National Cross-Country Championships, 21st February 2026

The National Cross-Country Championships returned to the North-East for the first time since 2013 this weekend, 9 Claremont Road Runners travelling down to Hardwick Park in Sedgefield to take part in an event on a scale way in excess of anything most of us had experienced before.

Having had to purchase a parking and tent permit in advance, we got our first sense of the size of the operation arriving at the car park, when the attendants offered to load our tent onto a trailer, and transport it the short distance to the edge of the event field!

Walking past the multiple food and coffee vans, the sea of tents and flags dwarfed the number we’d normally see at the Harrier League, and it was a case of finding a square of free grass to make camp. Charlotte Kerr was up first in the under 13’s race, running really well over the 2 miles in a much larger field than she would have been used to. The first of many WhatsApp messages across the day pinged into the group chat, Claremonter’s congratulating Charlotte for her strong sprint finish as they watched the live stream from home.

Next up were our 4 women. It was quite something watching 600-odd runners surging from a start line that must have measured close to 100 metres across. Both women and men were completing their usual two and three laps respectively, but having to run two-plus kilometres further than the usual Harrier League distances. Sarah Kerr did well to finish in the top 40%, and there was a close battle contested between Rose Hawkswood and Lena Lou (the latter having warmed up with a parkrun PB just a few hours earlier!). Nina Jensen rounded off the team, having twice lost a shoe in the courses two boggy patches. “Tape your shoes!” she advised, as she ran past us.

Finally, it was the men’s turn at 3pm. Despite the overcast skies, it was a little milder than it has been, with not much wind, so we weren’t shivering too much while we waited. The crowd assembled at the line, around 6 or 7 deep, at least double the numbers of the women’s race, and around 3 times larger than your average Harrier League attendance. Naturally, this made for shoulder-to-shoulder congestion for the first mile or so, comparable to Bushy parkrun or the Great North Run. No matter, only another seven miles for it to thin out!

As it turned out, Nina’s travails in the bog weren’t repeated by any of us. By the time we got there, the first section had quite an obvious groove, making it easy to avoid the more cloying mud, and the second was similarly brief, meaning only a few seconds of squelching. Otherwise, the ground was fairly dry and firm, and with a few inclines but no really challenging hills, it wasn’t the most gruelling course. 12.4km is not nothing on that kind of terrain, however, and Peter Noble admitted he’d found his first ever cross-country event to be rather energy-sapping, and hard going on the soles of the feet. This didn’t stop him being the first Claremonter across the line, a good minute ahead of his next teammate, and the only one of us under an hour.

I felt similarly to Peter, lap 2 especially feeling like a slog on achy feet, a lack of fitness and recent consistent running telling. We were lucky to only get one rather incongruous 2 minute blast of rain, and it seemed like a relative accomplishment to have at least made it over halfway, before the elites started to lap us on their long, loping stride towards the finish. David Lydall followed closely, and Terry Franklin, possibly our most enthusiastic member right now, declared that he’d “loved it”. While cheering on the men, Rose spotted none other than Olympic champion Alex Yee, also spectating, her few complimentary words potentially being misconstrued by him as an accusation of ‘enhanced’ performance! It’ll be settled out of court, one imagines…

Only a week until the next Harrier League fixture at Alnwick, a more familiar location, with fewer runners and TV cameras, but potentially more mud! Who knows how long it may be before the Nationals are back our way again…

Under 13 Girls
Position	Runner	Time
208	Charlotte Kerr	15:47

Women
Position	Runner	Time
197	Sarah Kerr	37:41
322	Rose Hawkswood	42:33
337	Lena Lou	43:10
419	Nina Jensen	47:02

Men
Position	Runner	Time
826	Peter Noble	59:34
860	Laurie Johnson	60:31
889	David Lydall	61:50
1043	Terry Franklin	80:00

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