Race Date: Saturday 27th February 2016
Another Striders XC event, superbly organised by Richard Pegg. Big thanks from all XC participants this year have to go to Richard for his enthusiasm and his time spent organising these events for the enjoyment of the club runners.
The Nationals started for me and Richard with a nice saunter around Graves Park parkrun in support of the Striders parkrun cup semi finalists. We were then joined by the rest of the team and took the Striders bus down to Donington. Tent went up and a reccie of the course partaken in. The course didn’t seem too badly cut up, just a bit muddy in places. We watched the Junior Men running before the start of the U13 boys race. There is nothing like the start of a cross country race and this event was no different. A wide expanse completely filled with runners, running hell for leather to the first bend, all jostling for position. At 2.20, it was the women’s turn and 739 of them spread out, ready for the mad dash. There is a great video from Steve King of the women’s start here:
The women’s race was 2 laps of a 4km windy, undulating course. The race was won by Lilian Partridge of Aldershot, Farnham & District RC in 30.35.
Striders Women Results:
| Pos | Name | Cat | Time |
| 408 | Rio Cooper | F Sen | 43.10 |
| 505 | Carol Beattie | F Sen | 45.42 |
| 536 | Jo Carnie | F Sen | 46.38 |
| 543 | Mir Jansen | F Sen | 46.56 |
| 618 | Naomi Rabin | F Sen | 49.43 |
| 669 | Jill Davies | F Sen | 52.31 |
| 702 | Magda Boo | F Sen | 56.32 |
The women’s team finished in 69th place out of 84 entries. Well done to all the ladies running.
The men’s race was 3 laps so 12km in total. With 1730 men running, the start was chaos – or should I say the dash to the first corner. There was congestion and it took nearly the whole of the first lap for the field to spread enough to pass – or in my case, be passed! Parts of the track by this time were becoming nicely churned up and it resembled running in treacle in some places. The men’s race was won by Jonathon Hay also of Aldershot, Farnham and District RC making it a double for them. He won in the time of 42.09.
Striders Men results
| Pos | Name | Cat | Time |
| 448 | Dave Palmer | M Sen | 52.40 |
| 515 | Ben Jones | M Sen | 53.45 |
| 583 | John Kilcoyne | M Sen | 54.53 |
| 718 | Doug Banks | M Sen | 56.38 |
| 845 | Alasdair Menmuir | M Sen | 58.06 |
| 1007 | Peter Webber | M Sen | 1.00.25 |
| 1033 | Andy Davies | M Sen | 1.00.51 |
| 1128 | Steve Clarke | M Sen | 1.02.18 |
| 1145 | Andy Buck | M Sen | 1.02.29 |
| 1165 | Ian Stinson | M Sen | 1.02.49 |
| 1190 | Steve King | M Sen | 1.03.12 |
| 1210 | Steve Atkinson | M Sen | 1.03.27 |
| 1214 | Nick Burns | M Sen | 1.03.29 |
| 1240 | Russell Stevenson | M Sen | 1.03.50 |
| 1272 | Simeon Cotterell | M Sen | 1.04.27 |
| 1329 | Richard Pegg | M Sen | 1.05.35 |
| 1432 | Chris Hodson | M Sen | 1.08.00 |
| 1481 | Trevor Burton | M Sen | 1.09.25 |
| 1532 | Mark Bagley | M Sen | 1.11.11 |
| DNF | Tom McCart | M Sen | n/a |
The men’s team came in 57th place out of 84 entries but most importantly beat Sheffield RC into 59th place. Bragging rights to us then! Well done to all runners and supporters for a great XC season. Let’s look forward to next season now.
Official Results:
