Midweek League 2023 Race 1 - Katie and Ben do the double!

The 2023 Midweek Road Race League kicked off last week with all three divisions in action on Wednesday evening.  The series is a local league involving other Hertfordshire running clubs competing in 10 kilometre road races at different venues around the county, on weekday evenings from May to July.

An impressive 7 local running clubs are competing across the three different divisions this year.  Letchworth based North Herts Road Runners are the only local club to compete in Division One and their 2023 campaign got off to a blistering start on the challenging Chingford course.   The team were delighted to field 44 runners, with Katie Harbon and Ben Hadman the fastest individuals round Epping Forest, both comfortably claiming top spot in both the Womens and Mens individual races. 

​The Women's team were delighted to finish second overall, while the Men's Team were slightly disappointed to finish fifth, but confident they will bounce back at race two, as it was an exceptionally close result as they finished just 2 points behind fourth placed Trent Park Running Club. 

Womens scoring team:  Katie Harbon; Rhia Botha; Rachel Arnott; Astrid McKeown; Tracey Pitcairn; Paula Holm; Jane Clarke; Helen Nuttall
Mens scoring team: Ben Hadman; Darren Sunter; Nathan Pask; Sam Coxon; Stewart Overton; Edward Price; Tom Barclay; Shahab Ahmed; Vincent Wright; Richard Springall; Nicholas Malpeli; Ian Datlen

Ridlins Athletic track in Stevenage played host to the first race where Divisions Two and Three raced together.  In Division Two, Stevenage's Fairland Valley Spartans got their promotion campaign off to a strong start finishing second overall, just ahead of Royston Runners in third.  In Division 3, Hitchin Running Club finished joint second, comfortably ahead of Stevenage Striders in fourth, Stevenage & North Herts AC in seventh and Letchworth based Freedom Tri in eighth.

For full results see runherts.com

Fraser Cruises round "Race the Tide" 
Jennie Fraser travelled to Mothercombe in Devon to ‘Race the Tide’.  Opting for the ‘long half’ marathon, a 16 miler taking in just over 2,000ft elevation, Jennie said "The route consists of miles of wildflower lanes blooming like wedding confetti with trails across private estates, beaches, mud and water crossings. You essentially spend the entire time running up, to run down, to run up, to run down, to run up, whilst taking in panoramic views of postcard perfect coves, coasts and cliffs."  "There is just one snag, you have to have crossed the Erme estuary (at 7 miles) before the tide comes in to be able to continue. With the weather at 22 degrees with zero cloud bank and no wind, the sea crossing was incredibly refreshing and I happily splash splashed across with the tide just below my knee."  Jennie said she had "an absolute blast of an event with excellently stocked aid stations and I was delighted that I had decided to be sensible - I finished with enough energy to run another rolling mile straight back to the beach and into the sea."

Malpelli returns to form at Chester Half Marathon
Nick Malpelli took part in his second England Masters representative race of the year at the Chester Half Marathon and after "an interrupted training block" decided to target a time of 1 hour and 25 minutes. Nick said "it was a lovely day in Chester, pleasantly warm, no wind. As the race went on I managed to maintain my position in the field, but also tried to keep something back for the uphill finish I remembered from last year." He finished in 1:23:25, eleventh in his male veteran 55 age group and pleased with his performance.

Completing Parkruns this week
​32 NHRR squirrels appeared at 12 different parkruns.  At Storeys Field parkrun Mike Over celebrated his 50th  parkrun milestone with a parkrun PB!  Sheila Leavy was pleased with her fastest walking 5km PB at Stevenage parkrun in 40:51!

​Gorleston Cliffs parkrun Andrew Coates 24:13

Stevenage parkrun Vincent Wright 19:04, Chris Stokes 20:56, Ian Harvey 21:14, Christian Allen 25:28, Sheila Leavy 40:51

Storeys Field parkrun Michael Over 19:56, Mike Phillips 21:10, Natalie Phillips 29:25, Tracey Palmer 29:27

Gunpowder parkrun Darren Matussa 20:05

​Clacton Seafront parkrun  John Russell 24:45

Barclay parkrun Tom Barclay 18:51

​Great Denham parkrun Kris Whitmore 18:44

Pocket parkrun  Hannah Ridley 24:05

Letchworth parkrun James Dalton 21:13, Joe Dixon 22:18, Steve Brenton 24:19, Philip Flack 29:04, Jane Clarke 29:07, Helen Cairns 29:08

Coldham’s Common parkrun Georgina Quayle 24:44

Henlow Bridge Lakes parkrun Stewart Overton 18:04, Tracy Pitcairn 22:15,  Anna Greetham 26:03, Matt Roberts 26:04, Tim Banting 27:28, Anna Gibson 27:52, Bob Davis 28:45, Joseph Barker-Sherry 30:12

Talkin Tarn Country Park parkrun Dawn Power 28:18