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 …
One of the nice things about the scarcity of races in these times is that we can focus on some of the runners that may not always enjoy the spotlight. This week we had three runners taking on the Virtual Run Your Town Dacorum 10k and one taking to the streets of Hemel to complete the 10k part of the …
This weekend saw a return to racing for many of the Harriers with 6 taking part in the Chiltern Ultra on Saturday, 7 tackling the Eton Dorney Marathon on Sunday and a further 7 Harriers joining 45000 or so others around the world in the Virtual London Marathon. The Chiltern Ultra is a 50k trail race around the Chiltern Hills …
Gade Valley Harriers, in common with the rest of the world’s runners, have spent the whole summer dreaming of the time that they can return to regular racing. As with the rest of the UK, the running community was dealt a Covid related blow this weekend with the announcement that the planned return of Parkrun at the end of October …
Most runners take a number of weeks to run 100 miles even whilst marathon training, and they run them on even firm ground wherever possible. This weekend, Chris Dowling ran that distance, and some more, as he took part in the Ultra X125 in the Peak District. The race challenged participants to endure 75km of trails and mixed terrain in …