Squirrel Success, Home and Away

Squirrel Dan Mallett journeyed to Athens to take on the marathon. The competitors are ‘treated’ to a 5am start in the town of Marathon. Dan described the race as “the hills start coming in to play at 15 miles, which broke me. From there it was very much jog/walk just to finish”. Dan completed the course in a respectable 4:52:43, not the time he was aiming for, but he thoroughly enjoyed the experience. He praised the marshals, was thankful for the good weather and enjoyed being surrounded by the history of Athens.

Following recent good form and a continuous flow of PBs, Elwyn Howell used the opportunity of visiting family in Devon as an excuse to support and pace his daughter Sarah who was running her first half marathon. On the Saturday he completed the Teignmouth Parkrun in a time of 21:36 and was 2nd in his Age Category and then on Sunday the Father/Daughter Duo completed the Starcross Devon Half Marathon in a time of 2:09:16. Proud Dad Elwyn described it as a lovely sunny day with a brutal wind.

Andrew Leach competed in (and won!) a selection race back in October to earn his place representing England at the 33rd running of the British Irish Masters Cross Country International which took place at Santry Demesne, Dublin. The event is described as “fast, furious and highly competitive”. Leach came 3rd MV55 in the Championship with just 11 seconds separating the top 3 finishers.
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Closer to home Kris Whitmore competed in the Inaugural running of Hitchin’s Beer Hunter Challenge. The race took place over three stages, firstly a 2km “sprint” race to the first pub of the day. The second was a 4km “hill” stage to the Red Lion in Preston. The final stage was an “Enduro” 10km cross country back to Hitchin. Kris was consistently second, to three different runners which was enough to give him the overall victory! 

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