The Land of The Rising Sun

With GVH’s Chief Communication Officer being on the other side of the world, the baton has been passed to me this week to write the weekly report. It feels like having to write an Oscars speech, where I’m bound to miss mentioning someone. Apologies in advance for the toilet humour, Jane will be back with you next week!

First up we have The Tokyo Marathon Gang! The weather on the day looked to be far from ideal for posting fast times, with it being hot and humid. This proved to be the case even with the Elite Race. It could have been worse though as the day after it snowed!

Stuart Gallagher was first in for GVH and managed to get a photo with legend Paula Radcliff. Even with the less-than-ideal weather, Stuart went out hard chasing a Boston qualifying time at the same pace as Paula. Judging by the splits at the halfway point, it looks like he found the all too familiar marathon pain cave. He got it done though and collected a 4^th World Marathon Major Star! Paula managed a sub-3-hour marathon that Stu was aiming for, but maybe our GVH pin up boy got distracted by Harry Styles, who came in just ahead of him at impressive 3:24:07. Apparently, his secret was he ran in One Direction (credits to Darren)

Second in was marathon newbie Jack Boughton, even though last year he ran multiple Ultras! Jack ran a very sensible first marathon, managing to stick to his race plan up until the 20-mile mark. He then turned on the afterburners to run an impressive debut time of 3:43:35 and record an elusive marathon negative split. He claims his legs were hollow at the end of the race, but I think there is more to come.

Gary Phillipson isn’t an official GVH member yet as he is on a trial period pending Jane’s approval. According to the reports he is on the road to GVH membership, after a bringing it home in 4:41:17. This time could definitely be improved as his training plan included two rounds of golf, instead of a long slow run.

And last but not least Jane, who overcame a nasty calf injury she picked up in the Autumn, during the Royal Parks Half Marathon. She managed to recover just in time, to get in a decent marathon training block. Jane also collected her 4th World Marathon Major Star and finished in a superb time of 4:52:25. I’m really looking forward to you coming back, this report has taken me ages!

Now on to the Berkhamsted Half Marathon

This year we had a monster turnout of 62 GVH runners including the 5 mile fun runners, this was helped with it being the 6th Club League event of the season. With all the support out on the course from GVH athletes who were either injured, retired, volunteering or having a rest, I would guess it was a record in total! It was good to see some of the members we haven’t seen at club nights recently. Even the lesser spotted Tom Langdown was there looking to claim a MOTM at last!

It was a record event size wise for the Berkhamsted Half Marathon. This could be felt by large toilet and baggage queues this year. It appears some members gave up queuing, as even in the first mile we saw a GVH runner appearing out of a bush only just outside of Berkhamsted!

Many thanks to the GVH Waterstop volunteers including Andy N, Paul M, Paula, Suzie, Judith, Huw, Andrea (+daughter), Danni and Simon Wallis, who was still buzzing following the MTR success. Suzie & Andrea took some amazing photo’s and also a photo shoutout to Andy Watt, Clare Bowers, Head Coach Ed, Andy Wells and Dave Wood. Ed managed to get to 3 different locations on the course somehow! Thanks to all the other support out on the course, I can’t name them all but I heard Gary’s voice over everyone, rumor has it he might be the Bovingdon 10K Master of Ceremonies. Come to think of it, we never did find out whos celebrity wedding it was at Ashridge!

Kim Morgan led the women home starting off with a very aggressive pace, but she managed to keep it going for a 2 min course PB of 1:35:38.

The women had a turnout of 24 with 8 PB’s including some of the younger members Eleanor, Simone & Megan giving captain Kim a run for her money. Kirstie, Katie, Natalie and Ines all delivered on the day with their PB’s. Katie seemed especially pleased on Strava saying “Smashed it! So happy :)”. There was also some great running across the rest of the women’s team, posting some very close to PB times.

Matt Ashby was first over the line for the men finishing 5^th place overall in 1:14:07. He was caught up in the baggage queue before the race, so only just managed to make the start line in time. Matt wasn’t happy with his result being such a tough task master, however he clocked almost the same time he did last year where he claimed 4^th place, his time this year in fact would have won the event in 2022! Club League Leaders Michael and Jon had strong races as well making up the top three for the men.

The men had a turnout of 34 with the Simon’s battling it out for men’s personal performance of the day. Captain Simon Morris took a huge chunk off his PB coming in under the 90 min mark for the first time. Simon Wheeler also set a big PB, both were running in super shoes with carbon plates for the first time so there must be something in it! Andy Bishop also knocked out an impressive half marathon PB, it seems like he was surprised based on his “WTF” comment on Strava. Dan Green, Nick, Foggy and Ben Phillips all got shiny PB’s as well!

Many congratulations to Helen Pollard and Matthew Chamberlain for running their first Half Marathon’s. I ran the Berkhamsted Half Marathon as my first back in 2008, and I found it so tough I didn’t do another half for 10 years! I hope it wasn’t as hard for you both.

We also had 4 runners that decided to do the strangely named 5 mile fun run. It goes straight up Bullbeggars Lane, which I think the worst hill to run up to Potten End!

Not everyone had the race they wanted as several people were recovering from illness but all in all everyone seemed to enjoy the race especially the weather. Full results are in the tables below.

The post race social at the Berkhamsted Tennis Club was another success, thanks to Crissie and Sue for organising. The drinks flowed and there was plenty of Pizza for the hungry runners. Now over to the captains for Member of the Month…

Women’s Member of the Month – by Kim Morgan – GVH Womens Captain

Our Member of the Month for February is someone who works incredibly hard and has made a continuous improvement since joining us from the LTR course. Over the space of a week, this member can be found playing football, at Parkrun, football training, bootcamp, boxing, yoga and a GVH club session. She never shies away from a challenge and in November 2024 she put on a GVH vest for the first time and made her debut at cross country. I’m not sure that she fell in love with cross country straight away and she certainly doesn’t look 100% sure when she arrives at each event. However, she has been at every cross-country event since November. It has been fantastic to have her as part of the team and see such amazing determination, despite facing some very challenging courses. This month our women’s MOM took on her first 10K at Welwyn. Paced by a friend, she completed the course in 1:10:53. This is a great achievement, and I look forward to seeing many more milestones over 2025.

Our Member of the Month for February 2025 is Louise Nash. Congratulations Louise and thank you for amazing support over the cross-country season.

Men’s Member of the Month – By Simon Morris – GVH Mens Captain

The men’s MOTM for February has had a solid start to 2025. He achieved the GVH Rickmansworth Park Run V50 record in Jan with an incredible time of 18:21. He then ran the Watford Half Marathon in 1:25:18, coming 3rd in the V50 category and 3rd in the Hertfordshire Vets team with Michael Linden, Steve Newing and Guy Woollett.

Despite struggling with a torn stomach muscle, he ran the Oxford XC putting the team before himself. This ensured he finished the season 7th overall in the Men’s V50 category.

He is a long standing, friendly and welcoming member of the club that does much behind the scenes. Beyond the running, he has printed some amazing flyers for the MTR that were handed out at XC and the Welwyn 10km. These had a huge impact on getting us to over 300 participants. He is also instrumental in the design of the GVH clobber many of us wear and is designing the medals for the upcoming Bovingdon 10km.

Men’s MOTM for February is Jon Roberts.