Karen Murphy W55 Hertfordshire County Champion

The Fred Hughes 10 is a well-established 10 mile road race, organised by St Albans Striders since 1986. The course starts and finishes on the green opposite Waitrose on King Harry Lane, St Albans, and the route is on paved footpaths and undulating country lanes with several challenging hills.

This is a well organised race with excellent facilities. The race HQ is at St Columba's College, a short walk to the start. Here there is ample car parking, changing facilities, WCs (with very long queues!) and, best of all, a large canteen where tea and cakes are available at the finish! (these were offered free of charge, but donations were asked for). For all these reasons, this is a very popular event, and it usually sells out quickly. This year saw a new watermark reached and was the first time that more than 1,000 runners finished the race.

Another record fell as the Men’s course record was broken (for the second time in as many years), but more notably it was the first time in the history of this event that the 50 minute barrier was breached.

There were three Barnet entries; Karen Murphy, Jerry Bran, and me. In the past, this event was something of a Club championship for Barnet & District and attracted many entries. However, this is a busy time of year, and the fixture list is very crowded. This weekend’s priority was the Chingford League at Epping Forest, so it was inevitable that fewer runners would compete in the Fred Hughes.

Star of the day was undoubtedly Karen, who finished 1st W55. As this race was also the Herts Vets Champs, she is County Champion – well done Karen!