How different can one Sunday be from the next Sunday, when you’re an avid member of Croft Ambrey running club; they can be as different as you want to make them, the preceding Sunday I was in Cardiff taking part in a 13.1 mile road race in warm sunshine with some cloud but not enough to worry about amongst some 19000 other runners, this Sunday, here I was taking part in an off-road 6 mile race just a few miles south of Hereford in very wet rainy conditions, one of just 41 runners.
The course was, in my opinion, gently undulating with some hills but nothing too difficult, in fact quite a fast course for a cross country run, as shown by the blistering times set by the leading runners: Brecon AC’s Mike Pfeiffer carrying off the winner’s Gold medal (how good can it get) in just 38 minutes and 9 seconds. He was very ably chased home by our own Mark L securing 2nd place in 38:53, 27 seconds ahead of Hereford Couriers’ Matt James. Top lady was Rebecca Davies of WVR who finished 15th o/a in 47:33.
Gary P. decided run here at the last minute after planning to follow Gary G to North Shropshire to take part in a fell race and finished a very creditable 7th in 43:29, new signing Paul G. completed the course in 48:34 despite slithering all over the place in road shoes after having overtaken me with about 150 yards to go, I finished 20th in 48:41 and claimed 1st MV55 whilst Tom D. finished in 28th spot in 52:31 and won the MV65 category.
Although the weather didn’t help, it was an enjoyable run very competently organised by Hereford Couriers, and one that I will certainly be putting in my diary for next year.
If you’re interested, you can find the full results on the Couriers website and some photos taken by Mike in our website’s gallery.
