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Anyone else looking forward to the cross country season?
I know there will be one or two of us in regular action in Birmingham/Midlands area.
Personally just hoping to see slight improvement on last year and improve my best league position. Last year upped it from outside the top 150 to 136th, could i push on and make the top 120 or beyond...
Awaiting the announcement of the venue for the National in February, i believe that Harewood in Leeds is now out...
I do the KWL, much more fun.Quote:
Originally Posted by Travs
Shall be doing a few XCs this winter, but not as many as usual due to various reasons: fell races, too much travel, daughter racing xc at different venues, but primarily due to knackered knees and ankles. So I'll be getting closer to 100 Birmingham Leagues slower!
National venue confirmed as Bolesworth Castle nr Wrexham/Chester/Crewe.... always good to race at a new venue!
British Masters Relays today at Long Eaton.
1st Tipton Harriers
2nd Salford Harriers
3rd Long Eaton
We came in 11th in the 35's-45's category.
A satisfactory 11:18 for me.... going through the 3km mark in 10:53. Was around 35secs behind the couple of faster guys in our team, which is probably better than expected.
I was on 2nd leg, and thought it was going to be a grim leg when Sale Harriers came steaming past me after about 200metres, but in the end i gained a place overall.
Hello to GazB, see you at another fixture soon!
Possibly another run out next week for me at Mansfield in the National XC Relays.
National XC Relays today at the traditional venue of Berry Park in Mansfield.
Ran 2nd leg for an incomplete B team. 20:13 which was a mere 5 seconds quicker than last year. Although not overly worried about the time, it was a "no pressure" run, and my legs weren't feeling entirely fresh anyway.
Went well enough, 10mins dead for the first lap, and 10:13 for the 2nd.
Unfortunately our A team suffered a cockup at the Leg 1-2 changeover, losing about 2 and a half minutes due to not being able to spot the incoming runner in the inadequate changeover pen.... i was most surprised to be 400mtrs into my leg and our A runner came bowling past me like a man possessed! Not that it made much difference as even without that hiccup we'd have only been looking at about top 60 today.... as it was they finished 71st.
1 Leeds City
2 Cambridge & Coleridge
3 Aldershot Farnham & District
4 Tonbridge AC
First League fixture today at Crewe.... a bumper turnout from our club with 30 on the start line.
Ran the "10km" (i suspect it was a good 500mtrs short) in 37:20 which was 55secs quicker than last year... yet despite that finished one place lower (168th)
So either conditions were much more favourable this year, or the standard seems to have risen again... perhaps a bit of both.
Good day for our first team (5th).... i was 11th counter so got into our B team, and also 3rd counter in the new Masters League.
So a very satisfactory day.
Birmingham University once again looking to be the team to beat. Was a little surprised we beat the likes of Warwick Uni, Tipton Harriers, Rugby & Northampton.... but was also surprised how strong Birchfield Harriers were today... although early days... next one at Wolverhampton in three weeks.
2nd league fixture today on GazB's home turf of Aldersley Wolverhampton (didn't see you Gaz, i guess you weren't running).
A much flatter course than the previous fixture, but plenty of twists and turns, disused railway line section, made for a good course.
I felt good today and managed 153rd... i lost 3 places in the final 100 metres dash to the line which dropped me off-target for top 150.
Team were 7th on the day and stand 6th in total.... realistically we are fighting Tipton Harriers for 6th place.
I was final counter for our B team who stand 4th, and final counter in our Masters team who stand 5th.... so its nice to feel i'm contributing something to the team, even though i'm a good way off the top 6 who score for the A team (was 3 minutes behind our 6th counter today)
County champs next weekend at a new venue. Not a massive priority for me although i'll race and give it my all, i think we might have a shot at the team prize if we get a strong team out and can match Birchfield Harriers.
Good effort Travs. Nah, I have been ill this last week since a trot round Sefton Park xc last weekend. My W&B had a good day today, even beating Loughborough (severely weakened admittedly). Should be there for Warley Woods. Staffs is the Saturday before that one
Yes there was a big University relay at Leeds yesterday, which probably explains Loughborough's below-par showing. We stand above them in the league but I expect that to be redressed next time round.
Birmingham Uni had a few missing but still strong enough to win. They're unstoppable at the moment. Warwick Uni ran to their potential yesterday as well.
Warwickshire County Champs today.
A new venue and a very interesting course. Part frozen solid, part very slippy mud and field. First half mile of each lap was incredibly hilly for an XC course, and the rest of the lap was along the side of ploughed fields where it was very tough to get any decent grip.
