Squirrels Victories at Bedford Festival - 5 September 2021

North Herts Road Runners very own First Saturday of the Month 5km was back for the September event. It was another fantastic Saturday morning and the weather was beautiful. There were 58 runners round Norton Common in Letchworth. NHRR secured the podium of James Fox, Adrian Sherwood and John Auld finishing in 17:09, 19:55 and 20:06 respectively. 20 squirrels ran in total.
Others finishing were James Dalton (20:58), Mike Over (21:36), Ian Datlen (22:18), Anna Greetham (22:50), Paula Holm (22:51), Kat Hinitt (23:58), Rhia Botha (24:49), Helen Cains (24:52), Jillian Tooley-Boys (26:14), Caroline Thrussel (26:39), Ellie Scott (26:48), Georgina Quayle (27:04), Andrew Coates (28:11), Gladys Cheng (28:19), Anna Priestley (29:35), Philip Flack (29:53), Dawn Power (31:45), Carina Quayle (31:57), Tracy Pitcairn (33:21) and Geoff Pettengell (33:38)
A scurry of squirrels took part in one or more events in the Bedford Festival of running. The event had a 5km, 10km, two half marathons and 20 mile distances to run across Saturday and Sunday.
Katie Harbon won the ladies Twilight 10k finishing in 37:20. The half marathon was won by Mike Roberts with a new personal best time 75:35.
Running in his first race since early 2019 Ben Ryan also ran in the half marathon. Mike passed him during a loop section and exchanged words of encouragement which spurred Ben to keep going and finish in 1:47:34 - which knocked 2 mins off his previous personal best. Ben said that there was a great atmosphere at the event and it felt awesome to be racing again.
Elwyn Howell spent the weekend at the festival competing in the 10km on Saturday and the half marathon on Sunday. Elwyn finished 3rd in his age category with 48:19 in the 10km and 4th in category with 2:01:34 for the half marathon. He proclaimed that it was a great event and well organised all weekend.
Richard Webber did the 20 mile race at the festival, finishing close to his personal best time for the distance in 3:03:52. Lucy O'Connor achieved a new personal best of 3:05:48 and finished 1st in her age category. Anna Gibson also ran a great time of 3:12:01. Brian Judkins did the 10km event and finished with a great time of 1:04. Richard said afterwards that it was a warm day which didn't help him and he didn't mind admitting that he struggled in the last 4 miles and had to resort to walking on occasion. He was relieved to finish.
Dan Mallett also spend the weekend at the festival. He ran the 5km on Saturday morning in 26:10 and then went back in the evening to run the 10km in 51:33. He then returned again on Sunday morning to run the half marathon in 2:07:26. He was very happy with the results considering the heat and the multiple races entered.
James Keogh took part in the multisport aquathon event named the Duck N Dash at Letchworth Open Pool in Norton Common. James finished the 400m and 5km run in a total time of 32:40 and was 17th.
11 squirrels ran at 8 different Parkkruns across the country. Charlotte Hannah Coles ran 25:19 at Bedford. Steve Williamson ran 22:55 at Kettering. Vincent Wright and Jane Clarke ran 19:30 and 22:28 respectively at Stevenage. Jennie Fraser ran 27:42 at Ayr. Glyn Blakey ran 22:03 at Keswick. William Harrison ran 20:12 at Mersea Island. Phillip Hawkes (20:53) and Lucy Hurley (26:42) ran at Letchworth and Mark and Sue Vaughan ran at Rothay in 18:18 and 29:45 respectively.

Pictures by BedfordRunFest

Pictures by BedfordRunFest

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