National XC: Women 16th, Men 21st
The 2013 National XC Championships were held in very tough conditions in Herrington Country Park, Sunderland, on Saturday. Our women's team placed 16th in the 4-to-score competition and our men 21st in the main, 6-to-score contest. Our men were 22nd in the 9-to-score. Linda Jackson was first woman home and Martyn Cryer our leading man. Much of the talk was about the mud and bitter cold.
Videos by athleticos (Excellent, all races!)
WomenIn recent years the Women have struggled to get to the start line of the National in numbers. At last year's "sunny, mild, still and clear" Parliament Hill fixture, our Senior squad numbered five. This year, with three races on the bounce thanks to the rescheduled Southern, freezing temperatures and a 600 mile round trip, it seemed almost fanciful that any Woodies would contemplate the fixture. But this was the National and we are Woodford.
And so it was that four Woodettes made the train journey up North for the Senior Women's fixture; while two others contested the Junior Women's fixture.
How we laughed and joked in the warm train as we passed alternately through snow covered countryside and damp industrial wasteland, comparing numbers of spare socks brought and reviving the age-old spikes vs. studs debate. So excited were the Woodettes by their discovery that Louis Clark's TARDIS-like holdall incorporated a "dressing platform" that not even the sight of hooded locals heading out of the Sunderland sleet for the embracing warmth of Greggs the Bakers faster than you could say 'wellington boots' caused the Woodettes even to speculate on the existence of a wellington boot-cum-tent shop on the High Street.
Indeed, it wasn't until we stepped out of the blasting warmth of the taxi at Herrington Country Park in the shadow of the nineteenth century Penshaw Monument, and our sylph-like Nikes met the settling ice did the extent of the day's challenge, begin to dawn - six hours after most of us had woken up and two and a half hours before we were due to run. Overlooked by a giant folly, we arrived at the flag flapping scene just as the sleet came down hard and the Junior Women's race was ending with convincing performances in this 99 strong field by U20s Sidnie Sales (36), a significant improvement on her 48th placing at sunny Parliament Hill a year ago, and Claudia Conway (78). The sleet eased as we made camp - flag and groundsheet - with our stolidly wellied and well breakfasted men who had arrived the day before, busy prepping the junior boys, and calculated how many trips to the portaloos would be necessary in the next few hours. As several thousand boots turned the sleet strewn ground into sopping, freezing mud, the chances of a "dry" warm up diminished and the girls prepared themselves as best they could.
In a two-thirds smaller field than 2012's 650, at least 427 shivering girls, many by this time with numb hands and feet, contemplated the five miles ahead as they lined up in their allotted pens for the gun. It was mercifully quick when it came and they shot off across icy fields to the sloppy, freezing mud. The race was won in 29:31 by second time champion Louise Damon of Winchester & District AC, a minute ahead of her nearest challenger. First off and first home for Woodford was off-road loving V45 Linda Jackson (62). The resolve of this talented Vet whose struggle with an unshakeable bug for most of the winter left her out of the last Met League fixture, was itself unshakeable on this most challenging ground. But the muddy horror that greeted the Cannes-raised girl on finishing rendered her unable immediately to do anything other than gaze disbelievingly at her soaking legs and wonder how she was ever going to get dressed. Next home was senior Lauren Stewart (74) with another excellent run, 41" behind Jackson. Stewart, like Jackson, having grown up in warmer climes and similarly curtailed by the challenges of warming up in these conditions, was equally horrified by the immediate post race contemplation of frozen footed muddy legged horror. What, in racing terms, seemed like an eternity, V45 Jenny Thomas (217) closed 5'25" behind Lauren and while pleased with her run - which felt like an improvement on last year's 299, but which was a bit worse given the field size - proved to be the least hardy of the Woodettes as she struggled in vain to stop shivering and get dressed. Following on 2'21" behind and closing the team for Woodford was hardy Raceday Captain Alex Wardle (268). Hoping she wouldn't have to run at all had there been an alternative scoring four, Wardle, never a fan of the mud and tempted more than once to pull out, hung on and ensured the team finished 16th - a far cry from Aldershot's 4 in 16, and below last year's 12th, but very creditable indeed in the circumstances.
For many of the girls and the lads, the real, challenge began as they struggled with freezing hands and feet to keep warm as they dressed after the race. There were even some tears in the Woodettes' corner, and disappointed Woodford men's leader Martin Cryer (not crying) spoke for many when he cried "just get me on the road" through gritted (chattering) teeth. But we soon turned to laughter as outstanding team spirit, bolstered by Captain Wardle's survival skills took over, not least in helping us into the tent of kindly Tyneside rivals, where the now infamous - not to say indispensable - shoe horn eased off mud caked spikes, and eased on a new set of bawdy jokes.
