8 Go to Belfast!

or more accurately 8 runners, 5 GVH cheerleaders, 1 beloved toddler and baby bump go to Belfast. But more about that later .

After an absolutely incredible weekend of marathon running last week at London, Manchester, Blackpool and Stratford upon Avon, what could our GVH runners possibly do this week? That’s right—another weekend of personal best–shattering marathon performances! We also had some great parkruns, PBs at the Watford 10k and huge success at the Pednor 5. Well done everyone on another great weekend of running.

Parkrun 

We had 43 GVHers running parkruns this weekend in perfect running conditions.. Here are some of the standout performances.

Michael Linden took a 2nd place finish at Gadebridge. Andy Bishop came in just behind him with a new PB of 21:11. Well done both! Natalie Wheeler was our first lady home, running to a new PB of 27.30.  Congratulations Natalie! Big congratulations to Simon Wallis too for completing his 50th Parkrun. Sadly no photos.

Over at at Rickmansworth Parkrun Nick Crowther, Helen and Andy Cook were wearing their hard earned London Marathon finishing tops from last weekend with pride.  And rightly so – well done again on last weeks great runs.

Sam Sparks ran Blickling (near Norwich) parkrun for the 1st time.

Congratulations  to Chris Howe and Jade Evans who ran new PBs of 25:42 and 29:11 respectively at Cassiobury Parkrun, Great running both!  Big well done too to  Louise Nash, running her 25 parkrun,

Travelling the furthest for parkrun (or maybe the post marathon beers) were Jack Boughton and Gary Kingsley who arrived in Belfast with the marathon crew, just in time to tackle Queen’s parkrun, Belfast. Well done both and great to see you back running again Gary!

Looking ahead, we have some great parkrun milestones approaching.  Current standings  (that I am aware of ) are as follows: Rob Hawkes 294, Stephen Newing 293, Andrew Fogden 198, Ines Trent 98, Jade Evans 49, Dominic Hook 46

Belfast City Marathon 

What started as mad idea over a glass of wine (or 2) between Holly Beckett and Mary – to complete a marathon in each of the home nations: England, Scotland, Wales and now N.Ireland, quickly grew from “2 go to Belfast”, to 4, to 8 to finally “14 go to Belfast for the Belfast city Marathon.”   Just proving that where one GVHer goes, others will surely follow – FOMO at its best😊😊.

Fortunately the temperature had dropped a little from last weekends scorching heat but it was still much warmer than expected. The mostly flat and fast route also had a few sting’s in its tail in the final miles, with a couple of long gradual hills to challenge tired legs. But despite this we saw fantastical performances from the whole team and some huge chunks taken off previous PBs. Well done everyone!

Here is Roland’s account of the weekend.

The weekend  started early for some as Kim, Ines, Sam, Darren, myself and supporters Jack & and Gary all flew out on the 7am Saturday flight to Belfast.  Holly, Phil, James, Mary & and Will took the more sensible option of a later flight. Then on Sunday, we were joined by supporters Crissie and Emily who just came over for the day in EasyJet First Class to make it a grand total of 14 of us!

First limping over the finishing line, pushing himself to the limit was James with a very respectable time of 3:13:16. His next focus on his journey back to full marathon fitness, will be the Richmond Marathon in September.

I was next over, but had a crazy moment at the start. I was in trying to find James in the pens and instead accidentally found myself positioned just behind the elite runners.  Consequently I started off a bit fast getting swept up in the excitement. I managed to ease back after 5k or so onto a more steady plan, to finish  3:17:41 . I am really chuffed with a PB of over 12 mins!

Then Kim came in after a well-controlled and evenly paced race . She was flying nicely to 22 miles, and despite some breathing issues in the final miles managed to hang in there for a whopping 15 mins PB! She jumped for joy screaming when Gary informed her she came in under the 3:30 barrier by 1 second! Better still this easily gives her a good for age qualifying time for Boston, Berlin or London next year. 

