No ankle agony for Andri as she completes injury comeback

​North Herts Road Runners’ Andri Johnston was ‘super happy’ after returning from injury with a trouble-free performance at the Royal Parks Half-marathon in central London.
 
Her 1:46:03 finish came exactly a year after she tore ankle ligaments while running with her Husky, Ace: ‘I couldn’t walk at all for two weeks, was on crutches for four and still have some pain, even when walking. When I ran my last half-marathon in February I ended up in extreme pain, so this really was a comeback half for me’.
 
Three more Squirrels completed the 13.1 mile course around four of the Royal Parks, described by Tash Pitman as ‘a sightseeing tour passing Admiralty Arch, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster, London Eye and the Royal Albert Hall’. Rob Harris was first North Herts finisher in 1:18:47, looking in good shape for the Snowdon Marathon in three weeks time. David Edwards and Tash Pitman took it as a ‘training run’, clocking 1:41:33 and 1:41:34 respectively.
 
Laurie Scott said he would ‘highly recommend’ the Loch Ness Marathon after completing the 26.2 mile classic distance in a new personal best of 4:08:44. He praised the ‘great atmosphere and spectacular scenery’, but said he ‘definitely felt the couple of really nasty hills between miles 18 and 20’.
 
The Hitchin 5k proved a popular local outing, with Lindsay Cook ‘very pleased to dip under 30 minutes’ after not having run ‘a huge amount recently’. Shahab Ahmed was similarly pleased with his 17:59 clocking after ‘a few weeks off rehabbing a couple of niggles’ and Andreea Weisl-Shaw joined running buddy Tracey McCreath on the start line, completing the course in 27:00 and 31:29 respectively – Tracey’s third-fastest 5k ever.