Didn't have my best run, but managed 40:19 for a tough 10km (although i didn't run with my GPS watch today, but i reckon it was a good 400mtr short at least).
Rather unexpectedly picked up a bronze in the Masters Team medals. Unexpected as our top Masters guy ran for the seniors, and another regular Masters counter was missing.
The gamble from the management paid off as we picked up the gold in the seniors team (and the women's seniors team).
Good day for the club, but must confess i'm rather relieved to have a couple of weeks off racing now to concentrate on training.
Well done on the bling Travs.
Our, Derbyshire XC champs, are on the 7th Jan at Markeaton Park. They are a joint event with Notts and the venue changes every other year with Woolaton Park. Both nice courses but parking is a nightmare!
Thank you Llani.
Yes ours was shared with Worcestershire... which makes things very difficult with knowing where you actually are in the race... with two county champs, and U20/Senior/Masters all together.
I think i came over the line somewhere in the 80's, but was actually 16th Warwickshire Master.
I usually park on the roads outside Woolaton Park and never had any issues, even for the National XC.
[QUOTE=Travs;681347]
Yes ours was shared with Worcestershire... which makes things very difficult with knowing where you actually are in the race... with two county champs, and U20/Senior/Masters all together.
Yes, it can be difficult to know who you are racing against but to help, one of the counties has to wear their number on their back!
Today was this seasons 3rd Booths Decorators League XC in Ilkeston, on the site of the old American Adventure Park. I think that 10 local running clubs compete. Some decent runners at the sharp end. The surface was mainly frosty grass with a few icy rutted sections.
Two laps totalling just under 5 miles in distance which was a bit short for me as I had only got comfy by the end of mile 3. Anyway, I was happy with 62nd place in 33 min 14 sec.
Silver medal for Emile Cairess(Leeds City) at the european champs today. Really good race... Ingerbritsen proved too strong in the end, but really pleased he got a medal. Can't see past him for the National XC in February.
I received an e-mail yesterday informing me that Derby City Council have declared that Markeaton Park was not now available for the Derbys/Notts XC champs, due to take place this Saturday, because of "the state of the ground".
I suspect that the decision was taken by someone who is not a runner and more interested in not having a muddy groove around their public park than the health benefits that exercise can provide. Ironically, this week Derbyshire has been chosen as a trial area for GP's to prescribe outdoor exercise for their patients.
The park cannot be in that much of a "state" as it is still open to the public.
However Notts AAA's and Notts AC have come to the rescue and the event will now be held at Bulwell Hall Park, Nottingham. An extra 10 mile each way on my journey so no big deal but I have no idea of what the course will have in store.
Derby 0 Nottingham 1 (own goal)!
Whilst it pains me to say it, as I come from the west side of the M1 rather than the east, that is some achievement from Notts AAA's and Notts AC to find a venue for the champs at short notice, so well done to them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Llani Boy
Hope it goes well for you
Kudo's to Notts AAA's, Notts AC and Bulwell Hall Golf Club for putting on, with only 72 hrs, notice an excellent Derbys/Notts XC Championships event. The seniors course was a short lap followed by 3 longer laps totalling six and a half miles of parkland. Tacky, rather than muddy, underfoot with a couple of boggy sections which was ideal for my Mudclaws. I would have preferred a few hills as the total ascent was only 248 feet and mainly gained by three long, leg sapping drags.
Both counties run all age group events together with Derbyshire runners wearing numbers front and back and Notts front only so that officials know who's who and runners know who they are racing!
I wasn't feeling too good but finished 52nd Derbyshire runner overall and 6th in my 55-64 aged group, which I was happy with considering I am at the top end of it at 64!
Looking forward to the Nationals, near Chester, next month as I have not done them before.
See you at the Nationals Llani.
Some event that is, although it is a new venue this year.
League fixture for us next saturday at the excellent Warley Woods course in Smethwick.
Came back out of retirement to set up Witton Park for the Lancs Champs yesterday. It was better underfoot than I expected although by the time the men ran I'm sure it was awful :D
Anyone coming for the Northern later this month, we have an interesting new course, as they wanted me to work out a 3 lapper for the men rather than the 4 lapper we have had in the past.
There's a few problems looming for XC and I hope it doesn't spill over on to the fells and other athletics events.Quote:
Originally Posted by Llani Boy
Both the Northern XC and National XC Champs have had to find new venues for 2023 after issues at the original venue.
I believe both were down to support received to re-wild sections of the land the races were to be on so they had to cancel.
