I’ve been pretty busy the past few weeks and finding the time to write a piece about the Berko Half Marathon has been daunting. Whereas writing about a cross country race that was more like a visit to the Somme Public Baths (younger readers should Google for Blackadder Goes Forth to understand that one) than a jog around Oxford, finding some words to describe in excess of 60 Gade Valley Harriers enjoying a familiar and always pleasant half marathon in beautiful early Spring weather, is harder.

Not only does finding an obvious headline sometimes feel extremely hard, but the danger is that without a clear historical theme to follow through the narrative, the report can end up just being a dull list of names and times that nobody wants to read (although if you do, just skip to the end and miss out the wall of text).

So how fortunate I was this morning to walk past Jenny Stubberfield, on her way to the station, at the bottom of Anchor Lane, where it meets St John’s Road in Boxmoor. There is a chance that she didn’t see me, and I made no effort to say hello to be fair, and nobody looks particularly happy when they are walking to the station in the morning, but for the purposes of desperately groping for a theme after nearly 5 years of writing about finishing times, I’m going to assume she looked miserable because of Matt Ashby’s well documented ability to make her miserable after failing to live up to his own extremely high, and ever rising, standards.

The venue for the weekend’s main running event was, of course, the Berkhamsted Half Marathon. We all love this race for its beautiful countryside, challenging hills, proximity to Hemel Hempstead and the discount we all get on entry because of the long relationship with the organisers. This year for the first time the Social Secretariat Troika (Helen Terry, Karis Thomas and Jo Kidd) had for the first time organised an after party at at Berkhamsted Tennis Club (with thanks to Sue Crowther) with pizza and salad laid on by the club, giving the day even more of a celebratory feel.

Long before the cheap beer started flowing everybody had gathered at Berkhamsted Cricket Club for the races. The half marathon gets underway first, at 10:00AM and the 5 mile fun run starts half an hour later. Three Harriers, and one son of Harriers, took on the shorter distance. Chris Dowling was first to finish, in 8th overall position, crossing the finish line in exactly half an hour. Jon Roberts was next, 10th over the line in 31:08 while head coach Ed Price clocked 34:25. 

The standout performance in the fun run was from Harry Wells, son of Andy and Michelle, who ran his first race without the inconvenience of dragging along a parent. Despite pausing to give help to a friend (he’ll learn) he completed the 5 tricky mile course, which takes in the notorious hill of Bullbeggars Lane, in 46:00. Given that the half marathon started 5 minutes later than scheduled, around 10:05, I assume this means that Harry finished just ahead of Matt Ashby on the road.

A few years ago we were in the bar in Rickmansworth Working Men’s Club having a beer after the Ricky Road Run (a popular autumn 10 mile race that sadly seems to have been a victim of the pandemic). Mark Crabtree, at the time the club’s fastest runner, much like Matt is now, was talking to his young son. “Where did you finish today, Dad?” he asked. “Second”, said Mark. “Dad, you’re rubbish! You ALWAYS finish second!” said the young man in response. “If that be failure, I’ll take failure all the way to the bank!”, said Shakespeare at some point, maybe.

With that sentiment in mind it must be reported that Matt sadly failed on two counts on Sunday. Firstly he managed a PB for the distance. He told me that his time of 1:13:55 was a PB of over 2 minutes, beating his time in the Herts Half last November. It should be noted that he also failed to win that race, finishing 2nd on that occasion, whilst at Berkhamsted his performance was even worse, finishing 4th overall. There was a later discussion around the London Marathon Championship qualifying times and it was speculated that Matt had run quickly enough to gain an automatic place. Unfortunately this is not the case as the qualifying mark was lowered to 1:12:30 for 2024.

There was also a stunning failure in the women’s team by Ines Trent. She also managed to run a PB, in 2:04:51, shaving another few minutes off her previous best, but inexplicably failed to bring her newly acquired Personal PB Bell to Berkhamsted and so failed to post a triumphant post race picture on Facebook. I hope she remembers to pack her bell next time, it is surely only a matter of time before she ducks under 2 hours.

