With the cross-country season only a
few weeks away, our Saturday endurance/XC session took the form of a
3.16mile (5k-ish) time trial. The route starts from Dung Heap Corner and
is run over the drovers’ roads over King Down. From the start there is a
fairly steep descent, which is followed by a steeper climb before
dropping again to pass the Lambing Cottage. Once beyond the cottage a
sharp left-hander sees our runners on the steepest section of the entire
route climbing towards The Oaks, which is followed with a descent past
King Down Farm. At the crossroads another sharp left-hander towards High
Wood sees a short sharp climb, followed by a steady descent along King
Down Drove. One more left-hand turn sees us passing the tumuli on an
undulating final sector before returning to Dung Heap Corner and our
finish line.
As you might imagine, it is quite a
demanding route, and it is one we have used for recording times in the
past. The fastest any WACer has completed the circuit is 19:22 by Graeme
Furley. The fastest time recorded by any of our juniors is 20:17, which
was achieved by Ross Kirkpatrick. Both times were achieved in the
build-up to last year’s cross-country season.
Of our six runners only two of them (Callum
and Alex V-J) had covered the route before. Lewis and John made the
early running. Callum and Alex D started more steadily and got stronger
as the run progressed, with Callum taking the lead on the climb to High
Wood. A determined Lewis put in a renewed effort from there onwards,
denying Callum any sort of cushion – so they both pushed all the way to
the finish and recorded great times. Callum beat his previous best over
the route by three minutes. John, who is our fastest improving
roadrunner (see August & September 4 mile Time Trial reports),
was being kept honest all the way round with Alex D closing to within 20
seconds by the end.
Meanwhile there was another battle
going on between Ryan and Alex V-J. Ryan got a second wind in the final
sector and finally managed to open a gap. Alex V-J stuck to the task all
the way round and despite suffering some injury setbacks in 2009 she
still came close to threatening her best time over the route.
Our timekeeper/recorder was Gerry
Hutchings, with Craig Dixon, Lynn Hutchings and Ian Kennedy on
marshalling duties.
26 September
2009 – 5km
|
Position |
Name |
Time |
|
1 |
Callum Kennedy |
21:23 |
|
2 |
Lewis
Murphy-Parry |
21:48 |
|
3 |
John Hutchings |
23:09 |
|
4 |
Alex Diment |
23:29 |
|
5 |
Ryan Walbridge |
24:32 |
|
6 |
Alex Vaughan-Johncey |
25:18 |
