We’ve finally said goodbye to January, leaving behind the storms, dry January challenges, and the long wait for that first payday of the year! At last the mornings are getting lighter, making those early runs a bit easier. But the strong start to the running year continues with some outstanding runs by all the team at the Watford Half and 10k events. Well done all! Another great week !
Parkrun Round Up
32 GVH’s went parkrunning this Saturday, at 12 different venues, in near perfect winter running conditions. But with the Watford Half Marathon & 10K this weekend it was perhaps unsurprising that we saw no new PBs
Top finisher of the week was Kim Morgan who was the first lady home at Oakland College Parkrun – Well done Kim.
Oakland is a new local parkrun at Oaklands College in St.Albans. The course details describe it as a “2 lap course run on a mixture of grass, concrete and gravel tracks ” and warn – “Trail shoes would be recommended in the winter months and after periods of wet weather”. This certainly seemed to be accurate on Saturday as Roland, and Antony & Deborah Fogden who ran with Kim, all described at length the depth of the mud. “The briefing said it was muddy but that was an understatement there was even a sign for an on course swamp to run through” “Like running in slow motion through mud and a signposted swamp!!! “Undoubtedly the most mud I have ever run in. Order of day – stay on your feet” Despite this, all 4 seemed to have had a fun run.
Top Male finisher of the week was Nicholas Crowther who finished 3rd at Wendover Woods Parkrun. Well done too to Sue Crowther, running with the very cute Ruby.
Ricky Parkrun was busy as usual – with 8 of the team there. Gareth Tucker was first home followed once again by Jack Boughton. A more sedate pace though from Jack, this week, perhaps saving the legs for Sundays Watford half. Helen Cook was our first lady home.
Gadebridge Parkrun was quiet with all of the runners that slipped and skidded through the mud last week choosing to run elsewhere, leaving Jono Marval as our only representative. Well done Jono for a 10th place finish
Guy Woollett and Andrea Beattie were our top finishers from the team of 5 at Cassiobury parkrun. Well Done both !
First time visits
Micheal Linden visited Crane parkrun near Twickenham for the first time and took home an 8th place finish. Nice! Whilst Anthony Beamish travelled to Dublin for the Poolbeg parkrun. (actually I would hope that he travelled to Dublin and whilst there ran the parkrun)
Watford Half Marathon & 10K
The event of this weekend was undoubtedly the ATW Watford Half & 10K . The Half Marathon has always been a popular event, well organised and well supported but often hampered by very cold, icy conditions. Sunday fortunately, was not such a day, and Watford served us up blue skies and near perfect running conditions. For the first time too, a 10k race started alongside the Half Marathon.
Harriers ready to roll in Watford
The 10K that wasn’t a 10k
The brand new 10K started alongside the Half Marathon, in Cassiobury Park but veered off and took a relatively flat route through cassiobury estate and back along the canal. Finishing with a sneaky uphill finish. Strangely the course was actually 10.5Km and even the results give the finish time for 10.5K. and a 10Ksplit time ??!! Well done to our 4 harrier who all had a storming run
Andrea, Helen and Rachel celebrating with their Medals
Rachel and Andrea had a great run together and raced toward the finish. Andrea just taking Rachel on the line and bagging herself a new PB . Adrian was just behind running with his family, and writes “ 3 generations and I still came 4th” . Helen Pollard was our final runner home and also grabbed a great 10K PB
Watford Half Marathon
The Half Marathon takes on a significantly more hillier route. Beautiful country lanes through Bucks Hill, Commonwood, and Chandlers Cross but most definitely some challenging hills. And just to make it that bit tougher, a few harriers ( Stuart and Jack) ran 5 miles before the start.
We had a huge GVH turn our, 26 lined up at the start, blue skies all around and some great running from all. So many PBs were smashed by huge margins.
First home for GVH and 8th overall was Matt Ashby in a superhuman time of 01:14:14, followd by Micheal Linden. Jon Roberts was our highest category place finisher, finishing 3rd in the M50-59 group. Stephen Newing, Rob Hawkes, Guy Woollett and Roland then had a great race within a race, finishing literally within secs of each other in under 01:28:29 In total we had 8 runners break the 1hr 30 mark – just amazing running!
Kim Morgan, having a fantastic weekend of running, was our first lady home. 29th lady overall and 8th in her category. 1:37:32 was her superfast finishing time. She was followed by Alice Stratford and Megan McCreadie and Sam Rafetty, all finishing sub 2 hrs .Great running ladies!