I've also seen one Local Authority cancel a long-standing non-athletics annual event with no plans to bring it back, because they have ambitions to be carbon-neutral and the event and the 1'000s of visitors it attracts from around the country are not in keeping with those ambitions.
Pretty soon, we'll not be allowed to attend an event unless we can walk to it :/
Your are probably right WP.
XC and indeed Fell Racing are easy pickings to be bullied into submission or even condemned to death without trial.
Unlike the moneybags sports like football and rugby where hundreds of thousands of players and supporters travel millions of miles each weekend. There are even South African teams in the European Rugby Champions Cup and yesterday, the Nottingham Forest team flew to Blackpool for their FA Cup tie, not that it did them much good.
They appeared to be suffering from jetlag!
Apart from wallowing in self righteous, holier than thou sanctity and enjoying the misery inflicted by abusing their petty power over people trying to live a simple life whilst going about their every day business: what is the benefit to a local authority in becoming carbon-neutral?Quote:
Originally Posted by Witton Park
I haven't a clue.Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
I had a discussion on Friday with a Chemistry lecturer from Manchester who felt that an NHS Trust having a Net Zero department, developing policy and ensuring it was implemented, was part of their core responsibilities.
On a similar subject, i read with a sense of increasing rage the book review in the Fellrunner mag about fellrunning and climate change.
Whether you agree with the sentiments of the book or not... surely the hypocrisy of a runner who has built a platform through running in long rounds and foreign races... then using that platform to suggest others limit their long rounds and foreign racing... it defies belief.
Without getting too personal... its clear the world is over-populated and that by far the greatest factor people have on climate change is the number of children they have... correct me if i'm wrong but doesn't the author have a couple of children... i'm not sure he would like it (or anyone else for that matter), if race entries were limited to only those with a maximum of one child.
You sound a tad Malthusian Travs :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Travs
You should pick up a copy of Fossil Future by Alex Epstein. It's not clear at all that the world is over-populated.
We have more people now, but produce more food to feed them, life expectancy is way up in the last 50 years, especially in the developing world.
We didn't mandate the steam engine, or internal combustion engine etc. it was human ingenuity that developed them at a price that was feasible.
The productivity gains we have made by having combine harvesters etc rather than oxen and a plough have helped us progress.
If there is a serious problem with man made climate change we should allow human ingenuity to solve it, and not these rather bonkers international dictats.
The fields at the Hampshire champs yesterday were the smallest I have ever seen - 114 senior men, 65 senior women. Just wondering if this is a general trend?
I wondered that too.
Derbyshire results not up yet but whilst looking for them noticed that Cumbria had only 40 senior men and 27 senior women!
We had issues around 10-12 years ago so we came up with a few ideas which I worked on with Steve Duxbury from Rossendale back in the day and Steve's still doing a great job.Quote:
Originally Posted by gej
Firstly we worked out that many of the newer clubs felt like the "Championships" wasn't for them. It sounded elitist. So I took it on myself to contact them and in some cases went to one of their committee meetings to explain about them and invite them to attend.
Here in Lancashire a Mid Lancs or Red Rose Cross Country league race can cover clubs from up to 4 counties, so local league can be more competitive than a County Champs.
They hadn't realised that a County Champs could have a more local feel, but also that a few of the local top athletes might turn out who might not run in a league fixture.
Then we made a few changes to the way we ran the event.
We added 2 medals per team, so if 4 counters, we gave out 6 team medals to encourage more to come.
We allowed U20s to count in the Senior team - often U20s do not have any team mates running, rarely enough for an U20 team.
It didn't just help U20s, it also helped smaller clubs finish a team.
We introduced a Team Plate award in the Seniors. If I recall, any team that wasn't in the top 5 (could have been 4) the previous year was eligible for the plate award.
We'd ended up with a situation where the same clubs were contesting the senior teams each year and felt it would spark a bit more interest among smaller and newer clubs.
We also introduced a proper programme. In the first few years we invited ex athletes (David Lewis was one contributor in the first one) to write pieces reflecting on their times running in previous County Champs. We then broadened that out to include current athletes, including juniors.
We put the price up from £1 for the old style A5 few bits of paper to £2 for a glossy, professionally printed programme that put those at the areas and nationals to shame.
It paid for itself and feedback was excellent.
It seems to have worked. I'm not on the County AA any more but we saw an increase in numbers over the first 4-5 years of this and fields were of a decent size on Saturday.
Remember though as mentioned above, County Champs will always be smaller. Our Mid Lancs Cross Country league while based around Lancashire, has clubs from Cumbria, Merseyside and Greater Manchester.
