National CC Relays: U13 & U15 Girls

The sky over Mansfield was blue. The 2k course was wet underfoot after all the recent rain up North, undulating, and had a large wooded section which was quite muddy in places.

Alicia McArdell toed the line for the first leg in the Under 13 girls' race, and found herself pushed to the back of 105 starters at the start. Once she found a way through she performed very well to place an excellent 23rd in a time of 8 mins 10 secs. Next away was first year Jodie Ratcliff who, though slipping 11 places, also ran well to record 8 mins 35. Sky Mulvey took charge of the 3rd leg but had been unwell following an injection at school during the week, and was unfortunate not to be able to replicate her Southern run. As a consequence she fell back a further 9 places in running 9 mins 08 secs. The team placed 43rd.

The Under 15 girls ran the same distance. Amelia Barrett started the ball rolling for us. She had woken that morning with a sore throat, but battled gamely to record 8 mins exactly, for 43rd out of 102 teams. Isobel Moss just slipped one place in running a fine 8 mins 15 secs, and Stephanie Smith fully deserved her selection and ran her heart out as usual to record 8 mins 54 and bring the club in 56th.

The girls enjoyed the occasion and were amused at all the different accents. They will be back next year to commence battle. Now they look forward to retaining their league leads in the Metropolitan CC League next Saturday.