finished in 3:03:50.
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