Another factor is that a league cross country is very much a club day out. That's isn't always possible with County Champs because of the County qualification issue.
We have clubs around the border areas who draw athletes from different counties. I think Salford Harriers have had runners at 3 or 4 of the North West Champs events on some occasions.
Warwickshire County Champs seemed decently well attended, on an absolutely freezing day.
Although mirroring some of the comments on here, it isn't as strong as the league fixtures (although our league covers a huge geographical area).
The league seems to be as well-attended and competitive as ever.
Another tough Birmingham League race at the always testing Warley Woods in Smethwick.
The race was particularly tasty at the front end as i believe it was the selection race for the University teams for BUCS. Loughborough who were nowhere at the last fixture, turned up in force and took 5 of the first 6 places.
We had a fairly consistent day, our first team were 10th on the day, but consolidating 7th place overall. My B team up to 4th after a reasonable performance today. My masters team suffered with our fastest oldie not running, and our 2nd fastest oldie retiring half way round, and we drop to 7th overall.
As to my own race, seemed fairly par for the course, felt i went well enough, didn't have a great deal of speed on the flat, but its a tough course, always going up or down. Was 9th counter (2nd master) which is my best finish of the season, but we had a couple of no-shows and retirements due to illness, which gained me a couple of places over my usual 11th/12th.
Hello to GazB, stalked me round all race and came past with 400 to go :D i didn't see the end of the ladies' race but your daughter seemed to be well up.
Midlands Champs in a fortnight.
Cheers Travs. Another time you would have held on and I wouldn't've caught you. The field was unbelievably strong, although I would say that with my lowest ever finishing position! Your club trounced mine though. Louise ran well for 8th and was 2nd junior, thanks.
I ran round the woods on Friday and it was very wet but not as bad as it can get. Had I have known you were just down the road I would have popped down and offered my support!
The top wooded area was quite muddy but nothing to be too alarmed about.Quote:
Originally Posted by PeteS
For me the struggle is when you are on the other side which is short grass and should be good running, but there's a film of sticky mud which just takes so much traction away... really want to push on there, but it makes the whole lap so arduous.
Set up the course for the Northern Champs today at Witton.
I designed a new 3 lap route for this one.
The course is in good nick for those racing tomorrow. No need for any monster spikes.
Just two muddy parts coming downhill off the saucer.
If you are racing, have a good one, and maybe come and say hello. I'll be wandering around in a royal blue waterproof.
Leeds City look pretty unbeatable if they have a near-full team out.
Midlands for us at Leamington Spa. We've allegedly got a fairly strong team out, but i'd be surprised if we make top 4.... vying with Birchfield & Tipton Harriers for 5th/6th/7th would be my bold prediction.
Good day of XC today.
Ladies up first, Gemma Steel (Charnwood) taking the win by 12 seconds from our Julie Emmerson.... if the race had been over the usual hilly route i think Julie would have took the honours.
In similar fashion, Charnwood took the team gold over Cov by what must have only been a matter of 2 or 3 points... Bristol & West with the bronze.
In the men's, i haven't seen results yet, but i think we were 5th team. Looked close between Notts AC and Bristol & West for the win, BRAT 3rd, Tipton pipping us to 4th place.
As to my own performance, well having suffered with a cold all week i wasn't expecting much, and ran 43:22 for what was a couple of hundred metres over 10km, on an undulating and sticky surface, with plenty of twists and turns, and little ditches to negotiate. I expect my cough/cold didn't actually make much more than 60-90secs difference, as there's no way i'd be running close to 40mins for 10km on that surface.
I see Keswick sent a team to the Northerns which was full of fell-running names, and came a very impressive 5th, beating some well-established XC/Road clubs.
Be interesting if they sent the same team to the National how well they'd do... (15th - 20th in my view)
Always used to see Bingley and Pudsey/Bramley get their fell runners out in the past, even at road relays, so good to see. It's a cracking day out so why not.Quote:
Originally Posted by Travs
Witton suits folk comfortable on the fells. The ground is sapping even if not muddy and the climb at the back is one of the more testing cross country climbs in the country.
Joe Steward yesterdays champ is one such person, but we've also had Steve Vernon and Andi Jones win the mens at Witton in recent years.
I've been told the National is flat. They had to move venues late in the day, so to get a venue that could manage an event of that size was lucky.
Might suit the roadies a bit more.
A shout out for the ladies winner Phillipa Williams. I haven't come across her before and when she set off like the clappers, a few of us thought she wouldn't keep it up, but she did.
Put a real gap between herself and some decent runners.