North Herts Road Runners hit and miss their Personal Bests in Icy Conditions

Jillian Boys

Jillian Boys ran two PBs this weekend. The first was at North Herts Road Runners’ First Saturday of the Month on Norton Common in Letchworth, and the second at the Cancer Research UK London Winter 10K on Sunday.  Jillian loved both races, saying,“the First Saturday race was a lovely snowy morning and I ran with my dog Poppy – we got a new course PB of 22.55 (including an unplanned ‘dog business’ stop!). On Sunday around 20,000 runners raced with me through central London, starting at Trafalgar Square and finishing at the Cenotaph memorial along Whitehall. It was a beautiful blue sky day, nice and cold and dry: perfect running conditions. I was really hoping to achieve my first sub 47min 10k – and I was so pleased to find out my chip time was 46.57!” 

On Saturday, also in London, John Rayner travelled to the home of the 2012 Olympics for a 10k race around Queen Elizabeth Park. John said,“This is a monthly race which I also did at the start of February last year. It is a flat 3 lap course, I went for a warm up lap to discover that the route had changed to avoid a footpath closure. I'm pleased I did this or I would have been in for a shock during the race! With my family watching I set off too fast and soon found myself in the lead. At the end of the first mile I was overtaken and wasn't able to keep up as we hit a head wind along the canal under the Olympic stadium. From this point on I held on to second place. With half a mile to go 3rd place briefly caught up with me but I had enough left to push on.” John finished in a time of 36:30, which, although it was a minute slower than last year felt like a positive result given all his injuries in between.

Ed Price ran the Chichester 10k on Sunday morning which was also the Sussex 10k Championship and a qualifying event for England Masters (the first three in each age category qualify to run for England at a future 10k race). On a flat and fast course, and in perfect running conditions, Ed managed to finish in 34:10, one second slower than his PB. Ed lamented “I was the 9th MV40, so no chance of an England vest, but I enjoyed the race and loved running amongst (and behind) so many quality runners.”

4 Squirrels ran in ParkRuns (Ian Datlen, Steve Brenton, Joe Sherry and Chris Poole) and 23 Squirrels turned out alongside Jillian at the First Saturday of the Month in a field of 86 runners.

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