Squirrels Promoted as Champions of Division 2

Mark Vaughan and Jim McConnel leading out the MWL race. Photo by Danik Bates.

Wednesday evening was the final race of the Midweek road race league and was hosted by NHRR. The weather was much more pleasant and perfect racing conditions. On the night, NHRR continued their dominance over the division winning all 5 categories once again. The final positions after 4 races have NHRR in a commanding lead overall. We also won the men, the vet men, the women and the vet women. Despite many of the club looking after the race organisation and marshalling, we still turned out 34 runners in total.

The scoring team for the ladies were Katie Harbon 1st (38:50), Astrid McKeown 2nd (40:39), Helen Nuttall 3rd (42:00), Paula Adams 11th (44:24), Tash Pitman 12th (44:24), Jane Clarke 20th (46:20). Scoring for the men were Jim McConnel 1st (34:45), Mark Vaughan 2nd (35:15), Darren Sunter 4th (35:36), Andy Mutton 9th (36:14), John Rayner 12th (36:39), Stewart Overton 17th (37:57), John Auld 19th (38:07), Steve McKeown 28th (39:01), Nick Malpeli 32nd (39:13), Daren Matussa 34th (39:16), Vincent Wright 35th (39:21), Ryan Smith 36th (39:26).

The 2nd race of the week hosted by NHRR was the First Saturday of the Month 5K in Norton Common. 79 runners took part. It was won by Hitchin RC's Peter Males. The first Squirrel home was James Keogh 5th (19:51). Jane Clarke was the first lady finishing in 14th overall (23:04). Other runners were John Cooper 8th (20:48), Manvir Parmer 13th (22:10), Lucy O'Connor 27th (24:48), Sarah Mitcherson 31st (25:08), Paul Bowal 39th (26:46) and Dawn Power 55th (29:16).

Barbara Sayers and Ollie Garbas ran the Bassingbourn Half marathon. Barbara finished the 2nd V45 in 1:48 and Ollie finished with his best time of recent years in 1:30:48.

Jim McConnel headed to the Peak District for the Great Hucklow Fell race where he finished 3rd V40.

Chris Poole at al1 ran 11 parkruns in one day, running every parkrun in Hertfordshire, raising money for Alzheimers research UK. Starting with Gadebridge at 7:30 in the morning. The route passed onto Tring, Rickmansworth, South Oxhey, Cassiobury, Aldenham, Barclay, Panshanger, Stevenage, Ellenbrook, St Albans and Beehive.

Several squirrels ran at a few Parkrun venues. Most appeared at Stevenage. First squirrell home was Pete Sibbett, smashing the 20 min mark with 19:18. Simon Poole 15th (20:29), Jen Naisbitt got a new PB by 70 seconds finishing with 28:28, Patrick Norris (33:57).  Chloe Lucas ran at Norwich, finishing 8th lady in 22:57. Brian Judkins ran 36:13 at Wimpole. Stewart Overton ran 18:22 at Keswick. Phil Hunt ran 22:06 at Hastings. Chris Poole and Steve Lummis both ran at Tring finishing in 25:29 and 26:13 respectively.
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Last week several Squirrels headed down to Finsbury Park to take part in the Stag Golden Mile hosted by Barnet and District Athletics club. First to run was Simon Poole in race 11 who finished 7th in 5:13. Race 12 had several squirrels targeting a sub 5 min mile. This race was very tight for 3 laps and had most athletes all in a pack until the back straight of the last lap where Darren Sunter made a break for it. Darren finished 2nd in 4:57. Another sub 5 time was John Auld, finishing 4th in 4:58. Finishing 9th and 10th was Adam Bowller and Jim McConnel with 5:02 and 5:03 respectively. The last race had Mark Vaughan in, who finished 13th with 4:57.

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