Happy New Year and a big warm welcome to all our new members. I hope to feature many of you in this news letter over the next few weeks.
Parkrun Round up
We have had several members celebrating milestone parkruns in recent weeks. This Saturday it was Kim Morgans turn, celebrating her 100th parkrun at Rickmansworth, where she ran her first event in 2017. Congratulations Kim! And well done too on being our first lady finishers with an incredible improvement from finishing in 30:33 in 2017, to 22:44 in 2025!
Kim’s 100th Parkrun
Despite freezing conditions (literally!) and expected snow flurries, GVH were out in force to celebrate with her. Russ Jones, Tom Evans and Laura Johnson all set new parkrun PBs . Anthony Fogden, Kirstie Hardiman set course PBs. I am sure we would have seen many more PBs fall from our 28 runners at Ricky – if it had not been that many of them ran there as part of a longer training run. Well done all – tough miles in the cold.
Gadebridge parkrun was also busy with 7 Harriers taking advantage of the usually muddy course, now for a short time at least – solid frozen ground. Well done to Michael Linden on his 9th place finish and Keris Thomas for 1st GVH lady. Lovely to see new member Louise Nash also running.
Cassiobury Parkrun was relatively quiet, with most pace seeking runners opting for Ricky. Warren Tarney and Helen Cook were our first finishers.
Tom Perry and Sam sparks take the prize for the most challenging park runs this week, opting for Wendover Woods and Dunstable Downs respectively.
Guy and Martha Woollett were parkrun tourists and travelled to Valentines Park in East London for the first time – were they searching for a ‘V” in the parkrun alphabet?
Simon Morris takes on Country to Capital
Those of us that weren’t park running on Saturday were likely to have been battling through the cold conditions to build endurance miles as part of spring marathon or half marathon training plans. However Warrior Simon Morris went one step further when he took on the Country to Capital Ultra 2025, billed as “The curtain raiser for the ultra running season “.
The 43 MILE race ( yes 42 Miles is not a typo) started at the Shoulder of Mutton Pub in Wendover and wove its way along a mixture of Country trails and canal towpaths to Paddington in London.
It was lovely to see the support for Simon on the chat groups as he progressed through the check points to a fantastic finish in 7 hr 46 mins. Amazing running Simon – Fantastically well done !!
Simon at the “Shoulder of Mutton” start.
Great to see Simon also happy about his finish time. He says “ I was very pleased with the race overall, I wanted a sub 8hr finished and to stick to my plan to not to go too hard at the start. It went to plan and more importantly I picked up no injuries. The weather was actually ok ! We had about ten mins of light snow in the morning but otherwise 3-5 degrees and no wind – lovely running conditions! Underfoot it was icy in patches but generally canal path and trail were ice free” .
Once again fantastically well done Simon – looking forward to hearing whats next for you this year.
Victoria Park 10k
Finally on the racing front: Jack Boughton tackled the Victoria Park 10k in London on Sunday. Well done Jack for braving some terrible weather and a nice great finish time of 51:12. Another nice medal earned.
GVH Members of the Month December 2024
Men’s Member of the Month – from Simon Morris
The men’s Member of the Month for December has had a full racing calendar. Where many of us take our foot off the accelerator in December – he seemed to go into racing overdrive despite being unwell for part of the month.
Given last month’s Member of the Month was awarded to our marshalling team, the 1st event I include was Stopsley Park cross country where he ran well for the team. Next up was the Milton Keynes Winter Half putting in a strong performance despite the conditions. This was followed by the men’s Christmas run and the Christmas Eve Beacon runs.
He went on to record a course PB at the Pednor 10m and finished the year with the St John’s New Year’s Eve 10km. All of that on top of the mile stones park run at Black Park, and park runs on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day!
I have had my eye on him as a potential Member of the Month for a little while now – partly because he is always just ahead of me on club nights. But more importantly his unseen efforts behind the scenes as club treasurer, fulfilling an important role that helps keep GVH operating so smoothly. December men’s Member of the Month is Stephen Newing.
Here’s to a happy and rewarding 2025 to all runners – I hope to see many of you at cross country on Saturday. Let’s see if the men can outnumber the women again…!
Women’s Member of the Month – from Kim Morgan
The women’s Member of the Month for December is someone who has shown remarkable resilience and patience in her return from injury at the end of 2024. She has a big Marathon planned for March and is coming back sensibly but with huge determination this month, already picking up the mileage. This member attends club sessions regularly. She loves the social side of running and enjoyed taking part in the Christmas Light Run and the Christmas Eve Beacon Run to is month. Our member of the month is also someone who has made a big contribution to the club in the last few months. Since joining the committee in October and taking over as comms officer, she has written fantastic reports celebrating the personal achievements of other members. In the write ups you can feel the joy she receives from celebrating in the successes of her fellow runners. Our Member of the Month for December 2024 is Jane Phillipson. Well done Jane, thank you for all you do!
Echoing Simons words – Here’s to a happy and rewarding 2025 to all runners – I hope to see many of you at cross country on Saturday. Let’s see make sure the Women are not outnumber the Men this weekend