Sneaky Geeky Creeps Past the Competition

Wednesday saw the start of this year’s Mid Week League in St Albans. The sun came out, along with 58 runners from NHRR giving them a super start to the 2024 MWL season with the ladies finishing 2nd, men 4th and overall the team are 3rd with the same league points as Trent Park but superior match points. St Albans striders made a strong start on home ground and won both the men's and women's races to lead 3 points clear of Orion Harriers. In the vets competition NHRR men finished 5th and ladies 2nd for 4th position overall.

Katie Harbon was first lady home for the club and won the women’s race with Rhia Botha, Rachel Arnott, Hannah Ridley, Astrid Mckeown, Tracey Pitcairn, Jane Clarke and Tash Pitman completing the scoring team.

Scoring for the men were Sam Coxon, Ben Hadman, Mike Roberts, Andrew Leach, Tom Barclay, Matthew Sayers, Mike Banister, Vincent Wright, Nicholas Malpeli, Nathaniel Rosa, Oliver Babik and Darren Matusa.

Ladies
1 38:07 Katie Harbon
14 41:03 Rhia Botha
20 41:48 Rachel Arnott
22 42:19 Hannah Ridley
25 42:37 Astrid McKeown
26 42:38 Tracey Pitcairn
28 42:51 Jane Clarke
29 43:14 Natasha Pitman
32 44:38 Helen Nuttall
44 46:15 Laura Fairbanks
51 47:06 Caroline Thrussell
61 48:25 Alice Carty
63 48:43 Jennie Fraser
68 49:09 Ellie Frid
83 51:25 Sarah Mitcherson
84 51:25 Helen Cairns
85 51:25 Alice Noakes
103 54:01 Nicola Withington
110 55:02 Eve Surridge

111 55:16 Lucy O'Connor
112 55:24 Linda Aird
133 58:39 Jo Harbon
144 1:02:37 Lindsay Cook
152 1:05:07 Sharon French
156 1:06:04 Tracey McCreath
159 1:12:04 Vanessa Rolfe
Men's
4 33:19 Sam Coxon
5 33:25 Ben Hadman
8 33:44 Mike Roberts
18 34:36 Andrew Leach
22 34:55 Tom Barclay
40 36:02 Matthew Sayers
65 37:56 Mike Banister
68 38:09 Vincent Wright
77 38:44 Nicholas Malpeli
86 39:22 Nathaniel Rosa
88 39:23 Oliver Babik
93 39:31 Darren Matussa

​99 39:45 Michael Over
101 40:05 Ian Datlen
110 40:38 Oliver Parsons
120 41:04 Steve McKeown
132 41:48 Adrian Sherwood
144 42:21 Kris Whitmore
146 42:27 Peter Sibbett
163 43:36 Dave Edwards
174 44:32 John Auld
191 45:27 Steve Tracey
199 45:44 Simon Clapham
201 45:48 Andrew Wallis
206 46:09 Richard Harbon
207 46:14 Damian Christou
216 46:52 Jon Hunt
219 46:57 Dave Braybrook
232 47:38 David Weston
237 47:56 Richard Weber
304 51:30 Andrew Coates
349 55:33 Andrew Robson

Riga Marathon
​Katrina Slisane ran the Riga Marathon which was her third marathon overall and the first in her native Latvia. The unexpected early arrival of summer in Riga made for a very sweltering run and an early tempering of ambitions so it was a pleasant surprise to have shaved a couple of minutes off her previous PB, finishing in 03:48:12.

Cam completes Lanzarote Ironman
Cam Geekie completed Ironman Lanzarote on Saturday. He absolutely smashed the 3.8km swim and 180km bike. By the time the marathon arrived it was absolutely roasting and zero cloud cover making Geekie feel like he was in survival mode, making it all the more impressive that he finished the hardest Ironman in the world in a time of 12hrs 41mins.

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Cloe Conquers Aix en Provence Ironman
The Ironman action continued on Sunday as Cloe Stout took on the Ironman Aix en Provence 70.3 on Sunday, which included over 1100m of vertical elevation on the bike and nearly 300m on the run.
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After a challenging year she hit nearly all her time goals (missing the overall goal due to refusing to wee on the bike and having to wait for several minutes in the transition from bike to run) and finished with a huge smile on her face for her 13th half iron distance!

NHRR Parkrun Roundup 
As usual, the NHRR members enjoyed the various Parkrun events on offer, with the fastest time
being bagged by Matthew Ronayne, completing the Storeys Field event in 17:19 and Sophie
Thrussel being the quickest Park running NHRR lady completing the Heartlands event in 20:29.

Castle Park: Anna Greetham (30:10), Matt Roberts (30:10)

Coldhams Common: Georgina Quayle (26:32)

Gunpowder: Darren Matussa (21:36)

Heartlands: Ben Sewell (18:00), Sophie Thrussell (20:29)

Henlow Bridge Lakes: Rob Milburn (24:57), James Poulton (27:48)

Letchworth: Joe Dixon (21:55), James Dalton (21:58), Steve Brenton (23:20), Alice Noakes
(28:32), Helen Harbon (29:11), Jo Harbon (29:42), Philip Flack (31:00)

Lowestoft: Chloe Lucas (22:35)

Northampton: Richard Harbon (22:32)
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Pocket: Kris Whitmore (20:41), James Godfrey (28:33), Frances Stanton (28:38)

Stevenage: Tom Barclay (19:27), Ian Harvey (21:15), Daniel Wrigley (22:43), Jon Hunt (22:49),
John Russell (24:18), Andrew Coates (25:10), Ellie Scott (29:28), Barbara Sayers (29:29),
Amanda Greig (32:00)

Storeys Field: Matthew Ronayne (17:19)

The Cinder Track: Natasha Pitman (21:55)

Wimpole Estate: Joseph Barker-sherry (32:06), Emily Yossarian (37:53)