North East Cross-Country Championships, 9th December 2023
Gill told me that my race report for this only needed two words – “bloody awful”. She may be right, but I thought that I would write a few more.
In fact, I think it could have been a lot worse considering the weather leading up to the start. It wasn’t a great beginning to our day as we arrived at Temple Park in fairly heavy rain and I was wet by the time I collected the numbers – the Race HQ not being in the advertised location! We had to park in the overflow parking in the field and worried that we might get stuck in the mud, then struggled to put the tent up as there was a fairly stiff breeze. But it improved! The rain stopped, the wind dropped and it would have been fairly pleasant conditions to run in – if we had been on the road!
Late withdrawals had meant that the small contingent of Claremont Road Runners got even smaller, and there were only two of us on the start line for the men’s race. After all the recent snow and rain, we expected a muddy course and it didn’t disappoint. The ground didn’t seem too bad as we started with a circuit of the field, muddy in places but runnable. Then the fun began! It got muddier and muddier as we came over the hill and back past the tent village before we reached the section of tarmac path. Usually most runners with spikes stay on the grass at the side of the path, but that was so muddy that it was debatable which was worst – banging the spikes on the tarmac or trying to find a good grip on the grass. I ended up stepping on and off the path as I couldn’t decide.
Next is the undulating section with a few short, but steep climbs and a stream to cross. Yes, a stream. I have run at Temple Park a number of times and never before have I had to run through water almost up to my knees! Where did that come from? It was now basically a mudheap until we reached the field again. The section just before and through the woods was particularly demanding with plenty of water and ankle-deep mud. I tried a different route through on each lap, but they were all horrendous! There was some relief when we came back onto the main field. I found that I gained a few places on each of these more runnable stretches, only to lose some on the muddier sections.
With the men having had 3 laps to churn up even the most grassy, least muddy sections, we handed over to the women. Both races are further than the normal Harrier League courses, and both were a bit longer than advertised. The men’s course came out at about 11.6K and the ladies had to about 8.5K, made up of two full laps and an initial extra circuit of the field.
At least the 4 strong female contingent meant that we had a complete ladies team. Conditions underfoot may have been tough and getting tougher, but at least the sun came out for their 2nd lap! They should all be proud of their performances. Julie Cross led the team home followed by Lucy Keating, while Aoife Monaghan recovered from a fall (and running a fast parkrun in the morning) to be next home, with Gill Milne putting in a storming final lap and her customary sprint finish to gain several places.
| Position | Runner | Time |
| 114 | Mark Anderson | 52:11 |
| 178 | Tom Tinsley | 57:25 |
| Position | Runner | Time |
| 93 | Julie Cross | 46:34 |
| 112 | Lucy Keating | 49:11 |
| 153 | Aoife Monaghan | 56:02 |
| 159 | Gill Milne | 58:22 |
