Twelve of us made the trip up to
Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath for the South of England
Cross-Country Championships. Travelling up by minibus we were able to
park close to the course.
The team consisted of a few of our
Wessex League regulars, but also included some mainly road runners. Once
on site the scale of the challenge became apparent. There were the ups
and downs of the course that we were expecting, but what took us all by
surprise was just how slippery and muddy it was. I heard grumbles of
‘How did we get talked into this’ as we were establishing our base.
There were two hollows in particularly where underfoot had all the
viscosity of semolina pudding! Laces were going to need double-knots to
the double-knots if we were going to complete this race with the
requisite number of shoes. The senior men were going to have to
negotiate 15kms while our two under-13s had 3km to contend with.
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Graham Whiffin at Parliament
Hill |
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Job done! - The Cross-Country team at Parliament Hill |
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The shoes themselves were an issue.
Those of us with the most cross-country experience had travelled with
several choices of footwear. Jerry had decided the day before that a
pair of spikes might be good investment so he had a brand-new pair of
shoes he had never run in before. The roadrunners had multi-terrain
shoes which are more or less road shoes with a bit more tread on them.
It was quite clear that they were going to be completely useless in
these conditions. Daryl and I opted for 12mm spikes and so lent our
studs to Craig and Jon, while Phil went off to the Saucony tent and
bought a pair of spikes. Running for over an hour in an alien pair of
shoes which are very different in feel to what you are used to is not a
great idea on race day – but there was absolutely no grip in anything
other than studs or spikes.
Jack and Callum’s race was one of the
first of the day. It is very easy to go off too fast here as the start
line leads you straight up Parliament Hill. Both of our lads ran
intelligent races and steadily made up places as the race progressed,
finishing very strongly. You could tell that Jack had given it 100
percent as he promptly threw up after he crossed the finish line. It was
a great experience for both of them and having seen and learnt about
what is involved they can go even better next year.
The senior men’s race was the last race
of the day. At 2.50pm the gun was fired and more than 830 runners headed
up Parliament Hill. Much of Hampstead Heath is a grassy open space but
there are patches of woodland too. On the descents the grass had been
turned to thick, treacley mud and if you allowed your heel to strike the
ground hard you found were in an uncontrollable slide. In a few
low-lying area the mud was coming up to half way up your shins and you
could feel the suction as you lifted your foot. In contrast up on top
of the hill was a section of about 200m which was very hard on the feet
when running in spikes.
At a number of places the course snakes
back on itself so we were able to see our team-mates who were well ahead
of us and exchange shouts of encouragement. This wasn’t the only support
WACers were getting as the Burgess family were there en masse and
Jim Bailey, along with Amanda, Tilaye and Frank, could be heard in full
cry. Runners and supporters from other Dorset clubs were offering their
encouragement too.
All the WACers completed the course
safely with no problems caused by running in unfamiliar shoes. Although
there were many runners in front of the WACers I was very surprised by
the times we managed to record over 15km in those conditions. Jerry was
first WACer home but was given an almighty fright by the fast-improving
Daryl, who caught him at one point. Steve also had a terrific race – his
form has improved dramatically since the start of the XC season.
After we finished the race and
collected our belongings, there was time for a team photograph before
the light started to fade. The day had stayed dry with some wind and as
we headed back to the bus the skyline of London was back-lit with a
blood red sunset.
It had been a great day. All that ‘How
did we get talked into this’ stuff of earlier in the day was long
forgotten and replaced ‘When we come next year’.
My concern about losing a shoe during
the race was unfounded and I was faced with being unable to get my very
wet and muddy knots undone, so I ended up walking back to the minibus in
my spikes. By the time we got to the service station on the way home
they were still impossible to untie so had to be wrenched off. Left
overnight they set rock-hard and the following morning they were put in
a bucket water, before they were extracted later that day to begin the
process of drying out.
A memorable day.
Ian
Full results for
WACers were as follows:
Under 13 Boys
167 – Jack Snook –
14.26
206 – Callum
Kennedy – 15.49
Senior Men
(72nd team)
326th –
Jerry Shield – 62.11
457th –
Daryl Davies – 65.43
513th –
Graham Whiffen – 67.17
623rd –
Peter Lemon – 70.50
624th –
Jon Braund – 70.50
688th –
Craig Dixon – 73.21
709th –
Phil Burgess – 74.34
727th – Steve
Snook – 76.08
763rd –
Jeff Hinsley – 78.43
808th –
Ian Kennedy – 85.50
