Bedford Harriers AC

Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow! 😃🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️

Entries selling out fast! Join us at one of our fantastic races next Wednesday.

https://bedfordharriersac.wildapricot.org/Doug-Anderson-5K

Bedford Harriers AC - Doug Anderson 5K Previous years' results:2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003

Harriers travelled near and far last weekend to notch up some fantastic achievements

On Friday evening Chris H***e, Ryan Murphy, Ellie Sherriffs and Christine Irvine went across to Cambridge and raced the inaugural Franks Farm Five on Friday evening.

Many visited parkruns around the world on Saturday morning! Graham Pratt, Hannah Farthing, Abi Turner and Kit Dixon went to the new parkrun in Wellingborough (Queensway), while Chris Leigh went to the Cowfest South celebrations at Dinton Pastures parkrun. Robin and Fiona Fiander went up to the cool Norf for Tyne Green. Also North of the Watford Gap was Chris Fadden at Monsal Trail parkrun. Jamie Heywood was in Oslo for the week and went to Tøyen parkrun and happened to bump into Paul Sinton-Hewitt (founder of parkrun!)

Richard Evans and Iain Berry did the Westfriesland 70.3 Ironman. Sylia Jones completed Conniston Chillswim 5.25 miles.

Elaine Massie and Richard Lawson donned the hi-vis as registration gurus and site elves at the Level Water 24-hour swim relay at Shepperton. While Amanda Friman was in Scotland and responded to a last-minute call out for marshals for the local annual hill race (a small mountain of 380m). What a lovely spot she had in their arboretum at the bottom of the hill.

A small but intrepid group of 🥵 runners braved a loop from Olney to Newton Blossomville this morning!

Time for a very long cold shower…

Last weekend we fielded 5 Harriers teams in the Greensands Ridge Relay, running 6 legs between Leighton Buzzard and Northill. Thanks to Kevin Shelton-Smith for organising the teams and dealing with the logistics of getting everyone to their start points etc. Congratulations to BH Ridge Raiders for 2nd place overall and Asics to the A6 and Beyond were 3rd in the Handicap Trophy 🤩👏🎉 Huge congratulations to Joe Leonard who ran it in the solo challenge and came in 1st place 🤩👏🎉

The Run-walk group headed out to Norfolk for the Run Sandringham 24 - a 24 hour challenge where runners complete as many 5 mile laps in a 24 hour period 🤩👏🎉

Chris Fadden, Richard Lawson and Elaine Massie ran in the Phoenix Wolly Winka Phoenix Running Event at Grafham Water, where runners complete as many 3.28 mile laps in 7 hours 🤩👏🎉

While many Harriers stayed local for parkruns, quite a few went on tour.

Group 5 and friends went to Holkham. James Harvey took on the challenge of Great Yarmouth North Beach - one of the hardest in the UK. Sheila Nicholson was a bit further south at Lowestoft and Gary Butler went north to Cleethorpes. Catherine and David Course had a trip to Pocket parkrun in St Neots 😁

Michelle Fadden, Richard Lawson and Elaine Massie all volunteered at Jubilee parkrun, Bedford.

Well done everyone who ran, walked, jogged or volunteered at a parkrun 🤩

On Wednesday evening this week 77 Club Members ran the second 5k Time Trial of the year around Bedford Park. Dan Foster was first male home in 16:58 🤩👏🎉and Ellie Sherriffs was first lady in 21:04 🤩👏🎉

Congratulations and well done to everyone who took part. Thanks to Steve Gaunt and his team for organising, timing and recording the results 😁

It was a busy weekend for our members, especially our triathletes – both experienced and those just starting out.

Ellie Sherriffs and James Trodd both did their first sprint distance triathlon at Blenheim Palace 🤩👏🎉 Not satisfied with one sprint triathlon, Ken Parsons took part in the Blenheim Palace Weekend Warrior and completed his first ever triathlon on Saturday morning, his second triathlon on Saturday afternoon and then his third triathlon on Sunday morning!🤩👏🎉 All three shared the course with Jonathan Brownlee who completed an amazing 10 sprint triathlons!

Nora Haggart was first lady in her age group at the Ironman Bolton 70.3 🤩👏🎉

Eva Kovaks completed the ATW Grafman Middle Distance Aquabike. She said that the two lap 1.9 km swim in Grafham Water, while it was a pleasant 19.6°C temperature, it was brutally choppy and sighting the buoys was extremely challenging. The 90 km bike was also very windy, but at least the sun made a few appearances, so it never felt too cold. Eva finished first in her age group 🤩👏🎉

Richard Evans and Iain Berry did a 105mile cycling sportive in Wales 🚵

Elaine Massie, Richard Lawson and Chris Fadden all completed either 2 or 3 laps at the Meadow Run in Peterborough, with Richard earning his Bronze Phoenix Wings in the process 🤩👏🎉

Gary Butler was raising money for Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme by completing what was meant to be a 20-mile course 🤩👏🎉Unfortunately, Gary had a few navigation issues and ended up doing 21 miles!

Paul Britton took part in the Flitton Potato race 🥔 – where participants run, walk or stagger a mile carrying a sack of potatoes, weighing 20kg! Paul completed the mile in 7 minutes and 52 seconds 🤩👏🎉

Gillian Melia and David Brewer took part in the Mixed Doubles SIM at Corby Hyrox on Saturday, while Dea Ditchfield competed in the single event 💪🤩👏🎉

Today is the final day of Volunteer Week 2026 and we're finishing off with the spotlight on our Club Committee.

The Committee currently has 12 members, all volunteer their time to do a range of tasks that keep the Club running (no pun intended) as smoothly as it does.

Chair - Richard Woodward
Vice Chair - Helen Evans
Secretary - Elaine Massie
Treasurer - Richard Lawson
Membership Secretary - Mark Taggart
Race Management Secretary - Bev Gous
Coaching Co-ordinator - Bev Tredget
Mental Health Champion - Vicky Shaw
General Committee members - Robbie Burrells, Cameron Blair, Graham Pratt and Viv Kilgour

We thank all of the above for giving up their time - not just once a month to attend Committee Meetings but throughout the year to work on different projects and do routine day-to-day tasks 💛🖤💛🖤

Celebrating Volunteer Week 2026 further with the spotlight on two groups of volunteers.

Firstly, the Welcome Team, who are there every Club night to welcome new members. They help them find a group to run with and ensure they have completed the relevant information on our online system. Thanks to Jacinta Horne, Jeanette Cheetham, Steve Crane, Tom Brassington, Nora Haggart, Amanda Friman, Adam Hills, Veronica Singleton-Lawley and Bev Gous.

The other group is our Awards Night Team - they arrange the venue, the prizes, crunch the data to work out who has won what and generally organise a fantastic evening for our Club members to enjoy and celebrate the previous year's successes. The team this year were Richard Woodward, Richard Lawson, Richard Evans, Lorena Henderson, Helen Evans, Elaine Massie and Mark Taggart.

We thank you all for all of your hard work 💛🖤