Sunderland Cross Country Relays 8/09/12
Report by Bill Milbourne
The historic Farringdon course has been condemned by the Harrier League as being too narrow and winding for the huge fields that the Senior Men’s Race is now attracting and there was a lot of confusion last year about the Junior Ladies, so it was good to have another run round the route. This was a very unusual cross country race. It was warm and sunny, there was green grass instead of mud, we only had to run one lap and, weirdest of all, Dave Kear wasn’t there!
The men went off first, after the kids races. As usual, the Veterans an the Seniors went off together so it was very confusing, there were some mixed teams as well so you couldn’t tell who you were racing against. We had a very veteran mens team with 3 over 60s and young Dave Wotton who only just qualified for the team. Kenny McCormack did a sterling job on the first 2 mile leg and handed over to Graham Leslie who made up several places that I promptly lost again on the 3rd leg. A lot of teams had no fourth leg runner so Dave Wotton was left to run a very lonely last leg at the back of the field. We might have done a bit better if Dave Beaney had got there before the start, but he followed the official instructions to park at Silksworth which made him too late to get on the team sheet.
Then came the ladies race with the long awaited comeback from injury of Mandy Herworth who was supporting Nina Jensen in the Veteran Ladies class. In a hard race against a lot of younger track runners Nina came 18th. Mandy was unsure of her fitness after such a long layoff and a collision with a car while out on her bike a few days ago so she started at the rear. That didnt last long and she was soon powering through the field to finish in 35th place
Veteran Men’s Relay 4 x 1.8 miles
Claremont 14th out of 21 teams (7 incomplete teams)
Kenny McCormick 14.47
Graham Leslie 12.11
Bill Milbourne 13.53
Dave Wotton 13.07
Senior Ladies
Nina Jensen 18th 12.35
Mandy Herworth 35th 13.34
