The slow return to the natural rhythm of the running seasons rolled on as another favourite local race, the St Albans Half Marathon, made a welcome return on 13th June after being cancelled last year because of something to do with a planned medic. At least I think that is what it was, nobody seems to remember much about 2020. …
Gade Valley Harriers ran the second of their summer handicap series races on Thursday The handicap is designed to give everybody, irrespective of their speed, an even chance of winning. Each runner is assigned a head start based on their expected finish time so that, in theory, there should be a close blanket finish. Anybody that took part in the …
Dorney Lake, the venue for the 2012 Olympic rowing events, is ideally suited to fast racing with its long, flat straights. Or at least, when the weather is fair it is ideally suited to fast racing. When it is cold, wet and windy the flatness and lack of shelter can make Dorney a very difficult venue to race in. Unfortunately …
Saturday 8th May saw the Chiltern Ridge Ultra 50k race taking place in the woods and hills around Wendover. The 50k course takes in nearly 1000m of climb along the route and is a qualifying race for the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, considered by many to be the pinnacle of ultra trail running. One hardy Harrier, Martin Pike, took …
As the world seems slowly to be returning to something like normal it was great to see another local race on Sunday. The Hatfield 5 mile race is a traditional favourite but, in a lingering sign of the recent times, it was held at Bovingdon Airfield due to safety concerns around holding the race in the narrow lanes of Hatfield. …
As April turned to May Gade Valley Harriers took some more small steps back towards what we all hope will be something like our “normal” life. 2020 was of course a year like no other in modern times. One of the casualties of the pandemic was the annual summer handicap series in which the Harriers run a 4 mile course …
Easter weekend saw the long awaited return of organised racing as 14 Gade Valley Harriers took on the St Albans 10k on Good Friday and 6 Harriers took on the Dorney Lake Marathon on Easter Saturday. After the government announced that outside sports could return on March 29th several Harriers rushed to enter the St Albans 10k and one Harrier …
2020 was the strangest of years. Back in January we were hearing about a “new” virus called Coronavirus (although we were also told it was a well known type of virus that causes, amongst other things, the common cold) that was causing a stir in China. Those of us old enough to remember to remember the SARS outbreak of 2002 …
This weekend saw more events emerging from the Lockdown slumber, rubbing their eyes and slowly stretching in the new sunny dawn of the socially distanced, Covid Safe racing era. At least that would be the romantic view of the Gade Valley Harriers taking part in three separate events over the weekend. The reality though was of a miserable wet weekend …
After Lockdown v1.0 and 1.1, a partial release and then Lockdown v2.0 organised racing finally got underway again at a freezing cold, foggy Bovingdon Airfield for the Herts Remembrance 10k. The race was originally scheduled for November 8th but the latest lockdown had grounded that plan leaving everybody frustrated but itching to go once the new date had been confirmed …