Next over the line and also grabbing a new PB was Sam with a 7 min PB coming in just below the 3hr 50 marker at 3:49:23. Sam also went through the pain barrier with a rather nasty looking toenail. She was so happy a few tears were shed, there were in fact many tears of joy from the GVH runners in total!

Another PB next with Darren getting under the 4-hour mark for the first time in multiple attempts in his long running career. Another fine margin getting 3:59:44, the last 2 miles were horrific for Darren but somehow, he forced himself under this elusive goal. He played it cool at the finish but later in the evening once it had sunk in and he had sunk some beers, he was buzzing.
Phil Mercer was next in who did an amazing job of pacing Sam for the first 18 miles to her PB. At 18 miles he backed off maybe to save something of himself for the evening’s entertainment being the last man standing, coming in at 4:07:06.

Ines powered home shortly afterward, yet another PB, she also sneaked under a goal she thought was unreachable hitting 4:29:47 just seconds under the 4:30 mark. A brilliant effort after a difficult training block and a surprise Ofsted inspection the week before! Holly completed the GVH march, who had run with Ines most of the way coming in at 4:37:41 only just over her best marathon time. Holly has now completed a Marathon in all the Home Nations!

Ines had excruciating cramp so Darren and Holly helped her across the field to meet the rest of the GVH gang. In fact cramp and sunburn were a running theme for the day as you can see from the photos, Gary being the winner on the sunburn front!  James instead of bringing out the tiffin supplied everyone with a Magners. 

In the evening, we all went out to a restaurant called Darcy’s to refuel and then onto the famous pub called The Crown as recommended by Coach Ed. Plenty of Guinness was drunk as we limped around the City in the evening, which pushed some people’s steps over 50,000 and 35 miles covered for the day!

Again well done all!  Some well deserved PBs! Well done to the travelling supporters too!

Milton Keynes Marathon

Kimberley Yeates took on the Milton Keynes marathon on a sunny Bank holiday Monday.  Like the half marathon, the MK marathon is more tricky route than it looks, with lots of short steep inclines as you go up and down the underpasses.  Well done Kimberley on a great solid run and a shiny new PB!  Kimberley herself reports “I had a really good time until I lost the 5 hour pacer at mile 21 . I thought MK was flat, but there are a lot of hills when your legs are tired. The pacer was brilliant fun and he had music too. I also ran with a lovely man called Chris who ran both the GVH training runs this year.The 5 hr pacer group all waited for me at the finish line to cheer me on, I met some lovely people, it was a brilliant day!! 😊”

Watford Mencap 10k

Its great to see this 10k reappear on the calendar on bank holiday Monday. A great 10k, with all proceeds going to Mencap. It follows a similar route to the Cassiobury cross country event, starting in the park and running out though Whippendell Woods and back.

Congratulations to Lisa Newing  who finished in a very fast 47:13 to take 3rd female over all and 1st in the W40 category. Well done Lisa

Congratulations also to Polly Cripps finishing 57:48 , ducking under the 1 hour mark for the first time to take a new PB. Well done Polly for your 10th place in the W40 category

 

Pednor 5 & Herts Championship Race

This 5-mile road race, undulating lanes through the lanes near Chesham is usually a very popular event for GVHs, but coming so close to many of the big marathons this year, we have far fewer runners than usual. But the quality and success of runners we did have their more than made up for the lack of numbers.

Huge congratulations to our first finisher Matt Ashby, who took 5th place overall, crossing the line in 27.09. He was followed by Martin Alexander in 36:58 and Martin Storrie 47:39.

Naomi Iles, fresh from a fantastic Marathon performance last week was our first female across the line, finishing in 38:31. She was followed home by Naomi Carey in 40:58 and Helen Terry 43:53.  Very well done all. However there was even better news as the Pednor 5 also incorporated  the Hertfordshire 5-mile Road Running Senior Championship.  When these results were tabulated, Matt Ashby took 3rd place in the Mens race.  In the Women’s race, Naomi took 7th , Naomi Carey 13th, Helen Terry 20.  Which gave GVH  women a 3rd place finish. Amazing!! Well done Naomi, Naomi and Helen!

Thats another fine week of running in the bag!