North Herts Road Runners’ Vets’ Teams Lead the County

Hatfield 5k County Vets Winners

South of England Vets 4-stage Road Relay Championships

It was a very successful week for the North Herts Road Runners' Vets teams. On Wednesday, the women's and the men's teams both finished first at the Hertfordshire Veterans' 5k Championships, which were being held as part of the Hatfield 5k series. (In road running, a vet is any man over 40, or any woman over 35). The County title-winning women's team was Astrid McKeown (19:16), Paula Holm (21:03), Sarah Mitcherson (21:06) and Jane Clarke (21:10), while the men's team was led by Mark Vaughan (16:37), with Ed Price (16:41), Matt Sayers (16:56) and Nick Malpeli (18:04). In total, 33 North Herts Road Runners took part in this, the second event of the series' three 5k races, including Hayley Cocks who ran 32.30, a time two-minutes faster than her previous PB.

The following Sunday, the club sent a men’s vets team to the hotly contested South of England Vets 4-stage Road Relay Championships, which was held at the iconic Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. Running hilly laps just short of 6km, Andrew Leach (19:01), Mark Vaughan (19:41), Matt Sayers (20:15) and Jim McConnel (19:30) made up the North Herts Road Runners' team, and competed strongly against some of the biggest clubs in the country, to finish in second place overall. “This is the second time in recent years that we have got silver at this race, and it is a special one,” said Mark Vaughan. “We took quite a few scalps of the larger, more established road running and athletics clubs on the way. The other teams certainly know who we are now!"

In other news, Tom Webb finished third at the Hever gauntlet 70.3 Castle series triathlon, which comprised a 1900 metre (chilly) swim, a 90km bike ride with 4500ft climbing, and an off-road half marathon for the run. Tom described it as a horrific day that was rescued by his first podium at a competitive triathlon, behind two professional triathletes.

David Annetts took part in Enfield Race Walking League's 1hr Badge Race at Picketts Lock track - a test to see how far the race-walkers can reach in exactly one hour. He went for an ambitious target of an unofficial 10000m PB, which he passed in 50:30, and at the hour he finished second in the race on 11.835km / 7.35 miles.

Adam Bowller finished second at the Leighton 10 on Sunday morning, a hilly 10 miler in Leighton Buzzard. His time was 57:21, a PB by 1:22.

James Keogh ran the Guernsey parkrun two weeks in a row having been marooned on the island by the ferry. The first week, he was 4th in 20:10 and second time round managed 3rd in 19:17.

Lucy O’Connor and Brian Judkins ran the Steeple Morden 10k, a very muddy and wet off road course. Lucy's time was 55:28 and Brian's was 1hr:13.

John Auld finished in eighth position at the third event in the Silkstone Shuffle series. The result puts him in third position overall in the ongoing series.

Finally, a group of Squirrels ran St Paul’s Walden 10K on Sunday, which is organised by the charity Autism Angels. Katie Harbon came home First Lady and first for the club, Richard Harbon second for the club, Jo Summers 3rd, followed in order by Jo Harbon, Helen Harbon, Matt Ankers, and Sue Foot.