Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire Cross Country Championships 3rd Jan race report
It was a pretty arctic morning for the county cross country championships at Bulwell Hall Park, Nottingham with temperatures of -2. However, the sun was out, the atmosphere was buzzing and with a solid MAC turnout, everyone was in great spirits.
An early arrival meant that we secured prime real estate giving the club gazebo an outing. The strategically placed side panel also provided the club races with some promo!
The course was rock solid other than a very short squelchy section with many runners opting for trail shoes over spikes. Bulwell park is fairly flat so this made for a very runnable course, trip over the frozen solid mole hills at your peril though!
First up were the U11 boys where we had Max and Fraser giving the 1500m course a go. Both boys were struggling in the low temperatures and Fraser, who was not quite feeling it today, decided to call it a day half way round. Max persevered and finished the race, well done Max.
Next up were the men with 3 laps of the course but mercifully, it did measure short of the 10k advertised. First home was Jose in 22nd, Ben followed in 28th with Colin hot on his heels in 29th. Ian was 56th who was all smiles as always, with Tony and Rob not far behind finishing together in 61st and 62nd. Tony picked up a medal coming 3rd V65, awesome job! The mighty Mick, who seemed to be having a wonderful time seen smiling, waving and giving a thumbs up at several points on the course, came home in 66th. Geoff, who had to settle for being on the Notts results sheet, was 70th but was rightly chuffed with his great time. He had a much better experience than last time…which involved some vomiting. Shout out to David R who in the end didn’t run but in Lisa’s initial absense got the juniors warmed up, stepped in to help a late junior arrival make it to the line on time, put up the gazebo, helped with admin and provided awesome support.
Next was the U13 girls. In this race we had Lilika and Maddy. After sorting a category mix up, Lilika had a good run earning herself Derbyshire 2nd reserve for the Nationals. After timings confusion, Maddy arrived with less than 10 minutes to spare before her race. Action stations to get her in a race compliant top and numbers pinned on front and back quick smart. She got on the start line with 5 seconds until the gun. Despite no warm up she did a brilliant job and showed great strength of character to finish her race and was all smiles after! Very well done to both girls.
Next up was our Women taking on 8km of the icy park. Becky led off the team taking 16th, narrowly missing out on a county representation reserve invitation. She did earn herself an awesome consolation prize of a 3rd V35 medal! Ayako threw herself in at the deep end doing her first cross country race and was rewarded with a great result in 25th. Cherry, who doubted if she could finish due to feeling unwell, paced herself to cross the line in an admirable 27th with Lisa J right behind her in 28th. Nicky, who had a slightly rushed race preparation due to the car park being full, once again showed her strength coming 41st and had a medal to take home for 3rd V55. Emma was acting as personal body guard to Caroline who was running with a cast on her broken wrist. The two of them had a steady run round with supporters noting that they looked to be having far too much of a nice time! They came in 44th and 45th having achieved the pre race plan of not falling over 🥳
Our vet women came away with an absolutely fantastic team gold medal!
Post race cake, quality streets and biscuits were enjoyed by all! A brilliant team atmosphere, thanks to everyone for turning out on such a cold morning.
