Cross Country 2023-24

[Travs]

2nd league fixture of the season today, back at the excellent Aldersley Village course in Wolverhampton, which is where i ran well in the Midlands Relays in October.

This time, about 80% of the course was frozen solid, and the other 20% was very slippy. I've ran XC in some terrible weather, and in the snow, but i don't recall ever running on ground which was totally frozen. It just about took a spike, although i considered wearing x-talons initially.

Personally, another good performance, my pace is looking considerably quicker than last season, and on tough ground today. Was 9th counter so scored in the 2nd six, and i think 3rd master, so made the first team there.

In October i averaged 3:54/km, but that was on good terrain and only 6km. Today averaged 4:00/km over 10km, so i was fairly pleased with that. A measure of the strength of the league..... there were a number of clubmates running today who are posting mid 18's in the Cov parkrun, and i dusted them by over a minute.... and i was still only about 150th today. If you're not capable of getting near 16mins for 5km then you can kiss goodbye to finishing in the top 100.

Team-wise, not seen results yet, but we had a stronger team than the first fixture and hopefully our firsts have pulled away a bit from any potential relegation danger.

Next one is in a fortnight.... the Warwickshire Champs at Warley Woods, Smethwick, probably my favourite XC course of all. Last year we won the team event, and i picked up a bronze in the masters team, hopefully we can have a similarly decent day.

[PeteS]

Next one is in a fortnight.... the Warwickshire Champs at Warley Woods, Smethwick, probably my favourite XC course of all. Last year we won the team event, and i picked up a bronze in the masters team, hopefully we can have a similarly decent day.

Ah - my neck of the woods (excuse the pun!) Will try and pop down and say hello.

[Travs]

Ah - my neck of the woods (excuse the pun!) Will try and pop down and say hello.

We are also at Warley Woods for a league fixture in mid January.

[PeteS]

We are also at Warley Woods for a league fixture in mid January.

Very slippery around there at the moment and the 'stream' in the dip has water which shows you how wet it has been. The boggy end will no doubt be a quagmire after the snow and thaw. (There used to be a pond many years ago but was filled in, I think sometime in the 80s - no doubt some health and safety assessment deemed it a drowning risk. Now you are only likely to slip in the mud a break a limb. Huge improvement...)