GVH on tour at parkruns.
We had 43 runners out tackling park runs this week, many venturing a fair way from home to York, Sewerby (near Scarborough), Rothay (lake district), and Holkham (Norfolk). But the award for the longest distance travelled goes to Helen Heathcote, who went to Amsterdam to run parkrun. That’s dedication Helen!
The place to be, if you were chasing finishing positions, was Leavesden Country park run where Andrew Wells finished first overall with a time of 19m 49s and Kitty Cole was the 4th lady home in 27m 16s. Interestingly, over at Cassiobury, Nick Crowther also finished in 19m 49s, which only earned him a 12th place finish. But, the fastest overall of all our runners was Stephen Newing at Ricky Parkrun (19m 49s) and Sue Crowther at Cassiobury ( 25m 23s) Well done all!
However, the standout parkrun performance must surely go to Clare Bowers at Cassiobury where she not only achieved a PB, but also ran 5k under 30 mins for the first time ever! Clare was part of last years learn to run group, had never really run before and completed her first ever park run at the end of LTR in July 2023. Since then, as her record below shows, she has got stronger and faster with almost every park run. Well done! a huge milestone smashed through Clare !
2024 parkrun & 1st park run photo
Clare’s parkrun achievements
The return of the Ricky Road Run
It seems like Rickmansworth was the place to be on Sunday morning for the return of the once popular Ricky Road run. A HUGE turn out for the GVH’s, all looking great in the new kit as they flew through the country lanes. I had the privilege of supporting for once and I have to say the new design on the vest make the team stand out and easy to spot from quite a distance.
Ready to roll!
10 miles is a good distance.!Not as tough as a full on 10k sprint, and not the grind of a half marathon. Just a perfect distance if you ask me. It was fantastic to see our runners giving it everything out there. I loved the sight of a whole line of our runners almost running as a pack and finishing within a minute of each other at the 1hr 10 mark
Congratulations to Teresa Reason and Jon Roberts for winning the V45 & V50 prizes respectively and Micheal Lindon for his 5th pace overall finish. And well done to at least 7 of the crew who chalked up a new PB!!
Teresa and Jon with their awards
The full results were as follows
And finally – Kudos to the most supportive GVH member – Mary, for cajoling , nursing and pulling … a hungover Holly around the course
Two that did avoid the bars though…
(or at least thats what they assured me) were Anthony Beamish and Stuart Gallagher who attacked the Frankfurt Marathon on Sunday, in perfect weather conditions. Stuart, who surely must still be recovering from his exploits in Chicago reports … “It was a nice flat, fast course that looped through the city. The middle section was rather dull (dual carriageways and no crowds)…. The last few miles looped back around the city again, finishing in the expo arena on a red carpet to blaring music and flashing lights..!! 😂. I think the biggest surprise of the weekend was the fact that Beamo and I managed to stay out of the local bars until the race was over..! 🤣🤦🏻♂️ ”
Well done Stuart and Anthony with your finish times of 3:19:15 and 3:42:02 respectively ! Love the Medal!
Tough coastal challenges
Two of our ladies headed to the sunny south for tough challenges this weekend. Michelle Wells headed to Eastbourne to tackle the Beachy Head Half Marathon. It sounded like a beautiful coastal run through the south Downs national park and over the picturesque seven sisters. Well done Michelle 2:23:41 is a great finish time on such a tough trail.
Michelle at Beach Head Half
Meanwhile further along the coast, Sandra Flynn took on the challenge of “The Stickler” in Dorset. Not for the faint hearted or any hill hater. The 10.1 miles Dorset Three Peaks trail run involves over 1500ft of gruelling climbing, beginning with the infamous ’Stickle Path’. Runners ascend three locally renowned peaks along the beautiful Stour Valley: Okeford Beacon, Hod Hill and Hambledon Hill. Well done Sandra, a great finish time of 1:51:36
Sandra’s Challenge
And finally ending this weeks round up with a cautionary tale
The disappointment of unexpected disqualification.
I received a text this week from a disappointed unnamed GVH-er that asked me to share his cautionary tale….. After all the hard work of completing their marathon, they were emailed the following:
On reviewing the photographs taken at various points during the event on Sunday, it is apparent that you were wearing in-ear earphones. This is in contravention of the race terms and conditions which were set out on the entry form, in the confirmation email that you received on entry and on p7 of the race booklet that you were emailed on 2nd October. It was also announced over the PA system by the Race Director immediately prior to the race starting. It is also against EA rules for races run on open roads.
Sadly you have therefore been disqualified from the race.
To spare their blushes, I haven’t disclosed their identity and they have confirmed that they understand and have no issue with the decision. They asked me to share in this weeks news letter to both warn and remind us all that races organisers do follow up and it is important to comply with the race rules.
For any one that is interested in learning more about the headphone ban (and the more recent changes) see here.
https://www.nice-work.org.uk/news/2530-latest-news-england-athletic-headphone-ban