Race Report week ending 21 January

Naomi Parkinson, Lindsay Cook, Caroline Thrussell, David Weston

Squirrels Andy Grudzinski and Paul Bowal probably had the toughest event of the weekend as they took part in Buff Winter Trail Half Marathon, for the fourth time.  That’s 13.2 miles with an impressive 608 m height gain in the hills and woodlands of Coed Y Brenin about one hour south of Mount Snowdon.  The theme appears to have lots of mud as well as lots of hills.  Running, fueled by plentiful Welsh Rabbit the day before, the going was tough to start with until the 680 runners spread out, and continued to be tough with the sleet turning to snow and the final Sting of a 100m climb up a mud and rock trail over a horizontal distance of 0.6 miles just after the 11-mile marker. Paul ran home in 02:40:58 in 363rd place pipping Andy who had still managed to achieve a personal best time of 02:41:47 in 372nd place.

Seven squirrels made it to St Albans for the Fred Hughes 10miler huddling around the start line in the driving snow. The course was undulating which meant there were loads of hills that no one mentioned, with a healthy number of puddles to be negotiated. Nonetheless our runners thought it was a great race with 759 runners and marshals with drums and tambourines.  The after-race cups of water were topped up and decorate with more snow

135 Chris Stokes 01:09:54, 254 David Weston 01:17:14.,374 Naomi Parkinson 01:24:59, 380 Caroline Thrussell 01:25:18, 513 Tom Brownlee 01:32:26, 603 Paul Phasey 01:39:12, 681 Lindsay Cook 01:48:31

David Annetts went to the QE2 Track In Enfield on Saturday morning for the Enfield Race Walking League 5 mile race.  He had a good race with no warnings for technique, working his way through a competitive field and taking the lead in the last 1/2 mile.  Coming home first in a personal best time of 40:34.

Letchworth Parkrun test event saw a number of Squirrels taking to a muddy course at the Grange to help test the setup of the newest park run in the area.
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In Parkruns elsewhere.  At Luton Wardown Park Phil Hunt came in 20th in 23:19.  Roding Valley, Redbridge saw Darren Matussa come a very creditable second in 21 mins dead.  Rickmansworth saw Chris Pooke come in 41st (37th male) home.  The Stevenage event was the most popular established race with Eva McCabe the first Squirrel and first woman home in 26th place overall in just 21:57.  Lewis Green was 20 places behind in 23:48 but still with Eva as the only female finisher at that stage.  The third squirrel home was Helen Griffin in 30:01.  Wimple Estate Parkrun saw Vincent Wright running and finishing in 11th place in 20:54