Squirrels survive the roundabout to produce magic at Bovingdon airfield

A scurry of squirrels ran the postponed Hatfield 5 mile race - which due to local council restrictions was relocated to the airfield at Bovingdon, Hemel Hempstead. Conditions were tough on the four lap course with a strong wind and humid sunny conditions. The event was ran in waves based upon expected finish times to abide with social distancing guidelines. Despite the lack of scenery, the race was more enjoyable than expected, explains Kat Gourd - “the laps flew by quite quickly”.
Clearly the squirrels had been training well during the restrictions as several achieved personal best times for 5 mile distance.
Both Kat and Dave Braybrook helped each other round and each came away with a personal best. Elwyn Howell was also achieved a new personal best and thanked the encouragement from fellow team mates. Richard Weber took part as his second race in the covid era. Coming away with a personal best by over two minutes. Richard said he enjoyed it and it was nice to run with a gang of squirrels again.
All squirrels finishing were as follows;
Michael Banister: 30:12
Natasha Pitman 33:08
Dave Braybrook: 36:14 (PB)
Kat Gourd: 36:17 (PB)
Elwyn Howell: 37:26 (PB)
Richard Weber: 37:34 (PB)
Hannah Keeble: 46:26

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Mike Bullock and Susan Mansfield both ran the Last Man Standing Back Yard Ultra in Derbyshire.
The race was a 12 hour race in which you had to complete a 4.2 mile hilly muddy loop every hour. On completion of the loop within the hour, you were permitted to start the next lap on the next hour of the day.
Mike explains that the tactics in play were the compromise between pace and recovery time as well as allowing suitable time for refuelling. But - fortunately eating cake is part of their training. Anyone left in the final lap was a foot race for time.
“What a monster run it turned out to be” explained Mike. He continued “an evil course of forrest switchbacks, deep mud, torrential rain and hills.” The runners churned up the course with every lap – so each lap got progressively harder as the course deteriorated.
Mike and Susan completed 10 and 6 laps respectively.

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