In addition to Matt and Ines there were at least 15 other PBs amongst the Gade Valley runners. Andy Law bagged a PB, surprisingly this was his first half marathon, by completing the course in a super speedy 1:21:03 and finishing in 19th overall position. Michael Linden was just over a minute, and 5 places, behind Andy, clocking 1:22:09. The next runner to manage a PB was Gareth Tucker, who managed 1:23:40 and finished 33rd.

Nick Crowther and James Birnie were both happy with their runs without managing to score PBs (despite what Strava claimed). Just like last year, however, James was able to record his fastest time since his PB, back in 2018. Unlike last year, it took slightly less than the whole of the rest of the day to explain to Mary why “fastest time since my PB” is NOT the same as saying “my second fastest ever time”. Tom Evans did manage a PB, 1:26:49 and, by finishing in 50th position made it 7 Gade Valley Harriers to finish inside the top 50 places.

There is no official category in our club records for running with a baby in a buggy. Perhaps there should be, there are, after all, official world records for the category. As far as I can tell James Timmis, if the category existed, would now hold the record, his time of 1:26:57 comfortably eclipsing the time of 1:32:17 that I managed at Knebworth last year. Perhaps more importantly, certainly to the Timmis family, was that James overtook his wife Heather on the final descent back down to the finish, eventually finishing 18 seconds ahead of Heather on the road. Heather did have the considerable consolation of finishing on the podium as 3rd overall female.

Lewis Ellerby had been disappointed in last year’s Berko half to miss out on going under the much coveted 90 minute mark, finishing the race in exactly 1:30:00. He has been recovering from injury recently and wasn’t back to his best at the Watford Half last month, but was getting there. He finally managed to duck under the 90 minute mark on Sunday, scoring a new PB in 1:28:07. He wasn’t far ahead of Steve Newing who also managed a PB, finishing in 1:28:51.

Rob Hawkes, Gwyn Pritchard and Guy Wollett all finished within 40 seconds of each other a couple of minutes ahead of Simon Morris. Roland Kendall was next over the line and he managed another PB. He told me afterwards that he, “didn’t smash it to pieces this time, just took a few seconds off.” He seemed to think he had somehow failed (much like Matt and Ines), so I explained to him that this was “just how things work”. One day, Roly, you’ll find that PBs don’t just automatically happen every time you put your trainers on.

Club captains Kim Morgan and Andy Wells came over the line virtually together. Anybody who saw the photographs on social media will have seen that the two were together for much of race. On speaking to Andy, however, I learnt that they didn’t run the race together. He told me that he “caught her on the hill up to Little Gad. She was walking so I started shouting at her. Annoyingly she then started running faster than me so I was never quite sure who was dragging whom for the rest of the race.” The results show us that Kim got to the line first, a second ahead of Andy, despite her chip time being nearly a minute slower. As we all know by now, gun time is king.

Charlie Cadogan (1:37:24), Dylan Wendleken and Alice Cook (both 1:38:24) and Patrick Carey (1:39:29) completed the list of GVH runners who managed to duck under 1:40:00. Dylan had been pacing Alice throughout and Andy Cook told me afterwards that Dylan had been “too honest with the pace notes to Alice. When I paced her round here I got her to a PB because I kept lying and telling her we were going slower than we actually were.” So unfortunately Dylan failed.

Phil Mercer was next over the line for GVH, finishing the race 5 seconds ahead of Andy Cook, who of all people knows very well that gun time is King. The photos never lie. Andy Bishop was next in a very creditable 1:40:57, just ahead of Dan Green who managed a new PB of 1:41:09. Rob Bowler and Simon Wheeler were next across the line for GVH with Jack Boughton following shortly behind and managing a new PB 1:43:24. I spoke to Jack in the tennis club afterwards, largely about cricket, but I think I remember telling him that it was a really good time and I think he told me he’d taken about 10 minutes off his previous PB.

James Felstead, Paul Williams, Vicky Crawley-Wise and Andy Watt all had good runs but all failed to record new PBs. Nick Joseph was next over the line and he did improve his PB, set at Watford last month, by some distance. He said, “3 minutes faster than Watford, which was two minutes faster than Milton Keynes [Winter Half, last December].” 

