NE Cross-Country Championships, 10th December 2022

Brrr! It was a cold one at Temple Park for this year’s North Eastern Cross-Country Championships. Much of the course was frozen, though the clear blue skies and absence of wind meant that it was otherwise a pleasant day for running. It was a smallish Claremont squad, depleted by illness and pre-Christmas events and obligations. The 6 ladies meant that they had a team of 4 with 2 in reserve, but the 3 men only made up half a team of 6. Still, it is quality not quantity that matters – shame we didn’t have much of that either! (Only joking.)

The conditions meant that there was much discussion as to the best choice for clothing and footwear – trail shoes or spikes, shorts or leggings, vest only or underlayer. The men were off first and we had the complete mix – , vest with leggings, 2 layers with shorts and 2 layers with leggings; 2 trail shoes and me in spikes.

Temple Park is more associated with being the venue for the Sherman Cup and Davison Shield (indeed, we will be back in January), so it was interesting to see how they had changed the course for the Championships. To be honest, I found it confusing! The start and finish were in different locations, though the main difference was probably that we ran it in the opposite direction.

We started with a circuit of the big field, over the small hill and down past the tent city and around the back of the leisure centre. Here the ground was completely solid and I started to regret my choice of spikes as it was like running on concrete. We went along the path and up and down the couple of short, but steep, inclines on the course, then through the woodland and across the only wet stretch before emerging through the trees and back onto the field. The ground seemed softer now, so spikes were fine on this stretch!

I had started with Laurie and he pulled ahead early on, so I was just trying to keep him in sight and not get too far behind, but near the end of the 2nd lap, I realised that I was closing the gap. I was fairly sure that I hadn’t speeded up, so I guessed that he must be feeling the strain (he had a stitch), and I duly overtook him on the 3rd lap. The Championships are meant to be further that the Harrier League races, so the finish caught me a bit by surprise. I had seen the turn into the finish line, just after we emerge from the trees, on previous laps, but as we hadn’t yet done 10K, I assumed that we must do a circuit of the field or something before it. We didn’t, so I could probably have tried to pick up the pace a bit earlier – I was pleased that I felt I actually could!

For once, the ladies had had to wait for us to finish, though it was possibly an advantage this time that we had softened-up the course a bit for them! Although 3 of the lasses went for the vest-only option, the arrival of winter meant a first appearance of the year for Gill’s beret – sky blue, of course!

Maria, who is running exceptionally well at the moment, led the team home finishing strongly in a very creditable 64th place. All seemed to have good runs with Julie, Liz and Margaux completing the team ahead of Nina and Gill.

Then it was time for cake – including Maria’s very impressive chocolate reindeer cakes, surely the ultimate festive cross-country treat. All in all, an excellent day’s racing.

Men
PositionRunnerTime
168Tom Tinsley44:14
181Laurie Johnson44:59
222David Lydall48:02
Women
PositionRunnerTime
64Maria Duenas30:58
102Julie Cross33:37
111Liz Denyer34:19
124Margaux Robin35:03
128Nina Jensen35:25
167Gill Milne42:00
Tom Tinsley -
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