This week, “Icy Blast” and his trusty companion “Jack Frost” made their presence known, sending a sharp wake-up call about what winter running is really all about. With temperatures dipping below freezing for much of the week and icy paths sneaking up beneath our feet, it was a reminder of just how challenging and unpredictable the season can be.
The upside is that there has certainly been some beautiful blue skies and stunning scenery. Well done to every one who got a run in this week, especially if you got out early in the morning.
Parkrun Creativity
Not surprisingly, many Parkruns up and down the country were called off, with some great creativity in their announcements. Favourites include:
- Alderford Lake parkrun: Not enough ice skates for everyone
- Alexandra parkrun : 0% chance of staying upright
- Bartley Park : Course currently being used as a Penguin Ice-rink
- Jubilee Park: Torvill and Dean using course for Bolero practice
- Kingsway water: Even the brass monkeys are falling over on the ice
- Kew Woods: P-p-p-pick up a penguin on our frozen course
- Melksham ; Risk of overly sudden arse-ground adjacency
- Tyne Green : The finish is more Torvill and Dean than Coe & Ovett
Despite the cold, the risk of penguins and XC later in the day, we did have a 10 Harriers braving the early morning freeze for parkrun. Russell Jones travelled to Black Park for the first time, whilst Susie Irvin took on Oak Hill, also for the first time.
Seemingly the place to be was Ricky Parkrun where 7 harriers made the journey, mostly in pairs: Nick and Susan Crowther, Helen and Andy Cook, Max and Martha Woollett, and KarisThomas
The Stand out performance was Tom Langdown who finished 3rd at Dunstable,
(P.S. do remember to add GVH to your parkrun profile or we will not be able to pick up your parkrun performances when we run the weekly stats.)
However, the highlight of the weekend was undoubtedly:
Chiltern Cross Country League, Round 4 – Cassiobury Park 
Wow! What an incredible turnout – a record attendance across the board!
Wow! The strength and determination shown by every Harrier was outstanding.
Wow! The results were simply fantastic!
Wow! What a brilliant afternoon it was!
Many would say the weather was perfect for racing, with clear blue skies, crisp air, and frozen ground that held firm throughout the day. Others would say it was bloody cold! 🙂 In a rare twist for Cross Country, there was no mud, no swamps, and not even a puddle in sight. There was plenty of debate in the chat groups about the best choice of footwear and gear. Some even wondered if the XC vest would fit over a ski jacket!
The mens team debating if they could run in ski wear
Wow! What an incredible turnout!
We had 28 men take to the start line, surpassing the previous record of 25 at Milton Keynes from November 2018.
We also had 25 women, beating the 24 from Milton Keynes from November 2019.
Hence as club we had a GVH record of 53 runners! smashing the previous record of 45 at Milton Keynes in November 2018! In fact we had more Senior and Veteran runners than any other club in Division 1 & Division 2. What an amazing turnout!
Wow ! the Course
As the pictures show the courses were stunning on Saturday with the frost and the bright blue sky. All races started in Cassiobury park and ran down towards the canal, across the bridge, up through the golf course to Whippendell woods. The women then ran one small lap and the men two large laps in the woods, before retracing their steps back up to the park. Total distance 6km and 10km respectively.
Wow! The strength and determination shown by every Harrier was outstanding.
As a Newbie to the XC scene I was totally blown away by the camaraderie and the joy shown in cheering fellow team members on to dig deep and take that extra place point. Well done everybody! A particular shout out to our new lady members and XC fist timers Deborah Fogden and Kerry Trevett who both had strong runs
Newbie Kerry Trevett
Newbie Deborah Fogden
We had 3 men taking on XC for GVH for the first time too: Nick Joseph, Peter Green and Anthony Fogden. Anthony suggests they may have got a new club record – collectively 150 years since these three last ran a official cross country race
Well done everyone on some super strong running.
Wow! The results were simply fantastic!
So the technical bit……. – for any of you who like me are still getting to grips with how XC works.
Each runner is award points for the position they finished in. Hence if there are 100 runners in the mens race, the 1st man home scores 100 points and the last 1 point. If there are 256 runners, as there were on Saturday, then the first person scores 256 points and the last 1 point. With me so far? The points are then added up for each race for each club, according to the running categories. to give us a score and a position in our league (Division 1).
- The Senior Men finished 11th (one place above Dacorum AC Senior Men) and the Senior Women finished 7th.
- Our Vet Men finished 9th and our Vet Women an incredible 4th!!!!
- Unlike some of the other clubs we do not have junior teams – and the league is built on results from all races.
- When you roll all of this up , as a club we were 13th, with our highest points score of the season. Which puts us in 14th place overall after 4 events. FANTASTIC! with just one round left, we look certain to secure our place in Division 1 for next season
Full tables of runners and their achievements are below. Everyone was incredible and gave their all – just some faster than others .
Round 4 Womens results
Senior Mens results
Big shout outs to Clare McDonnell who after 4 races now sits 3rd place 🥉,Teresa Reason in 7th place and Jon Roberts in 7th place in their respective catagories. With 1 race to go its exciting and very close.
Finally thank you to our Head Coach Ed Price for the “Lets talk Marathons” session last Thursday. Lovely to see a large turnout, showing the depth of runners we have in training for 2025 Marathons. Head over to coaches corner on the website for all the reference material Ed spoke of.
Happy running everyone! And good luck to all running in the Fred Hughes this weekend!