Claire Mcdonnell, Samantha Raffety, Jenny Stubberfield (but who may have had other concerns, obviously), Susannah Crowther, Katie Ellis and Kirstie Hardiman all failed to score a PB (but all succeeded in completing the race under 2 hours). Naomi Iles and Ashleigh Taylor similarly failed, finishing just ahead of Ines, whom we’ve already discussed had inexplicably failed to bring her PB bell.

Holly Beckett had exactly the same gun time and chip time as Ines, so I can only assume they ran the race together and they finished a few seconds ahead of Gemma Tucker who managed a new PB. Molly Rice finished just a few seconds behind Gemma, another case of Gun Time is King. Helen Cook was a further 30 seconds or so behind on the road but clearly hasn’t learned from Andy Cook at Abingdon 2016, as her chip time should have seen her finishing ahead of the previous 5 Harriers.

Anthony Fogden was just a second, and a place, behind Helen in recording a new PB of 2:04:42. He told me a few weeks ago, after a previous column had commented on him starting too far back that he, “wasn’t going to make that mistake again”. Clearly he wasn’t listening to his own messaging as he, like Helen, should have finished ahead of 5 other GVH runners. Aside from not knowing where to position himself at the start it is great to see that Anthony’s training is going well and he is therefore taking full advantage of the club’s London Marathon ballot place.

Jane Percival, Christeena Mooney, Susie Ivin and Natalie Wheeler all managed to finish inside 2:10:00, with Chrissie managing a new PB and Natalie also recording a PB by virtue of this being her first half marathon. Jade Evans was a couple of minutes behind Natalie and took the award for the most isolated Harrier at the finish, as she was nearly 7 minutes ahead of the next finisher, Jenny Brown, who finished the distance in 2:19:47. Jade also managed a new PB, but encountered the non-existence of the magic results fairy for the first time in her running career as I didn’t know about it until she told me 8 days after the event.

Kim Yeates was next over the line for GVH and she also managed a new PB, 2:21:14. Coach Angeline Cottrill was the next finisher, in 2:24:48. I saw a message on Monday that the organisers had run out of medals, presumably the unseasonable weather had increased the number of entrants. I was quite near the finish area when Ange finished and I didn’t hear her turning the air blue, so I can only assume they hadn’t quite run out of medals before she got there. They also ran out of goodie bags, but perhaps that was a good thing as I would assume that Ange would have been disgusted to receive just an Aldi cereal bar, a banana and a leaflet for the Aldbury 5.

Peter Green (Dan’s dad) was running his first, and Dan told me his last, half marathon, so his time of 2:25:03 is therefore his PB. Peter finished just ahead of Mary McCluskey who was very pleased to finish in just under 2½ hours. She had been mysteriously and very suddenly ill (not a hangover, honest) throughout Saturday and was pleased just to be able to run at all.

According to the official results Phil Robbins was next to finish for GVH, in 2:36:32. I didn’t see a bloke dressed in weird fancy dress, and even in fancy dress I’d expect Phil to do a half marathon about an hour quicker than that, so I can only assume that either Phil was accompanying somebody else or he gave his entry to somebody else, or there is another Phil Robbins that I don’t know.

Club legend and president Andy Newing was running his first Berko Half for a few years as he continues to prepare for what he says will be his last marathon. He has enjoyed his return to regular running, helped in part no doubt by coach Ed’s initiative to introduce shorter routes to the club’s collection, and it was great to see Andy in racing colours again. Finally, another old friend, Charlie Costin, was also running in GVH colours for the first time in some time. I saw Charlie on a Tuesday session recently for the first time in several years, so it was great to see him back to racing.

As ever the Berko Half is a great event and one that many of us look forward to at this time of year. It was a great day, I hope we all got something out of it, despite the failures (I’m pointing at you, Matt!) and I, for one, am already looking forward to doing it again around the same time next year.

