Hertfordshire - Wednesday 14 September 2011

Race Report and Results

By Katherine Willoughby - PSUK Athletics Committee

This years Police National 10 Mile Road race Championships were hosted by Hertfordshire in Stevenage.   The 2 lap designed race course had received a UK Athletics Gold Grade status which threw in a couple of cheeky little rises to challenge the athletes on what turned out to be a hot Wednesday afternoon. The race director namely Insp Ron Singleton is in her last year of service and having spent 30 years as a competing athlete wanted to give something back to the sport by organising this year’s event in Hertfordshire’s 175yh year. The theme throughout was dominated by the Hertfordshire Hedgehog which is the traditionally known name for local people originating from “a haystack” as the county’s primary medieval export to the markets in London.

At 1300 hours the race was started by the guest of honour Mrs Joyce Smith MBE who was team captain at the Munich Olympics and came 11^th in the LA Olympic Marathon. In 1978 she set a world record time over 3000m of 9m.11secs for W40 and that record still stands today. The PSUK were thrilled to have such a guest to start the race.

This year’s race had a total of 215 men and 110 ladies cross the finish line. Numbers this year were possibly hindered by the cancellation of leave during the riots and staff trying to catch up on some time off but those that took part did so, full of vigour and ran their hearts out.

In the men’s race an early lead was established by the home county’s Dave Mitchinson who has decided to come back from Triathlon and concentrate on his running.  He was being chased hard by 2 giants from the Met namely John Franklin and Jim Cooper but Mitchinson kept his lead in front of a home crowd to storm home in 52.56. Franklin was 2^nd in 54.28 followed by his team mate Cooper in 54.34.

4^th place went to the first male vet 40 namely Steve Cairns from Lothian and Borders in 55.30. The Met managed to squeeze 4 men home in the top ten which convincingly gave them the first men’s team prize. 1^st and 2^nd plus Peter Tucker and Simon Riley. Dave Rayfield from Northamptonshire was the first male over 45 and came in 25^th place in a time of 61.39. He was closely followed by the first male over 50 in 29^th place from Lothian and Borders in a time of 61.57 namely Toni Kott. Another home boy namely Desmond Michael won the over 60 category by storming home in an incredible time of 66.12. 2^nd team prize was taken by Cheshire with Rob Grantham, Vince Van Woerkom and Malcolm Fowler and 3^rd team prize went to Hampshire with Paul Cardy, Tony Rickman, Andy Proctor and Tom North.

The ladies race over the first lap was more evenly contested with Natalie Farrow from Lincs, Diane Lauder from Lothian and Sarah Hill from Hampshire all breathing down each others neck. However by the second lap a gap had appeared and Farrow showed her form by breaking away. The following two then began to split with Lauder getting the better of Hill on this occasion. The ladies remained in this position over the line recording respective times of 61.51, 62.37 and 63.45. Lauder was also the first lady vet over 35. First vet 40 was Chris Howard from Derbyshire in 6^th place with a time of 66.17 and first vet over 45 was Polly Randall-Johnson from Devon and Cornwall in 19^th place with 72.27. Hampshire 2^nd runner namely Kate Towerton was 4^th and their 3^rd lady namely Rachel Melhuish came 23^rd to secure Hampshire ladies the winning team trophy. 2^nd team prize went to the Met with Caroline Walsh, Libby Free and Jo Ravenhill and 3^rd team went to Lothian and Borders with Di Lauder, Gillian Duncan and Lianne Logan.

Results