seniors

Northern XC Championships – Sat 28 Jan

From Petra Bijsterveld…

Photo credit Mick Hall Photos

The Northern Cross Country Championships returned to Witton Park in Blackburn where they were last held in 2016, having been staged in Pontefract, Harewood and Bedale in the intervening years. An excellent venue with easy parking, a large flat field and a substantial hill which had to be tackled 3 times, by the senior runners at least. By XC standards the course wasn’t particularly muddy, save for one area at the bottom of the descent which was an absolute quagmire where it was easy to lose a shoe (or two, as one woman running near to me did!), which made for a good spectator experience at least. The weather forecast had been for a dry day, this did not turn out to be entirely true and as the day progressed there was some drizzly rain, but on the whole it was pleasant enough for January, unlike 2016 when we were running in snow and hail.

We (the Budding family and I) arrived early and pitched the tent in a suitable corner right next to the course, for easy spectating and cheering. The day’s racing started at 11 with the U20 women, where Emily Gibbins ran extremely well to achieve fourth place.

After that the junior Harriers raced in their respective races: Archie Budding, Oscar Shinn, Ollie Holden, Erin Doyle, Beth Rogers and Helena Coy. A number of them will be joining the senior club later this year so look out for them.

Ed Hobbs ran at 13:40 in the U20 Men’s race placing a very nice 19^th in a competitive field, after this at 14:10 it was the Senior Women’s turn, i.e. Sarah and Anna Pickering and myself. The hill, despite being only around 130 ft of climb, felt vicious enough and I was proud of myself to still be running up it all the way on the third time around, as quite a few of the women around me (some decidedly younger than I am) were forced to walk. But I stuck to my maxim of only walking up hills in ultras, not in a XC race, whatever it takes! Obviously I had long since been lapped by the first dozen or so runners, who flew past like gazelles leaving a stranded hippo behind. Former Harriers Jemima Elgood and Georgia Malir were a splendid 5^th and 7^th respectively.

After putting my layers back on and eating a good snack I headed out for my cool down jog, combined with cheering on Dan McKeown and Dave Westhead who were now out on the course, as well as our second claim Harrier Nuno Cesar de Sa. Like the Senior Women they ran 3 laps but this had an extra loop built in to account for the extra distance. Great also to see the runners at the pointy end give a masterclass in running form, one of the nice things about XC is that you get plenty of chance to spectate outside of your own race, and at this event you really see many of the best runners the northern running scene has to offer, from clubs like Salford, Sale, Rotherham, Hallamshire, Leeds City, Morpeth and Gateshead to name just a few.

A good day out, collectively we wrestled the by now very wet tent back into its bag and I was kindly given a lift home by Dave. Now just one more major XC event this season, the National XC at the end of February. Entries close tonight (Sunday 29/01). Please do consider giving these races a chance (West Yorkshires, Yorkshires, Northerns and Nationals) for next season, especially if you have never tried them before. They are definitely NOT only for fast runners.

Results

U20 Women (5.9 km)

(1 22:16 Ella Greenway, Cleethorpes AC)

4 23:03 Emily Gibbins

49 ran

U20 Men (7.4 km)

(1 24:34 Matthew Ramsden, Blackburn Harriers AC)

19 26:35 Edward Hobbs

67 ran

Senior Women (7.4 km)

(1 27:11 Philippa Williams, Hallamshire Harriers)

63 33:03 Sarah Pickering