Summing up the day, Race Captain Wardle said "It was a tough day for the entire Woodford squad. Winner Louise Damon said it took a lot of concentration just to stay upright today. I'd echo that - the Woodettes stayed up brilliantly. And I'd add that it took our combined concentration and more against this penetrating cold just to get dry and get warm and to support one another. But this is cross country, and we are Woodford - and as the Saucony banners say - we are 'loyal to the sport'. So bring on the Midlands, 2014".
Men
We were unlucky in the lead-up to this race in losing Darren Southcott to a job interview in Switzerland and Angus Holford to tonsilitis. Barring accidents, it was easy to predict 5 of the scoring six, but who would close the team was more open. The men's race was the 10th of the day on a course that had been churned through and re-churned to the point where finding a metre of firm going was a rarity, while the norm was thick, deep, wet, freezing cold mud.
We had found it difficult to drum up interest in this race, the Sunderland venue not being the most popular. At Leeds in 2010 there were 1328 finishers, at Alton Towers in 2011 there were 1302 and at Parliament Hill in 2012 the figure was 1689. Here on Saturday there were only 1085, but this was nonetheless far better than the 2007 Sunderland National run in more pleasant conditions which was completed by only 916 men and 297 women.
Martyn Cryer, leading the Ken Bray Trophy consistency ranking this winter, set himself his usual targets of "gold, silver and bronze", being in this case top 40, 50 and 60. At halfway he was roughly on track, but one tough bend where he almost fell and lost half a dozen positions set off a negative chain reaction in which, in his words, "I was beaten by the mud". In slipping back to 121 he retained a very positive interpretation, acknowledging that the race would strengthen him for races to come. Bertie Powell ran last week's Southern while ill, and was only recovering at the tail-end of this week. Never the most confident runner, he said pre-race he would be happy with top 200 but, as is usually the case, he ran far better and almost caught Cryer with a mile to go before finishing 10 seconds down in 132nd place, and taking scalps like Dodwell of Highgate and Phillips of Aldershot, who was 17th in the Southern. He also got the better of Harold Wyber (146) who probably performed about par and was 27" down on Powell.
Louis Clark is approaching the first anniversary of his joining the club, and this was his debut National. He is proving himself an extremely reliable performer with a good future ahead of him, and he was our 4th man home with a good run in 224, 2' 10" down on Wyber. M45 Gareth Cavell had a very positive race, rarely losing a position and picking guys off all the way to finish around 100 places higher than in 2012 in 316th, 2' 20" down on Clark. And the proud man to close our scoring six was M55 Alistair Holford, usually a C teamer in the Met League! But on this occasion he enjoyed a particularly strong second half of the race to enjoy a rare victory over M45 Richard Hogg (769) who was disappointed to get beaten by Holford but in these conditions almost anything could happen. Both are club coaches who, admirably, put more time into helping our young athletes than focusing on their own running.
Paul Stockings (778, another club coach) and Tom Spanyol (852) both had good runs, Stockings getting the better of local man Adrian Frost of Eton Manor, and Spanyol of Ian Lambert also of "the Manor".
The race was won for the 2nd year in a row by Keith Gerrard of Newham, while Neilson Hall and Shaun Dixon, who both regularly feature at the front of the Met League races, were 3rd and 4th.
The scenes after the race were quite memorable. Many of the athletes very quickly succumbed to the bitter cold which seemed to come up through the feet, and many were unable to remove their electronic chips, or spikes, or dress themselves unaided. Teeth chattering, University Challenge winner Harold Wyber gazed over the scene, muttered something about Passchendaele and quoted war poet Wilfred Owen:
"Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge"
The team prizes in the 6-to-score event went to: 1, Morpeth; 2, Leeds; 3, Tipton. Clubs such as Bedford, Kent, Beagles and Highgate had headed north with high hopes and Morpeth's win was probably a surprise to all but themselves.
Our 21st place was well down on our performances of recent years. We were 10th Southern club but it was notable that only 18 clubs from the Southern region closed 6 men! Just 3 Essex clubs did so - apart from ourselves there were Newham in 7th and Eton Manor in 72nd.
We were also one of just 37 clubs to close 9 men, finishing 22nd. Team Manager Terry McCarthy underlined the club's philosophy that "It's the National - we have to represent the club in the National, however strong our team may be. It's sport and we shall take the rough with the smooth. And all this mud and shivering - it's part of what makes the National such a great event."