Chiltern Harriers finished in a very creditable third place in the team event of the Berkhamsted Half Marathon run last Sunday, 5 March. A field of over 1000 runners started the race in very cold but fine and bright conditions on Sunday morning at Berkhamsted Cricket Club. There were over 20 clubs competing in the race. Serpentine Runners from London had a very large squad of runners in and their top runners, Andrew Reeves and Kevin Darcy took 1st and 2nd place respectively, with times of 1h:14m:36s and 1h:15m:37s. Since they had two other runners finishing in the top 20 it was no surprise to see Serpentine RC take the team prize with just 32 place points for their first four runners, who made up the team. Second team were St Albans Striders with 96 place points and then Chiltern Harriers in third with 142 points.
Tony Sheldon was first home for Chiltern, finishing 13th over-all in a time of 1h:20m:21s. Tony is clearly on form right now, having completed the New York Marathon before Christmas and now preparing for the London Marathon in April. The next three finishers for Chiltern made up the team of four that took third prize in the team event. They were John Morton, 33rd over-all in 1h:24m:36s, Neil Thubron, 42nd over-all in 1h:26m:19s and Mike Turney, 54th overall in 1h:27m:54s.
There was no women's team event, but Chiltern had several of their women runners out on the day and first home for them was Sandra Reynolds, having a very good race to finish 4th woman and 75th over-all in 1h:29m:52s.