🌾🏃 Well Done To Every Single Runner & Volunteer — You Were Magnificent! 🏃🌾

The Chas Avis Harvest Trail returned on Sunday 20th September in glorious sunshine, with runners from across Hertfordshire and beyond descending on Royston Heath for one of the region’s most beloved trail races. With perfect autumn conditions, stunning scenery across the rolling countryside around Royston and Therfield, and Cardiac Hill doing its annual best to humble even the most seasoned trail runner, the 2026 edition did not disappoint.

The Numbers

This year’s event welcomed runners across both the Half Marathon (13.1 miles) and Quarter Marathon (6.5 miles) distances, with an impressive field taking on the trails in what proved to be ideal racing conditions. The sun shone, the trails were in superb condition, and the atmosphere — as ever — was everything the Harvest Trail is famous for.

Half Marathon — Top Finishers

The Half Marathon podium was, rather wonderfully, entirely dominated by runners whose names begin with T — which we choose to interpret as entirely deliberate and not at all coincidental.

🥇 Timothy Benger (Cambridge & Coleridge AC) crossed the line first in an impressive 1:23:03 to take the overall win and Male Senior title.

🥈 Tim Jones (Royston Runners) pushed him all the way home, finishing just 46 seconds behind in 1:23:49 — a stunning run from our very own Tim and a brilliant battle to the line right to the very end.

🥉 Tom Combe (Royston Runners) completed an extraordinary T-themed podium in 1:26:38 — taking 3rd Male Senior and confirming that Royston Runners came to race on home turf.

Three runners. Three T names. One very happy home club. 🎉

First Female — Half Marathon
🏆 Emily Barker (Royston Runners) took the Female Senior title in a superb 1:46:47 — a brilliant performance and a thoroughly well deserved win.

Quarter Marathon — Top Finishers

The Quarter Marathon saw an equally impressive turnout with runners of all abilities taking on the 6.5 mile route through the Hertfordshire countryside.

🥇 Paul Makowski (Royston Runners) — 1st Male 50-54 and first overall — 43:38
🏆 Emily Stacey — 1st Female Senior — 44:57

A special mention to Jordan Herd and Ged Giblin of Royston Runners who also put in strong performances throughout the Quarter Marathon field.

And a very special mention to Zoe Taylor of Royston Runners — spotted in the Quarter Marathon results — who was quite clearly using the Harvest Trail as a gentle warm up before heading to Berlin this weekend for the marathon. Because why run one race when you can run two in a week? Completely normal behaviour. Very Zoe. Good luck in Berlin Zoe — we’ll be watching! 🇩🇪🏃

Royston Runners

The home club turned out in magnificent force across both distances, with runners appearing consistently throughout the results across multiple age categories. From the sharp end of the field to the back of the pack, the Black and Red Army represented with everything they had on their own doorstep and made the club enormously proud.

Race Photography

A huge thank you to the brilliant Keith Fenwick who was out on the course on Sunday capturing the day in all its glory — whether you were charging up Cardiac Hill looking magnificent or expressing a slightly different emotion entirely, Keith got it on camera.

📸 View all photos here: flickr.com/photos/199788063@N07/sets/72177720335749914

Thank You

None of this happens without people. The Chas Avis Harvest Trail relies entirely on the goodwill, dedication and hard work of our magnificent volunteers — and this year they were, without exception, absolutely superb. From the Saturday set up crew to the Sunday marshals, timekeepers, water station heroes and pack away legends — you made the day what it was.

A special and enormous thank you to Chris Holton, Grant, Lisa and Lottie who organised the entire event with extraordinary dedication and a quite remarkable attention to detail. The Harvest Trail does not happen without them.

And finally — thank you to every single runner who entered, trained, showed up, and gave everything they had on Sunday. You are what makes this event special.

We’ll see you in 2027 provisional date is the 19th September. 🌾🖤❤️

Full results are below