 402 runners congregated at Stevenage's Shephalbury Park under blue skies and bright sunshine on Sunday morning to take on the flat pathed 5 mile route passing through green areas in Stevenage and the iconic Lamex Stadium. Runners were treated to a great view of 4,000 newly planted trees in Fairlands Valley park. Six North Herts Road Runners toed the line led in by James Dalton in 35:43, followed by Hannah Keeble 44:11; Richard Barker 53:00; Georgia Barker 53:00; Stephen Doran 53:38. Sheila Leavy race walked in a great time of 1:04:33 and said “it was warm and undulating in parts, but enjoyable”.  Three top 10 finishes for Squirrels at Snowdonia Half Marathon A scurry of squirrels travelled to Wales for the Snowdonia Half Marathon, classified as 'very very tough' and 'one of the UK's toughest half marathons' with an elevation of 1900ft. And Georgia, one of the scurry agreed, “yes it was tough!! There was even a secondary medal for those with stamina and determination to run the final hill, which Caroline and Georgia achieved! Everyone was pleased with their results followed by the traditional swim in the local river.” The squirrels were led home by Kat Burr who 1:57:28 to take 5th position in her veteran 40-44 age group, closely followed in by Caroline Thrussell who took top spot by over 30 minutes in her veteran 60-64 age group and next was her daughter Georgia Head in 2:08:32 to finish 9th in the open category. Other Squirrels running were Dervla Downing 02:14:00; Alice Noakes 02:21:53; Paul Bowal 02:25:30; Helen Ankers 02:29:12; Andy Grudzinski 02:35:21 and Adam Wilson 02:40:39 Linda overcomes train strike to race at Battersea Linda was the only squirrel at the Veterans AC 5 miles champs at Battersea Park on Tues evening. It was a small, high quality field for the three and a half laps of the very fast and flat Battersea Park. Given the sunshine the park was very busy with many runners, walkers and cyclists, with Linda commenting “there was a certain amount of dodging necessary for those of us taking part in the race. Those of us near the back were soon lapped by the very speedy front runners, and it was a bit soul-destroying to have to run past the finish to do the final lap when most runners had already finished! I'm not sure I enjoyed the race, exactly, as I was running quite hard in warm conditions, but was happy with my finishing time of 43:13 (fastest 5 mile time since 2019, and following several years of recurrent injuries.). First W65 - also last W65 as I was the ONLY W65! Got quite a nice medal, anyway, which I definitely felt I'd earned. I narrowly avoided being last by beating a 65, a 70 and two 80 year olds - needless to say, they got a massive cheer as they went past and into the finish!”  Parkrun roundup: Letchworth parkrun Sheriff Special update from Philip Flack, “We all know we couldn't have parkrun or any race without marshalls. Well, at Letchworth Parkrun this week, we had a Sheriff in attendance. The Sheriff of Hertfordshire adorned in traditional dress with ceremonial sword, gave a pre race speech in which she said she had the power to punish anyone taking shortcuts. The run/walk proceeded in it's usual orderly way and no executions took place.” Danish double from Bev Rimmer, “Being something of a ParkRun obsessive, I made the a trip to Denmark to take part in their extra event on Ascension Day. This fell on Thursday 9 May this year, and my chosen venue was Fælledparken in Copenhagen. The race director opened, rather amusingly, by asking if any Danes were taking part. A scattered few hands went up … however, the rest were crazy/enthusiastic/insert adjective here tourists rather like myself. The race is a flat three-lapper, and I dragged myself home in a fairly respectable time of 00:29:44. I’ve been struggling with pace lately, knowing full well that my training has hit a brick wall, and I was pleased to have finished sub-30. My mile times (according to my watch) were: 09:45, 09:23, and 09:17 respectively, which is certainly taking the desired direction. Still in Denmark on Saturday, I plumped for Amager Strandpark ParkRun (also in Copenhagen) - a beautiful coastal course that consists of an anti-clockwise lap followed by a clockwise one. I must add that the weather was absolutely stunning; the shorts and vest have made their first appearance of what I hope will be many this year. Again, the route is flat and fast, and I pushed with all my heart/lungs/aching muscles/flashy new trainers/increasing lactic acid to finish in the much better time of 00:28:40. Danish double completed…now to keep up the ParkRun attendance and the pace. It’s the Netherlands’ turn to have a double next weekend, as their nominated special day is Whit Monday. Is that the sound of temptation I hear?” And well done to Sharon French who went to Stevenage to complete her second ever parkrun!
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
News, Notifications and Race Results. Archives
June 2025
Categories |
RSS Feed
|
Postal address:
North Herts Road Runners Ekhus, Gosmore Road Hitchin Hertfordshire SG4 9AT North Herts Road Runners
Mrs Howard Hall Norton Way South, Letchworth Garden City Hertfordshire SG6 1NX |
|