Soaring performances from the Squirrels

Richard Webber, Grace Cleary, Matt Sayers at Watford Half Marathon

Six Squirrels headed west on Sunday for the Watford Half Marathon, an iconic event that the Watford Harriers have been proudly hosting for over 50 years. First home for the club was Matt Sayers, who ran 1:16:17. ‘This was my debut half marathon in 2004 (1:45:34) so a special event for me personally,’ said Matt. ‘It's put on by runners for runners. Lots of enthusiastic marshals, locals come out to cheer along the way, occasion music blasting out en-route.’ Although just outside his PB, Matt was delighted to get 2nd V40 overall and V40-49 Half Marathon Herts County Champion. Also running were Grace Cleary (1:52:03) and Siobhan Walsh (2:17:20), and Ian Harvey (1:43:04), Chris Poole (1:47:07) and Richard Weber (1:58:56). ‘It was great to see the Squirrels putting in impressive personal performances,’ said Matt.

Andrew Porter, Lucy O'Connor and Ian Sutcliffe ran the RSPB Race for Wildlife 10k at Sandy on Sunday. Ian, who finished in 63 minutes, described it as a ‘lovely course and not too muddy,’ adding that it includes two steep hills ‘which we have to run up TWICE!’ ‘It was a real treat to run on an off-road multi- terrain course,’ said Lucy O’Connor, who finished in 54:07, four minutes quicker than the last time she ran this race.

The weekend began with the First Saturday of the Month, North Herts Road Runners’ popular timed 5k run round Letchworth’s Norton Common. As ever, the event was only possible thanks to all the marshals and helpers. Although a bit muddy in places, the conditions  weren't too bad - good enough for NHRR’s Tom Webb to fly around in 17:55, nearly 2 minutes ahead of second place. Eva McCabe provided the other standout performance: the junior athlete was the second female, and finished in 23:06. In total, seventy people  ran (see the forum for full results).

In parkrun news, Elwyn Howell completed the Teignmouth Park run in a PB time of 24.20 on a beautiful day in Devon. This week’s full parkrun results:

Albert  parkrun, Melbourne
335  Anna PRIESTLEY 30:26

Bedford parkrun
479 Abbie HASKELL 01:01:41
480 Carl HASKELL 01:01:42

Milton Keynes parkrun
75 Naomi PARKINSON 22:57

Durham parkrun
47 Steve WILLIAMSON 22:22

Stevenage parkrun
129 Chris POOLE 25:36
168 Georgina QUAYLE 26:53
436 Jane CLARKE 37:45

Letchworth parkrun
1 James DALTON 21:51
10 Daniel MALLETT 25:07
15 Steve BRENTON 26:09

Teignmouth parkrun
43 Elwyn HOWELL 24:20
233 Lindsey LUCAS 36:06

Fulbourn Hospital parkrun
116 Brian JUDKINS 34:09

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