North Herts Road Runners take on the British Masters Road Relay

North Herts Road Runners travelled to Birmingham on Saturday to complete in the British Masters National Road Relay Championships.  With quality teams coming from across the UK the races were always going to be fiercely contested. NHRR put in a superb effort to finish an impressive 4th from 48 teams in the MV45 race. The team were led off by Andrew Leach, who currently tops the V50 national rankings at 10km, running the 3 mile leg in 15.48 to finish 5th.  Mark Vaughan ran 16.23 lifting the club to 2nd whilst Nick Malpeli, on leg 3, ran 17.32 and crossed the line in 4th. David Annetts ran 16.35 on the anchor leg to finish 43 seconds behind the bronze medallists North Shields Polytechnic but 20 seconds ahead of last year’s champions Leicester Coritanians in 5th. Thames Hare and Hounds claimed the gold medal with Aldershot, Farnham and District 2nd. 

Not to be out done the FV55 team of Rachel Annetts, 24.29, Linda Aird, 24.24, and Karen Dodsworth, 25.19, ran extremely well and finished 5th in their race won by Bingley Harriers. 
The MV35 team ran some impressive times in the sunshine to finish 18th from 38 teams. Jim McConnell ran the fastest leg for the team in 16.02, followed by Spencer Bevan 17.53, Darren Matussa 17.29, Darren Sunter 17.50, Vincent Wright 19.22 and James Walsh 17.37.
Jo Summers and Sue Foot notched up yet another marathon this weekend completing the Christian Aid Challenge. Summers finished the 26.5 mile off road course in 4:34 with Foot finishing in 5:17.
Two squirrels went looking for Wombles at the Wimbledon Common Half Marathon on Sunday. Run entirely within the woodland and fields of the common Michelle Grudzinski finished in 2:12:12 while Ashley Murry-Rochard finished in 2:27:26.
In parkruns this weekend Steve Lummis took on the undulating course at Tring finishing in 25:51. Darren Mattusa fresh from competing in the British Masters Relays on Saturday ran the Draycote Water Half Marathon on Sunday and finished 46th in a time of 1:42:56. Ollie Garbas took on the tough Paras 10 Colchester in a new PB for the course coming 24th out of 330 runners in a time of 01:34:10.