There are certain things in life you have to do : Swim with dolphins : never understood that : Catriona will know more !
Runners will say run the FLM .
For those that ran in the National Cross Country Championships today , I am certain that the 12 Wilmslow runers would include "running in the Nationals".
To win is a serious honour : you only have to look at previous winners to understand that the "National" is a major title for any serious English athlete : Cram , Coe and Ovett tried but failed : Bedford , Hill , Neuraker have tried and succeeded .
The Midlands staged the event at Alton Towers . Awesome facilities and a breathtaking course with a serious climb (x3 for the men). Brilliant administration .
Before the mens race we watched Liz Yelling retain the womens title : Liz will be competing in the Olympics this summer in Beijing .Amazing to watch the pace that elite runners race at .
So it was time for the men and every one of the athletes had to approach the start and their designated pen through a competitors only tent where dozens of Marshall’s checked athletes to ensure chip timing and numbers were in place .
We were sharing pen 108 with other clubs ; The gun went and the earth moved ! For 800 metres there was no room to do anything but run in the mass of every conceivable colour of UK club vests : Elbows out , push and shove , barge and more !
Disconcerting when the commentary team are announcing that there was a pack of four in the lead approaching mile one !
Gradually space opened up and the opportunity to gain or lose places materialised.
Running in a pack where you just get carried along at the group pace means that start too fast and you suffer . Although I picked up places , I lost more : By lap two Ian and I were involved in a real keep up competition : the final hill did for me and the final 1000 metres saw Ian pick up the pace .
Bear in mind that as I finished , City of Leeds AC were being announced as "2008 mens champions" : Thier six cxounter score was lower than Mike Halman’s own fin ish number ! Think about it !
A brilliant day . Different to the FLM : A day where serious club runners compete with serious club runners who also happen to be big stage Internationals .
Not sure about results yet but take a bow :
Kate Sutton
Sally Maddock
Amanda Bradbury
Cat Marshall
( Finishing order)
Mike Halman
Malcolm Fowler
Stuart Parrott
Tom McGaff
Phil ( new Phil)
Ian Smallwood
Nick
Trevor
(Finishing order).
A fitting end on the biggest possible stage to the XC season : Congratulations to all that have taken part and those who have supported us : Great to have Paul Sanders with us today .
Date of end of season Hot Pot supper tbc.
Enjoy the upcoming summer racing .
Nick.