With the cross country season in full swing, the first big (ish) event of 2016 was held at Quibell Park, Scunthorpe. It was a shame it clashed with the East Yorkshire cross country league at Sledmere which made the field slightly smaller but nevertheless a decent turnout there was also a few absentees from our club with one notable performance down Newland Avenue on the Saturday night. The men’s race was 12k which consisted of one short lap & four long laps, the women’s race was 8k which was three long laps, the longer laps included a small incline towards the end of lap & after running up it for the 4th time, I was glad to see the back of it. Conditions were quite favourable for the time of year, underfoot was reasonable with only a few dodgy places out on the course & just a bit of head wind as we headed out on to the open field.

The men’s race started at 1.00pm with the women going off at 1.50pm, of the 58 finishers for the men 26 were from East Hull & for the women 8 of the 27 were from East Hull. First home in the men’s race was Kingston’s Gregan Clarkson in 44.38 followed by Timmy Davies of Leeds City in 45.02 & in third was our very own Stuart Carmichael in 45.10, with Stu, Josh Rowe, Richie Buckle, Matty Hayes, Nigel Sisson & Danny Jones taking first place in the team event well done chaps, having seen the full results now I was slightly gutted the team I was included in only missed out on third place by seven points. In the ladies race first back was City of Hull’s Charlotte Ward in 31.00, followed by Ellen Harrison from Bristol & West in 32.18 with Sophie Lee from Hull Achilles in third in a time of 32.57, a cracking result for our ladies taking the team prize so well done to Bev Jackson (6th), Kerry Young (7th) & Kirsty Wilson (11th). I believe this was Kerry’s first XC race so a great achievement on her debut.

From a personal point of view I was really happy with my time of 54.08 & had a cracking battle with Lee Alcock all the way with him getting the better of me in the sprint finish, I really admire Lee & his Dad Tony & their attitude towards running they are always 100% all in. As I’ve said on another race report I’m not the biggest fan of cross country but having competed in the winter league & the Millington run over Xmas I’m really started to enjoy it & am sure it will make me a stronger runner in the coming year. It still annoys me I see posts with people’s reluctance to compete in these cross country events saying they aren’t good enough or will let the team down but this is a chance to represent your club against some of the best runners in the UK & having ran with the Brownlee brothers, Scott Overall, Andrew Davies & Faye Fullerton in the last year it’s great to be in the same field as them.

Thanks to Alison & Matty for sorting out entries for everyone & thanks to Richard Alsop for the photo’s

Next up in the cross country calendar is the Northern XC championships at Blackburn on the 30thJanuary with the next winter league race two weeks later, don’t forget to get your name down if you want to be included in the handicap. The deadline is Saturday 30th January.

Mike Petersen