Inter-club competition
Club Series, race 14
Wednesday July 20th.
Tony was there, but not running “it’s a new route you know, same amount of climbing as the old, it’s a tough course, you’re going to struggle”. As usual, spot-on with his assessment if not his psychology.
We have won the interclub trophy for the past three years. This has always seemed to be shrouded in mystery as, each time, I have left Macclesfield Forest believing we have lost but somehow, over the ensuing few days, Chris has talked the declared winners out of it and the trophy has been back in the Rugby Club. My current understanding is that Macclesfield are claiming victory, but I note that Don has lodged a stewards’ enquiry.
We had the undisputed race winner in Richard and Peter was back to take 5th. place with James in 15th., Mike in 22nd. Jarrod in 24th., Graham in 26th., Pete in 34th., Tim in 39th., Sharon in 47th. and Paul in 55th.
Sharon was 5th. lady overall and 1st. L45. Remarkably, given how little she appeared to have been running in the last two years, Zoe was our second lady, closely followed by Janine.
James was 1st.M40. Pete 1st.M60, Patrick 1st.M65.
Peter was 2nd. M40, Janine 2nd.L45, Tim 2nd. M55, Paul 2nd.M60, Julie 2nd.L55 and Ian 2nd. M70.
Mike was 3rd.M50 and Zoe 3rd.L40.
League Two was won by Gareth followed by Oliver, a new signing, and Janine.
League Three was won by Zoe followed by what looks like another great battle between Colin and Patrick. Equally close were Chris and Nicola, then John followed by Catriona.
Catherine’s dominance continues, even on a course not to her liking. More like home territory for Julie. Then, I think it was her debut, Lynn. Sue has been missing in recent races with a chest infection. Illness has kept Angela out for nearly a year, Carolyn has not raced since the opener at Radcliffe. Kate, with her supposedly arthritic knee, was keeping them company. So easy pickings in League Four except it was not until mile 5 I got passed the three and Sue I did not see. Was I pathetic or were they exaggerating their state of unfitness? Bit of both I suspect.
Simon kept appearing at different places, he might have done more miles than the rest of us. Trevor and Don were getting us to grimace for the camera.
At one time the Church Inn on the edge of Langley was a frequent post-race venue. It is a number of years since I had been there but Dr. Kate, although she is still a child, has opted for retirement and so we convened to celebrate her last day at work.
Finally, Catriona has produced a magnificent book about the longer established runners in the club. It is about running and PBs, but it is more about the characters and personalities behind the runners and you learn all sorts of things about the lives, outside of running, of people you think you have known for ten years or more.