Another beautiful weekend, another fantastic weekend of running!

THE ROYAL PARKS HALF MARATHON
Aidan Kelly was representing HRR on Sunday at the Royal parks half marathon. This 13.1-mile route takes in many of the capital’s world-famous landmarks on closed roads, and four of London’s eight Royal Parks – Hyde Park, The Green Park, St James’s Park and Kensington Gardens. Aidan suffered with some calf cramps during the race but still finished in a brilliant time of 1:51.07.

ELY MARATHON
Neil Addington was in Ely on Sunday taking part in the Ely marathon. The race started in central Ely before heading into the Cambridgeshire countryside. Most of the course involved quiet, traffic free paths along the the banks of the rivers, Great Ouse and Cam. Having not run full marathon distance since February this was a massive undertaking for Neil. He had a good first half but struggled during the second half. With huge determination and a lot of cheering on from fellow HRR team mates (via what’s app)he persevered and finished in 6:18. Well done Neil on completing marathon number 105. That’s a very impressive amount of marathons!!

BURY 10k
Supporting St Nicholas hospice this 10k race starts in Bury St Edmunds and runs through the iconic Abbey gate and on through the Abbey gardens. HRR’s Sandy Maloy was there, enjoying the sunshine, the race and of course the post run ice cream!! Sandy finished in a great time of 1:03.26.

HIGH LODGE HALF
Mary Veater was at Thetford forest running her debut race for HRR.
The half marathon route took runners through the depths of Thetford Forest on a variety of hard packed trails. This distance was something that Mary had tried to train for on her own in previous years but always found it so tough. Now a member of the club she had the help of her HRR team mates in training to get her to race day. Mary loved the experience and finished feeling good in 2:18.

TIPTREE 10
The last of the Essex Championship races, HRR had a large turnout of runners taking part on Sunday.
Tiptree 10 is a predominantly flat course with a couple of hills to apparently, ‘keep it interesting’. Reece Hearn was our first roadrunner to cross the line, finishing 32nd out of 457 runners. He had a superb race getting himself a new 3 minute PB of 1:02.58. Hayley Lamkin also had a fantastic race, finishing 4th lady and 1st in her age category in a new PB time of 1:05.56. Running it as part of his ongoing training for Amsterdam marathon, Ben Ryder had a brilliant race and finished feeling confident and ready for his big challenge. He crossed the line in 1:06.26. Another great performance from Karen Pickering who got herself a new PB of 1:07.54. Tracy English was running it as part of her ongoing training and was also pacing 1 hour 15. A super run and super job pacing, Tracy finished in 1:14.35. Men’s captain Perry James had a superb race. Feeling good, he finished with a huge 7minute PB of 1:15.01. Sam Wolton also ran extremely well and was just behind Perry in 1:15.07. Mandy Humm and Anoushka Springett ran together, they were feeling the heat at mile 7 but what a brilliant run from both. They finished together, Mandy clocking 1:26.11 and Noush 1:26.12 which was PB of 1:07 for Noush. Gav Ripton was pacing 1 hour 30, and what a brilliant job he did, finishing in 1:29.57. Spot on! Samantha Hillyard ran well crossing the line in 1:30.18. Rachael Roughan was also there, pacing 1 hour 35. With perfect pacing she finished in 1:34.07. It was Dan Roughan’s first time as pacer and he was pacing the 1:40 finish. Another great run, he finished in 1:39.26. Jenny Smith had a good race and although not a PB she was pleased with her time clocking 1:41.31. Katie Martin enjoyed the race, tackling it with a combination of great music and walking when the need arose, she finished in 2:09.45. Completing the HRR line up, Val Kerrison and Debbie Partridge ran together. They finished in 2:11.52.

A huge well done to our first three ladies to cross the line , Hayley, Karen and Tracy. They came 2nd place ladies team and got yet another Essex medal to add to their growing collections. Of course a big shout out to our HRR pacing team, Tracy, Gav, Rachael and Dan. A difficult job to stay on pace, when other runners are relying on you to get them to the finish line . Spot on pacing!!

Well done to all! Another great weekend to celebrate, brilliant running all round!