Welwyn Garden City welcomes 451 runners for the first Mob Match road race in 3 years.

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​Wednesday saw the final event in the Summer Herts Midweek League road race series in Welwyn Garden City when teams from all three divisions came together to compete against each other in the infamous "Mob Match".  This was followed the awards presentation for overall team and individual winners from the 4 race series in the 3 divisions.  Local clubs taking part were North Herts Road Runners based in Letchworth (the squirrels), Fairlands Valley Spartans based in Stevenage and Hitchin Running Club (the hares) who all relished the opportunity of some friendly rivalry on a rather hot and humid evening.  The squirrels, came 3rd, followed by the Striders in 9th and the Hares in 18th.  First lady home for the squirrels was Katie Harbon in fine form in 2nd place, closely followed by team mate Anna Klucnika in 4th place on a stunning debut race for the club.  Ben Hadham led the male squirrels home in 3rd position after a sprint finish, just 2 seconds short of second placed St Albans rival Stefano Federici.  At the post race awards ceremony 3 individual NHRR athletes picked up awards for their performances over the 4-race series.  Caroline Thrussell scooped first female veterans 55 award, while Stewart Overton came away with 2nd male in an extremely competitive veterans 40 category.  Finally, Tash Pitman was delighted with 3rd place in the female veteran 45 category.  Lots of the Mob Match squirrels stayed behind to cheer their clubmates successes and Club Chair Karen Dodsworth commented “it was a shame there wasn’t a trophy for loudest cheer, as we’d have won outright!”  On Friday evening Adam Bowller headed over to Bedford to take part in the Beds AAA 10km, where he clocked a speedy 34 minutes and 19 seconds to finish 3rd in the Bedfordshire County Championships. 
 
Bedford 10km 
On Friday evening several squirrels ran the Beds AAA 10km race in Bedford and it proved another hot evening.  Adam Bowller said the hot conditions meant it wasn’t particularly quick, although he ran a very quick time of 34:19 and finished 3rd in the race, which also served as the Bedfordshire County Championships.  Lucy O’Conner managed an excellent 51.18 and first female veteran 60, while Richard Weber was pleased to get a 2nd best ever 10k time of 46.37.  Club coaches Pete Sibbett and Karen Dodsworth also raced and were pleased with their efforts and Dan Mallet used the race to hit his mileage target.  They were all happy to be cheered on by the excellent support crew of Brian Judkins and Anna Gibson. 
 
MK 5000 PB Special 
Stewart Overton and Mark Vaughan travelled to Milton Keynes on the warm Saturday afternoon to take part in the MK5000 track meet.  Stewart said “Due to the heat we both took on a conservative start and paced evenly to work our way through the fields of our respective races.”   
Mark finished 2nd in race H in 16:55 and Stewart finished 7th in race G in a time of 16:41.  They were both pleased with their performances given the heat the time we raced.  A travelling supporting party of Sue Vaughan, Karen and Pete, and John Auld certainly helped to keep us on track with their loud cheers every lap. The NHRR beer and cheer squad was certainly the loudest and helped us both find some extra energy for fast last K’s. 
The event took in 12 races concluding with the ladies and mens elite race, A race in which 8 men ran under 14 minutes and the track record was broken in a time of 13:38 ! 
 
XTerra Snowdonia Mountain Marathon 
Richard Barker had his first DNF aged 50!  He completed 20 of the 28 miles of the Cousteau which included Snowdon as he “bonked out at Pen y Pass… hot hot hot but great fun.” His running partner from Biggleswade AC completed it in 6 hrs 30 mins.  Richard said it’s “really well organised.. beautiful terrain.. just unusually warm. Recommend it for next year if anyone is interested!” 
 
ASICS London 10k 
Elwyn Howell completed this 10km in 51:02 on a boiling day in central London and was pleased to finish a very respectable 14th out of 119 in his age category. 
 
Parkruns 
Ian Sutcliffe ran his 2nd Park Run at Henlow Lakes on Sat and his time of 30.38 was 10 seconds quicker than his first visit and he bettered his own club record! 
 
Gedling parkrun:  Ed Price 18:07.  First place 
Letchworth parkrun: Matt Roberts 22:15; James Dalton 22:16; John Russell 25:53; Anna Greetham 25:58; Peter Clarke 33:45; Geoff Pettengell 34:00 
Jersey Farm parkrun:  Richard Harbon 23:51; Lucy Hurley 28:08 
Henlow Bridges parkrun:  Jillian Boys 26:55; Anna Gibson 27:02; Rachel Annetts 28:53; Sue Vaughan 29:20; Andreea Weisl-Shaw 29:26; Ian Sutcliffe 30:38; Vicky Haskell 34:15; Sue Boys 37:39 
Storeys Field parkrun:  Brian Judkins 35:10 
Durlston Country Park parkrun:  Jim Mcconnell 21:36 

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