More Marathon success in Manchester

With the London Marathon buzz still firmly in our minds, two squirrels headed up to Manchester to compete in the UK’s second largest marathon, the Manchester Marathon. After a few inevitable Covid delays and cancellations they finally took their place on the start line, in atypical Manchester autumn bright blue skies and warm sunshine, to race the 26.2 miles. Mike Roberts had a superb race that went ‘exactly to plan’, and finished in a superb time of 2 hours 38 minutes. Mike Banister also represented NHRR and was ‘over the moon’ with his finishing time of 2 hours 59 minutes, just ducking under that 3 hour barrier.  With crowds lining the course and an electric atmosphere, it sounds like one to think about next year!
 
The weekend also saw the Willow 10k take place in the beautiful surroundings of Hatfield House. Elwyn Howell stormed the course to finish in 13th place just missing the 50 minute barrier by 2 seconds, nevertheless a phenomenal time of 50:02.
 
Park run was yet again a popular choice for many squirrels who ventured far and wide. In our home town of Letchworth 12 squirrels raced the undulating and muddy course. James Dalton led the club home in 21:06, followed closely by Ian Harvey in 21:27 and Ian Datlen in 21:37. Philip Hawkes also ducked under 22 minutes in a superb time of 21:45, followed by Richard Harbon who managed to keep 24 minutes out of sight to finish in a time of 23:54. Kat Gourd was the first female squirrel home in a fantastic time of 23:56, with Helen Cairns (23:59), Ellie Scott (24:16), Amy Murch (27:12) and Rhia Botha (27:34) also making NHRR proud. Steven Brenton and Philip Flack also ran Letchworth in times of 28:57 and 30:40 respectively. Just down the road in Henlow, four squirrels ran the beautiful Henlow Lakes park run, with Rob Milburn (24:47), Lucy O’Connor (25:14), Rachel Annetts (28:36) and Brian Judkins (33:20) all representing NHRR. Sue Vaughan and Jane Clarke were at Stevenage park run over the weekend with great times of 27:54 and 42:14. Just over the border at Wimpole, Matt Roberts, Anna Greetham and Andrew Coates all smashed out outstanding times on the hilly course in 24:57, 24:57 and 26:11. Slightly further afield, Steve Williamson completed Kettering parkrun in 22:39, John O’Gorman completed Luton Wardown parkrun in 24:07, Darren Matussa completed Gunpowder parkrun in 22:16, Glyn Blakey completed Bower Parkrun in 34:42 and Joe Sherry completed Storeys Parkrun in 25:58.

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