Full results are in the table below.
The following Harriers all celebrated new PBs (and huge apologies for anyone i missed)
- Russ Jones at 1:29:49 – celebrating his 2nd 1hr 30 finish
- Roland celebrating a 3 min PB
- Stephen Newing – course PB
- Natalie Wheeler – New PB
- Jade Evans – Celebrating taking 2 mins of previous PB
- Simon Morris – New PB
- Nick Joseph – New PB
- Alice Stratford – Pb By 2 mins
Full Half marathon results
Prizes are also available for the first 3 men’s and first 3 women’s Hertfordshire club teams. Congratulations to our team of Matt Ashby, Micheal Linden, Jon Roberts and Stephen Newing who took home the Mens team first place prize! Just Brilliant!!!
Our ladies Kim, Megan and Sam took a great 4th place! Well done again
Members of the Month
Women’s Member of the Month – from Kim Morgan
The GVH women have started the year strong with Priscilla completing Mumbai Marathon, a mammoth attendance at Cassiobury Cross Country and many PBs at Fred Hughes. Well done to everyone. All these achievements have made the women’s Member of the Month for January a tough decision.
However, there is one member who has started 2025 with such enthusiasm for running it is hard to ignore! Our Member of the Month is new to the club, but she can be already found working hard at most of our Tuesday and Thursday club sessions and attending ParkRuns on Saturdays. On the 11th January, she pulled on a GVH vest for the first time to run her first Cross Country event for over 40 years. She finished the freezing course in 32:24 and with a huge smile on her face. On 26th January, she completed Essendon 10K, finishing in 57:39, 3rd in her category and taking 31 seconds off her PB despite the undulating course.
Our Member of the Month for January 2025 is Deborah Fogden. Well done Deborah, we are thrilled to have you as part of GVH and we can’t wait to see how your running develops through 2025.
Member of the Month Jan 2025
Men’s Members of the Month – Simon Morris
January is always a tough month. The post-Christmas blues combined with cold weather and the next holiday seemingly forever away, make it hard to stay focused and as such I tend to become lazy. This has culminated in me naming 2 men’s Member of the Month for January as I couldn’t decide between them. Both are however equally deserving and so I stand by my decision:
The 1st winner has been on an upward trajectory for a number of months. December ended with a PB at Pednor and the new year began with park runs at Wendover, Rickmansworth and the new route at Oaklands. The highlights for this month include the long overdue return to cross country. Having hung up the spikes almost half a century ago, he made his triumphant return at Cassiobury, 46 years later. I’m looking forward to handing him his number at Oxford next week…. In addition, he set a storming PB at Fred Hughes taking another 2 minutes off his only recently recorded Pednor PB to break the 1:20 mark. A regular at the club – I’m not sure he has missed a rep session this month – and having had a solid start to 2025, the 1st men’s Member of the Month for January is Nick Joseph. Great work Nick – Congratulations and keep it up!
The 2nd MOM has had a quiet start to the racing year, although put in a strong performance at cross country and has also tackled 3 different park runs. His main running achievement this year is to have recorded a sub 20 minute park run for the 17th consecutive year, which is an incredible record to have maintained.
But there is another reason for including this individual. You may have experienced losing small change as you sit in your car and watch it fall out of your pocket down the side of your seat, then fail to reach it as it seemingly gets lost in/behind the seat adjustment mechanism. You might try in vain for a few minutes to retrieve it only to give up. You may well then try again the next day and perhaps the next if you remember. Or you may well give up, deciding that is the price you pay for (a) buying a pair of shorts without a zip and (b) still carrying cash. A similar scenario befell our 2nd MOM, although in his case it wasn’t his money it was the club’s, he didn’t lose it although persevered to retrieve it, it wasn’t small change but a very sizeable sum, it wasn’t down the side of a car seat but the labyrinthine machinery of the modern banking system and it didn’t last a few weeks but many, many years. However, this month he finally cracked the enigma code and funds were released back to the club. If you ever need an insight into the modern banking system, this is the man to ask. Rumours that he delayed the process just long enough to ensure a MOM award are wide of the mark.
The club has for many years been on a sound financial footing thanks to December’s MOM Stephen Newing’s stewardship of the coffers. It is now, thanks to Guy Woollett in an even stronger financial position. Well done Guy!
