Reports by Chris Ireland and Jonathon Legon

Race Date: Sunday 12^th March 2023

Report from Chris
My first race in the Green & Gold vest!

10 striders left snowy Sheffield for the rather more balmy weather of East Yorkshire. Race hosts,  Beverley AC, had provided an excellent cross country course with some tricky and sticky sections followed by some firmer faster sections.

The first race for the over 45 women was 5k over two laps.  Kate Scott led the F55 team home in an excellent 9th place overall and 3rd in the F55 category. Strong support from Karen Clark and Carol Beattie left the F55’s in silver medal position.  It is worth noting that Carol was giving her competitors up to 14 years in this age category.

The second race was nearly 10k over 4 laps.  The Striders M50 team of Chris Lawson, Ian Stinson and Alex Shepherd finished in a fine 5th place in the team competition.  In the M60 race, Jonathan Legon was competing in his first ever cross country race, and had bought some new bright blue spikes especially for the occasion.  It proved a fine investment as he teamed up with Chris Ireland (2nd M60) and Jed Turner (3rd M60) to take gold in the M60 team competition.  Pride of place in this race went to Caroline Brock, however, who was the first lady home in a very well-judged race, taking the F35 title and an enormous trophy home with her. Super running.

A great day out at the races, and excellent to see Striders being competitive in so many different age groups.

 Report from Jonathon
On 5^th March I turned 60 and as if by fate on that very day a last desperate call went out on Facebook for one more M60 to join our two new recruits to the club to take part in the YVAA cross country race at Beverley race course. Now, I’m aware of the quality of these two new recruits, Jed Turner and Chris Ireland, and my first thought was that I wouldn’t want to let them down by because I am slower than them. But on the other hand, without me they wouldn’t have a team and having just joined the club I didn’t want them to be disappointed in not being able to run as part of a Strider’s team. Also, I haven’t raced for nearly six months due to Hamstring Tendinopathy, although I’m just about rid of it now. So, I dithered for a bit, then committed myself to run my first ever cross country race since leaving school some 44 years ago. I thought I would probably be in need of some spikes so I purchased a pair for the princely sum of £27 and thought I’d try them out before the race. However, they didn’t arrive until Wednesday and by then Hillsborough was covered in snow, so the try-out was cancelled! Then I harboured thoughts of the race being called off and being let off the hook, but they posted on Facebook saying they had only had a dusting of snow and the course was just a bit ‘squidgy’.

OK, fast forward to race day. The snow had disappeared and it was mild and after a trouble-free drive there I arrived just in time to see the first 5k race set off.

I walked back to the car and then back again just in time to see the small band of Strider’s women finish in rapid succession. As you will see below there were some impressive performances with Kate Scott grabbing 3^rd place in the F55-64 category and together with Karen Clark and Carol Beattie they were second team in that category! I asked what the course was like and to be honest their answers filled me with dread; steep up hill, muddy sections, a long slightly uphill back straight into a howling wind and uneven in places, all to be done 4 times!!

Shortly after that I met up with the other male Striders and Caroline Brock who was also running in the longer second race. I went for a short warm up over part of the course with Jed and Chris in my brand new spikes and then it was show time! I joined my two team mates at the front but they diplomatically suggested I start further back! The hooter sounded and we were off. The first 400m were easy, just a few lumpy bits, then it was a sharp right turn and steep downhill and into the muddy up and downy technical section in the woods, which included one steep climb which was only about 10 metres but almost reduced me to a walk! Once through this section we were faced with that long straight, slightly uphill and into a biting wind that the ladies had warned me about, before a right turn, a few more bumpy bits and then a very welcome downhill stretch back to the start. That was a quarter of it done, just 3 laps left!! Pace seemed immaterial at this point, I had no intention of finding out how slow I was, and I couldn’t possibly compare this to my recent park run pace, so I ended up not looking at my watch once.

I can’t pretend that it was easy, far from it, but in a perverse kind of way I enjoyed it and I think I’ll definitely be using my spikes again at some point. There were also some impressive performances by Striders in this second race. Caroline Brock produced an impressive run to be first over the line in the F35 category and Chris and Jed came 2^nd and 3^rd in the M60 category and the three of us were first M60 team!  Impressive times by Chris Lawson, Ian Stinson and Alex Shepherd meant they came 5^th in a strong M50-59 category. So, all in all, a great first cross country event for me and a successful day all round! Oh yes, and there was coffee and cake on offer too….what more could you want?

Link to full results here – 5km race and 10km race.

Striders results

5km race