It was a quiet weekend of racing for Gade Valley Harriers with the three times postponed London and Manchester Marathons fast approaching in the next two weeks. As usual, the weekend’s action kicked off with Parkruns at 9:00AM on Saturday morning but even the Parkruns...

There was a smattering of races for Gade Valley over the weekend of 18th and 19th September, more success for Teresa Reason and Al Flowers, a (genuine this time) World Record attempt and some classic swimming action. There were reduced Gade Valley numbers taking part...

As always, the weekend’s running started at 9:00AM on Saturday as various Gade Valley Harriers took part in Parkruns across the country. The most notable achievement of the weekend belonged to one of GVH’s newer members, Chrissie Mooney, who took part in her 100th...

The weekend of 4th and 5th September saw a lot of Gade Valley Harriers in action over a variety of distances. Before the weekend even started, Dave Goodman was racing in the Ealing Mile on Friday (Dave’s birthday). Dave said (late on Sunday), “I should also mention I...

The bank holiday weekend saw plenty of action for Gade Valley Harriers. Before the weekend even began, Thursday 26th August saw the final round of the GVH summer handicap. The summer series, where each runner is assigned a time handicap based on their predicted finish...

The weekend of 21st and 22nd August saw Gade Valley Harriers celebrate their 30th birthday. The club was formed back in 1991 and has always prided itself on being an inclusive environment for people who like to take running just seriously enough so that they can enjoy...

The weekend of August 14th and 15th saw some familiar sights, a Gade Valley island invasion and the return of an aspect of racing sorely missed during the pandemic and its long tail of frustration. The weekend kicked off early on Friday as an initial group of 5 Gade...

Summer holidays kicked in for the Gade Valley Harriers as several of them took on parkruns around the country and beyond, a few stay-at-homes contented themselves with a local 10k race in St Albans and one Gade Valley Harrier drove herself to the edge of Reason as she...

The last Thursday of a summer month for Gade Valley Harriers means it is time for the latest round of the summer long GVH handicap race. The start of the school holidays and perhaps the choice of various Olympic sports on TV saw a reduced turnout from previous months,...

In the surest sign yet that something like normality is on the way, Saturday July 24th saw the return of Parkrun to England as restrictions lifted and most Parkruns gained permission to restart from their local landowners. Curiously, it seems that Parkruns in Scotland...

In the weekend when most of England hoped that football would come home, but a tall young Italian man took it to Rome instead, there was still time for some of the Gade Valley Harriers to take part in some challenging competitions before the barbecues, alcohol and...

Many people woke up on Sunday morning with a hangover. It isn’t clear where this collective hangover originated but rumours suggest that it was something to do with “coming home and drinking the Semillon too easily”. Although some things in the world seem to slowly be...

Thursday 24th June saw the latest round of the Gade Valley Harriers Summer Handicap Series. As usual the handicap format provided some excellent racing with 37 Harriers racing over the 4 mile course. After some confusion in the May edition leading to an overly harsh...

Summer seemed to arrive last week but then decided to go away at the weekend. That was good news for anybody taking part in any kind of racing but bad news for pretty much anybody else. Martin Pike was in the group of people that were happy to see the weather...

The slow return to the natural rhythm of the running seasons rolled on as another favourite local race, the St Albans Half Marathon, made a welcome return on 13th June after being cancelled last year because of something to do with a planned medic. At least I think...

Gade Valley Harriers ran the second of their summer handicap series races on Thursday The handicap is designed to give everybody, irrespective of their speed, an even chance of winning. Each runner is assigned a head start based on their expected finish time so that,...

Dorney Lake, the venue for the 2012 Olympic rowing events, is ideally suited to fast racing with its long, flat straights. Or at least, when the weather is fair it is ideally suited to fast racing. When it is cold, wet and windy the flatness and lack of shelter can...

Saturday 8th May saw the Chiltern Ridge Ultra 50k race taking place in the woods and hills around Wendover. The 50k course takes in nearly 1000m of climb along the route and is a qualifying race for the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, considered by many to be the pinnacle...

As the world seems slowly to be returning to something like normal it was great to see another local race on Sunday. The Hatfield 5 mile race is a traditional favourite but, in a lingering sign of the recent times, it was held at Bovingdon Airfield due to safety...

As April turned to May Gade Valley Harriers took some more small steps back towards what we all hope will be something like our “normal” life. 2020 was of course a year like no other in modern times. One of the casualties of the pandemic was the annual summer handicap...

Easter weekend saw the long awaited return of organised racing as 14 Gade Valley Harriers took on the St Albans 10k on Good Friday and 6 Harriers took on the Dorney Lake Marathon on Easter Saturday. After the government announced that outside sports could return on...

2020 was the strangest of years. Back in January we were hearing about a “new” virus called Coronavirus (although we were also told it was a well known type of virus that causes, amongst other things, the common cold) that was causing a stir in China. Those of us old...