Abbots Langley Tough Ten dedicated to athletics coach George Harrison

The 41st Abbots Langley Tough Ten is taking place on Sunday, October 1 and this year’s race is dedicated to George Harrison MBE, who died in January.

The Tough Ten was founded when George and village policeman Reg Hunt thought it would be a good idea to organise a ten-mile road race to raise money, originally for police charity Mencop.

Over the years, it changed from a ten miler to a 10K, then the 5K, 3K and Park Run evolved and so developed into one of Abbots Langley’s biggest annual events, attracting runners from all over the country.

The medal that has been designed for this year's race (Image: Abbots Langley Tough Ten)

Registration is open online via www.nice-work.org.uk and runners are being encouraged to ‘Run for George’ and receive a medal.

Former Watford and England manager Graham Taylor was a great supporter of the Tough Ten and Luther Blissett, accompanied by another Hornets great Ian Bolton, is due to start this year’s race and help hand out the medals at the finish.

George was not only a runner himself but trained many leading names in the athletics world including Kyle Langford, the Watford-born 800m runner.

He passed on much of his running wisdom to others, in particular the St Albans School Cross Country team who he helped raise to world class standard, and also coached at Watford Harriers and Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers.

The Tough Ten has raised thousands of pounds during the past 40 years and all monies are redistributed into the local community, purchasing specialised equipment for the less mobile, sporting equipment for youth teams; offering support to clubs for the less able and to local hospices, help to community and school projects, foodbanks and generally assisting those who need help.

Following George’s death, the Tough Ten committee and Reg Hunt were able to pay tribute to him at the annual presentation event that month when funds raised in 2022 were distributed to deserving beneficiaries.