Saturday saw the annual staging of the "Nationals" at Parliament Hill Field, London.
An iconic venue often referred to as the "Spiritual home" of cross country.
A mass of tents, a mass of colour…and a sea of mud. Not quite Alton Towers vintage but not far from that level!
Seen casually wandering round the venue (previous race winners having been invited by England Athletics) were Brendan Foster & Dave Bedford. Missing were Seb Coe and Steve Ovett : Both had tried but sadly neither have the title "National Winner" to their name. Its an event steeped in history.
Entries were at the highest since 1994.
Our ladies had a full team and well done and thanks Ang for making up the numbers/answering the call.
Ladies (8K)
267 Louisa Harrison
565 Ang McCarthy
573 Sharon Jones
624 Carolyn Hirons
(865 ran)
73rd out of 93 complete teams
Men (12k)
647 Andrew Whittingham
1262 Matt Taylor
1832 Patrick Grannan
1902 Bernard McCarron
1972 Trevor Faulkner
(2005 ran)
The race was won by Charlie Hulson of Sale Harriers, fresh from a month of training in Kenya. Pleasing that the Manchester League has provided the last two race winners.
Sadly, for the first time in many years the Wilmslow men fielded an incomplete team.
Spare a thought for 78 year old Chris Bryans of Stockport who in modern speak "took one" for the team. The usually strong Stockport club were very much under strength this year but Chris was the last race finisher in closing dusk and as the course was being dismantled. He ran virtually all the race in total isolation but ensured Stockport had a complete team, being sixth counter!
As we know from our Manchester League experiences, cross country is a very team based event.
Full results are available at www.englishcrosscountry.co.uk
Pictures at http://www.SSPimg.com
Comments welcomed from fellow travellers!
Congratulations all that ran.
Nick.
Taken from the English Cross Country website
There were records galore achieved at the Saucony English National Cross Country Championships, held at Parliament Hill, London on Saturday.
The numbers entered were already very high and the numbers running matched this. Firstly 5283 runners finished across the 10 Races, nearly 600 up on the previous best.
On a day that was very wet and muddy underfoot, the conditions were cool but dry with some sunshine but neither of these put the athletes off. From the first race onwards numbers competing were high culminating in 2005 runners finishing in the Senior Men’s race over the 12K course.
The Men’s and Women’s Championships were first held jointly in 1995, the previous best of 1948 finishers came in 1996 when the race was held at Newark and previous entry restrictions were lifted.
The Senior Women’s record also went with 865 coming home an increase of 157 on last year’s record, while the two youngest age groups in action also saw records. This is good for the sport in general with 433 under 13 Girls crossing the finish line and 395 under 13 Boys finishing.
The other age group to notch up a record was the under 17 Women’s category where 235 came home compared with last years record of 211. There was a near miss in the Junior Women’s race 130 finishing compared with last years record of 134.
There were good numbers in all other races with 379 completing the under 15 Girls, 371 the under 15 Boys, 280 the under 17 Men and 190 the Junior Men. So despite the mud – and there was plenty of that around – many thousands went home happy after a very competitive day at London’s famous venue.
Chris Bryans can always be found marshalling at Manchester league with cheers of encouragement and I believe is a past age group winner of the London Marathon
This was my 4th trip to the National Cross Country championships. 2012 in glorious sunshine at Parliament Hills, the year after a very snowy Sunderland, then racing over a route that included massive tree trunks, imagine the Grand National, at Nottingham in 2014 and now a return to Hampstead Heath, Parliament Hills revisited! You will recognise the view, the landscape of Central London, from many a film…. This time there was a chilly wind and mud, much mud!
Going to the Nationals is an endurance event – a long journey, long toilet queues, thousands of competitors, a late night… But well worth the effort. It’s a huge event. It’s an amazing experience to be in the same race as the elite cross country runners, who glide effortlessly over the mud, as I sink knee deep! ‘Speed is the answer’ – Andrew Whitingham gave me his invaluable advice!
We had just enough girls for a ladies team. Louisa ran magnificently. Ange did great, despite her nerves, with Sharon close behind her. Sadly Rob Downs couldn’t run which meant that the boys didn’t have a team. Such a shame, but those who did run, they did our club proud. Rob and Andrew’s daughters performed especially well in the Juniors. A big thank you to Nick, Don and Paul who were our support team.
So, come on Wilmslow runners, be warriors and pitch up for those team outings….. You won’t regret it.
Well run everyone. The Nationals is a great team event. Next year it will be at a northern venue and so we can hopefully get big teams out. As Trevor suggested it should be in the Summer Series!
This too was my fourth time at the Nationals, just spectating in Sunderland though. I echo Carolyn’s comments about the entire day being an endurance event but if you go prepared for a long day, then there are no surprises! Conditions underfoot were truly revolting (why does it smell so bad? That’s not just normal mud, there’s definitely something mixed in with it!!) Parliament Hill must indeed be the very best place to hold the Nationals and the whole place is buzzing. The course is challenging, starting with a big climb (with a huge crowd so nowhere to hide!) and then very undulating after that, lots and lots of mud – resulting in actually throwing my spikes away rather than attempting to clean them! It’s great to hear & see all the support all around the course and it really does help to carry you along. Thanks to all our travelling supporters and to Nick for all his organisation. It’s always a great day out and I really can’t understand why more people don’t join in and take pride in representing their club. Thanks all for a lovely day out.
As a relative newcomer to running and a complete novice at cross country, it was a privilege to participate in this superb event.. Albeit, I’ve never felt so out of my depth amongst the country’s finest..
The start of the race is unforgettable.. 2000 men charging up a muddy hill.. Thankfully, the hill narrows at the top with the bottleneck of runners giving a brief respite before the race starts in earnest.. After 7 miles of the most horrendous mud, coupled with near freezing conditions, I was more worried about contracting trench foot rather than worrying about blisters etc..
The organisation was fantastic.. Luxury coach and a stop off on route home at one of Milton keynes finest hostelries being the highlight..
I now have 12 months to hone my xc running skills before doing it all again..
The link below from the daily telegraph describes the event perfectly…
The http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/11429049/The-greatest-running-race-you-have-never-heard-of.html
Ha! I too have thrown away my XC shoes. Well I think I did, I may have just thrown away a heap of congealed mud that perhaps contained my shoes somewhere. Every time I do XC I think it can’t get any muddier. This event had the full range: gloopy cement mix mud, merely ankle deep mud, sliding around so you’re upper body looks like you’re running on jelly mud and my personal favourite, not that bad as you approach it on the final downhill stretch mud but is actually impossible to sprint on. Unless of course you’re a finely honed elite athlete.
I was fascinated to watch how the experts do it. As Andy W said – ‘speed’. I clearly allowed too much time between strides for my feet to get nicely entrenched in the stuff.
Enough about mud? It was a really great day out; and so exciting to line up against the country’s best and see how well you could do. It was great to see each club lining up together at the start in their pen – we must try and get more doing it next year and that would be a brilliant sight. I was chuffed with 267 out of 865 and am already wondering if I can improve on that next year. Mud NOT permitting.
Thanks to Nick for organising a good day out: exec coach, great race and convenient pub for dinner, where I was able to meet my daughter who lives quite near Newport Pagnell.
Conditions at Parliament Hill were excellent, so that I got my best Nationals result (percentage-wise)since the last major mud bath, at Alton Towers in 2011. It was a very satisfying w/e altogether, as Knype Pool turned into a PB by nearly 2 minutes, and I got ahead of Belinda at one stage, at a slippery descent.
Trevor 240215