English National CC: Seniors
Amidst a sea of mud, our senior men closed the club cross country season with a pleasing 10th place at Alton Towers on Saturday. The unusually tough conditions were a massive leveller but a few of our men revelled in them, particularly Mark Burgess, whose 40th place took everyone aback.
Mick Hill Photos (commercial)
As they arrived at the race venue, even old-hands stood and gazed at the scarcely believable oceans of mud in which the organisers had erected their marquees and the clubs their tents and flags. The seniors' first triumph of the day was claiming a few square metres of stones on the perimeter, from which they sought to keep 1 or 2 items clean-ish for the return journey. A mere trip to the toilet was an adventure, and many chose to warm up around the car parks. Ambulance sirens blared and races were delayed and shortened as the mud reaped its sinister harvest. The more melodramatic spoke in hushed tones of the Somme and Passchendaele.Nonetheless, proving it could be done, over 1300 finished the senior men's race, which included a switchback up a sort of cliff which appealed to the percentage of fell runners participating.
We had 13 men in the pen, and Ben Hope led them out with great verve and ambition before realising to his dismay, before the first bend, that he was going to have a "bad 'un". In the early stages, Mark Burgess had a 15m lead over the duo of Bertie Powell and Daniel Agustus. Further back, the talented Martyn Cryer never looked comfortable, but Angus Holford did. Jim Roche was always poised on the back of that sextet, ready to take the last place in the scoring six if required.
Agustus had hoped for top 80 but the mire does not suit him and he ran most of the race around the 100 mark, finishing a decent 101st. Powell had hoped for at least top 100, but he has been dogged by health problems this winter and looked weakened, particularly on this gruelling terrain. In the circumstances, given the sheer discomfort he was in, he has a right to be very proud of his 133rd when he could easily have pulled out. Holford looked absolutely at home in the conditions, moving steadily through the field as the race unfolded and striding easily up the final steep rise with Powell in his sights. He noted with thanks the advice given by our Swiss international duathlete/mountain runner Stephan Wenk (currently training for a fortnight in Turkey) about not raising one's heart rate on ascents. His 130th was eye-opening given his 126th in the Southerns just 3 weeks ago.
Meanwhile Mark Burgess forged impressively on, and showed precisely why he had been disappointed with his 14th in last week's Met League at Perivale. This was a run which revived memories of his 2003 run to win the National U15 CC title, and his 2007 victory - in similar, swamp-like conditions - in the Essex Senior CC when he was just 19. Finishing 40th here, he will rightly be looking ahead of him towards where, for example, his contemporary Adam Hickey of Southend, who recently represented GB at CC, finished 37" ahead in 27th place.
Grimly determined to get around, Ben Hope finished 185 and Martyn Cryer 212. It was great to have these 2 classy men back competing but they are more likely to show their true worth on the tarmac in the Spring road relays. Jim Roche, recovered from his miserable DNF last week at Perivale, bounced nicely along in conditions that he enjoys, and provided fine backup to the scoring six as he finished 266, 56" down on Cryer. Another minute back was fell runner/orienteer Harold Wyber, also enjoying these taxing conditions - his 331 was not bad, but he will be glancing at his 2008 position of 208 at this same venue. And our 9th man in was Slovenia's Tomaz Plibersek (375), for whom this was almost a surreal dream. The first reaction of all our foreign athletes is to reach for their camera to show the folks back home a typical English day-out, where everything and everybody is caked in mud.
Our four remaining men assumed their typical finishing positions. Andy Coleman (772) was six minutes down on Plibersek. A minute back was Alistair Holford (829). 90" more and Andy Smith just failed to crack the fabled 900 barrier (906). And 5' back, Steve Lambert (1088) set himself the (not so simple) task of actually running up the cliff side each time, where many around him were walking or using the fell runner's hands-on-knees style.
10th place in the team event was satisfying. To put it in context, it is worth looking at who was behind us: Southern silver medalists Aldershot (11); champions of the UK's top local CC, the Birmingham League, Coventry Godiva (13); our league rivals Serpentine (14); our old adversaries Shaftesbury (five men inside 106 but 16th team) and giants Belgrave Harriers (19). Clubs without six scoring men included Essex champions Chelmsford, UK T&F champions Newham, the exciting and youthful City of Norwich AC, the famous Birchfield Harriers and local harrier club Orion. On the other hand, hats off to our Met League companions the venerable Highgate Harriers, who were a very fine 6th.
"That was very solid, very satisfying," said team manager Terry McCarthy, "It was great to see Angus chipping in to the team effort with a big run, he's been such an ever-present for us despite living away at uni. And Mark, well, it's Prodigal Son syndrome - they're the ones who you're particularly pleased to have back in the fold. Now where's that washing machine?"
The squad now have a 5-week break before they will reunite in strength to contest the South of England 12-Stage Road Relay.
The season did not have such a happy end for our women, as we fielded just two runners. Kat Gundersen had a very sound run. Her 89th compared with 80th last year but 108 and 145 in the previous years. And Karen Burns was a very respectable 377 out of the 552 finishers.
Elsewhere, Hywel Care contested the Welsh National CC and, after being with the lead duo in the early stages, faded disappointingly to 8th. Kevin Kane was satisfied with 41st place in the Scottish National, also run in his unfavoured muddy conditions.