Squirrels Triumph at Berlin Marathon

Three Squirrels headed for Berlin on Sunday to take part in the world famous fast and flat Berlin Marathon: Mike Roberts, Tash Pitman and Nicola Withington.  Tash described the crowd as deafening in places with bands and drummers around every corner, geeing up the crowd to roar the runners around the course. Mike Roberts was in amazing form and ran a personal best time of 2:31:26, setting a new senior men’s category club record. Tash Pitman also on amazing form, was delighted to finish in 3:11:23 and set the second club record of the day in the women’s vet 45 category.  Nicola Withington had a superb run, managing a personal best time, beating her previous marathon time by over an hour, and finishing in 4:36:44.   Nicola said she enjoyed every minute of the run and unusually managed to drink a cup of tea en route!

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​Closer to home…..
Thirteen lucky Squirrels took part in the Hitchin Town Centre 5k on Sunday, with age group category wins being awarded to Linda Aird, Oliver Babik and Tracy Pitcairn.

The friendly and well-supported race consisted of two laps around undulating Hitchin town centre, with some challenging tight turns and the occasional narrow pavement that runners have to negotiate with caution – along with a few cobbled streets to keep things interesting!  Unlike Berlin, this is neither a fast nor particularly flat course, but nevertheless good finishing times are still possible, as the Squirrels showed. Taking part were:

​Linda Aird 28:09 (first FV60)
Oliver Babik 20:17 (first M20)
Farzana Bhatti 34:49
James Dalton 20:12
Geoff Davis 29:36
Kat Hinitt 26:53
​(a new post-baby PB!)
Jo Kenlin 41:54
Sheila Leavy 40:41
Steve McKeown 19:38
Luna Miao 27:41
Tracy Pitcairn 22:15 (first FV40)
Nathaniel Rosa 20:06
Ian Sutcliffe 30:54

Meanwhile Kris Whitmore decided to run the Bedford Autodrome Marathon on Sunday morning despite a haphazard training block; saying he entered it purely as a mechanism to get a ‘Good for Age’ place for the London Marathon 2025.  Kris needed 3:10 to apply but realistically 3:07 and said any semblance of a plan went straight out of the window as the strong winds made him choose to sit in a pack of better runners for protection and so it became an exercise in hanging on at the end but hang on he did to claim an excellent time of 3:05:20.

Mel Flyn ran the Leighton 10 Miler following on from her recent success at the Hatfield 5K Series.  Mel ran this as part of her training for the Great Eastern Half in two weeks’ time; describing the course as very windy and hilly.

​Further afield in Australia Lindsey and Viv Lucas continue their tour Down Under and Park Run adventures.  This time their Park Run in Fremantle Western Australia, consisted of running to an old power station and back, a quick run to the beach and back and then a longer run of 1k along the sandy beach to the finish, which Lindsey described as being really hard work.  Fortunately, Park Runs in Australia start at 8am which meant they had time for a 1.5k warm up, the ParkRun, back in time to the campsite to pack up their campervan and be on their way, all by 10am!  

The Park Run round up for Saturday 23 September is as follows:

Barclay: Tim Banting (27:19)

Delamere: Matt Roberts (23:03)

Henlow Bridge Lakes: Dave Braybrook (22:49), Jane Clarke (24:33), Sarah Mitcherson (24:49), Rob Milburn (26:24)

Houghton Hall: Kris Whitmore (19:20)

Letchworth: Katie Harbon (19:55), James Dalton (21:05), Chloe Lucas (23:28), Steve Brenton (25:04), Daniel Mallett (25:38), Jo Harbon (29:40), Alice Noakes (29:46), Aimee Flack (33:47), Philip Flack (37:05)
Rickmansworth: Jon Hunt (22:06), Richard Harbon (22:18)

Shrewsbury: Nick Walker (33:20)

South Beach Recreation Reserve: Lindsey Lucas (40:32)

Townmoor: Jo Sopala (33:35)

​Teignmouth Promenade: Elwyn Howell (22:09)

Stevenage: Matthew Sayers (18:57), Michael Over (19:53), Chris Stokes (20:38), Paula Holm (22:34), Mike Phillips (23:10), Andrew Coates (25:09), Ian Datlen (25:40), Natalie Phillips (29:17), Andreea Weisl-shaw (29:28), Carina Quayle (38:53)

Stretford: Tom Barclay (17:01), Emma Sandham (25:56)

Wimpole Estate: Vincent Wright (20:26)

Yarborough Leisure Centre: Anna Greetham (23:32), Brian Judkins (34:29)

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