Race report from Guy Whitmarsh.
The promised rain and lightning, didn’t materialise as we assembled for the start at 10am. With both races starting together we were quite a crowd of well over 200 runners, all squeezing through the Start gateway. At least today we weren’t troubled by any dust kicked up by the runners in front, merely dodging brambles and nettles, as we ‘warmed up’ over the first mile or so of road and firm track. Then steeply up the edge of a cornfield (I wasn’t expecting that!), and down, over a stile (or, avoiding the queues, over the fence thanks to a large wooden block), across another cornfield and on to the water station, where our route diverged from the 10 mile race, and numbers suddenly thinned out. A steep climb up a meadow, before starting on the steep (that word threatens to be overused) narrow path up to Whiteway Head. My original plan to run was quickly shelved and I simply walked to the top. A long run south ensued, till we climbed up and over the Ambrey, then wiggled down through mown bracken, before joining a long, undulating track till we eventually turned steeply down, through a gate and there was the finish, in the distance! (That gateway would very soon see a river coursing through it after the heavy rain that hit the last few adult runners, and the juniors). Few were able to muster any speed over the final 500m, either because of the tricky camber of the path, or more likely out of sheer exhaustion.
All the comments I heard about this new race were positive – but maybe the more exhausted were incapable of formulating their less flattering ideas!
Croft Results:
Richard Coltard – 54.26, Jamie Symonds 59.52 (1st U17M), Steve Partridge 1.00.34, Mitchell Lawrence 1.03.13, Guy Whitmarsh 1.06.17 (1st MV80), Sue Wood 1.08.03 (1stFV65), Janet Hill 1.11.14 (1st FV70), Sam Harper 1.11.48, Ingrid Mason 1.13.15, Carol Powell 1.17.56, Frank Luscott 1.18.14, Dawn Hargadon 1.20.48, Reachel Kenny 1.29.55, Tom Davies 1.30.48, Ali Davies 1.44.10.