Full Results from Berko Half

			Gun	Chip
Matthew Ashby	206	MSEN	01:13:57	01:13:55	PB
Andy Law	706	MSEN	01:21:04	01:21:03	PB
Michael Linden	412	M40	01:22:13	01:22:09
Gareth Tucker	152	M40	01:23:44	01:23:40	PB
Nicholas Crowther	491	M40	01:24:31	01:24:23
James Birnie	234	M40	01:25:28	01:25:24
Tom Evans	602	M40	01:26:58	01:26:49	PB
James Timmis	752	MSEN	01:27:41	01:26:57	BUGGY PB
Heather Timmis	441	FSEN	01:27:59	01:27:51
Lewis Ellerby	637	MSEN	01:28:14	01:28:07	PB
Stephen Newing	366	M40	01:28:55	01:28:51	PB
Rob Hawkes	655	MSEN	01:31:02	01:31:02
Gwyn Pritchard	483	M40	01:31:34	01:31:25
Guy Woollett	213	M50	01:31:49	01:31:41
Simon Morris	138	M40	01:33:42	01:33:32
Roland Kendall	304	M50	01:35:28	01:35:19	PB
Kim Morgan	208	F40	01:37:19	01:37:09
Andrew Wells	364	M40	01:37:20	01:36:16
Charlie Cadogan	244	M50	01:37:35	01:37:24
Alice Cook	730	FSEN	01:38:36	01:38:24
Dylan Wendlelekn	540	M50	01:38:36	01:38:24
Patrick Carey	427	M40	01:39:56	01:39:29
Phil Mercer	382	M40	01:40:21	01:40:07
Andrew Cook	444	M50	01:40:26	01:39:20
Andrew Bishop	809	M40	01:41:09	01:40:57
Daniel Green	434	MSEN	01:41:19	01:41:09	PB
Robert Bowler	383	M60	01:41:27	01:41:17
Simon Wheeler	398	M50	01:42:33	01:42:07
Jack Boughton	801	MSEN	01:44:29	01:43:24	PB
James Felstead	761	M50	01:44:38	01:44:11
Paul Williams	317	M50	01:44:49	01:44:08
Victoria Wise	531	F40	01:46:07	01:45:56
Andrew Watt	363	M50	01:48:58	01:48:45
Nick Joseph	72	M50	01:49:34	01:49:20	PB
Claire Mcdonnell	239	F50	01:50:25	01:50:15
Samantha Raffety	475	FSEN	01:51:13	01:51:01
Jenny Stubberfield	1003	FSEN	01:54:09	01:53:37
Susannah Crowther	452	F50	01:54:56	01:53:51
Katie Ellis	497	F40	01:57:34	01:57:21
Kirstie Hardiman	394	F40	01:58:52	01:58:40
Naomi Iles	880	FSEN	02:03:49	02:02:17
Ashleigh Taylor	367	FSEN	02:05:02	02:03:29
Ines Trent	395	F40	02:05:24	02:04:51	PB
Holly Beckett	277	F40	02:05:24	02:04:51
Rachel Haffenden	977	F40	02:05:32	02:05:01
Gemma Tucker	258	FSEN	02:05:40	02:05:15	PB
Molly Rice	938	FSEN	02:05:47	02:05:13
Helen Cook	445	F50	02:06:13	02:04:41
Anthony Fogden	379	M60	02:06:14	02:04:42	PB
Jane Percival	740	F50	02:06:38	02:06:04
Christeena Mooney	855	F40	02:08:47	02:08:14	PB
Susie Ivin	368	F40	02:09:30	02:09:00
Natalie Wheeler	772	F40	02:10:26	02:09:47	PB (first time)
Jade Evans	754	FSEN	02:13:14	02:11:41	PB
Jenny Brown	269	F50	02:20:00	02:19:47
Kimberley Yeates	409	F40	02:22:48	02:21:14	PB
Angeline Cottrill	466	F40	02:25:01	02:24:48
Peter Green	316	M60	02:26:38	02:25:03	PB (first time)
Mary Mccluskey	442	FSEN	02:29:56	02:28:24
Philip Robbins	315	M40	02:38:25	02:36:32
Andy Newing	209	M50	02:39:17	02:37:33
Charles Costin	666	M40	02:57:41	02:55:52