We had a brand new venue – Langport – for the
first race of the Wessex League season. There was not a breathe of wind
and the unseasonably warm and humid weather contributed to make this a
tough work out. The course itself was as flat as any we are likely to
encounter over the season in low-lying fields alongside the river - at
first site a relatively easy course. However, the field had a cattle in
it (which paid us no attention on the day), alongside the river they had
churned up the field, and with the lack of recent rainfall this left us
with a very tricky section of ruts and ridges which was rock hard and
would need to be traversed with care if we were to stay out of trouble.
Many of us opted to run in multi-terrain running shoes rather than studs
or spikes as it appeared that stability would be a bigger issue than
grip.
It was good to see that two-thirds of the core
of the ladies XC team from last season were out there in the thick of it
once again. They were able to welcome back Lynda Faulkner who didn’t
compete for us last season and Lynda managed an excellent third place.
Maddy Vaughan-Johncey had a tough race but her dogged determination saw
her through. She has moved up an age group so now will be contending
with longer distances this season.
For the under-15s Laura Harvey looked
confident and we were delighted to see Lauren Sutton competing in that
age group for the first time. Lauren has been training with us for only
a very short time and she will have learnt quite a bit from the
experience. We had only one junior boy racing – Jack Snook. Jack ran a
steady untroubled race.
Wimborne had a terrific turnout in the senior
men’s race, where we recorded our first race winner of the season. Ian
Cardy forced the pace from the start and was a comfortable winner –
superb stuff. Ian missed the 2006/7 season but we hope to see much more
of him this time around. Tim Harris also had a terrific run. Tim has
been struggling to recuperate since suffering a head injury in August
and has found the fight to regain fitness a frustrating one. He ran a
very intelligent race, the first two laps were run very cautiously, he
felt good so he pushed in the later laps of the race making up around 15
places. Well done Tim.
The tricky terrain claimed a victim in the
form of Steve Snook. Steve went over badly on his ankle. A determined
and defiant final two laps saw him through to the finish line. From
there it was straight off to the first-aiders who got an ice pack on the
bruised and swollen ankle and then strapped it up securely. Steve was
unable to drive home but fortunately as a number of us had car-shared we
had enough drivers available to get Steve’s car back to Dorset.
A memorable and eventful first race, well done
all those involved. The next race is at Salisbury (details below).
RESULTS FROM WESSEX LEAGUE RACE 1 – LANGPORT –
7 OCTOBER
