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Richmond Racecourse Cross Country North Yorkshire / South Durham League – Sunday 3rd March

Stuart Jones writes:

Another of me racing in red colours.
I have run on other racecourses – Doncaster, York and Chester in the UK –  a couple of point to point courses, one three day eventing course and two other former racecourses (Lincoln and Stockton on Tees / Teesdale Park).
Next race might be multiple laps of a racing circuit, if I can get time off for good behaviour.

The (minor) benefit of having a ‘second claim’ Club

Also, three minutes slower than last year

You can, officially, be a member of more than one EA-affiliated Running Club, though many people wonder and ask why you would bother.

As I will always be a Strider first and foremost, I need a second-claim where I live for the weekly training, participation, volunteering and entry to niche races that being affiliated to a local Club brings.

Being a Strider, I got to run at Sedgefield in the Northern Championships recently.

Being also a member of Teesdale Athletic Club as second-claim, I got to run in the local, cross county boundary, cross country league.

This event, on the former racecourse in the current Prime Minister’s constituency, was last in this year’s series. The previous use for the land (racing finished here 1861, and the grandstand is the oldest stone-built grandstand in the world) may explain why, despite all the heavy rain and slow melting snow, the going was so good, with just a couple of patches of heavy mud. Rabbit holes were more of an issue – the hosts had circled each in yellow paint!

The route was one short loop and three longer loops – simply following the line of the racecourse. The long drag from bottom to top of the straight played the usual trick on the mind – it was clearly much further uphill than down on each lap!

The times recorded across the senior men’s event were slower than last year, suggesting it was ground conditions that slowed me as I was three minutes down on 12 months ago.

No coffee truck, no burger van, no t-shirts or on-site toilets – this was simple running with no frills.

Solo Strider: Stuart Jones, 74th place in 50:53

First male: Gregory Jayasuriya of Middlesbrough and Cleveland Harriers in 32:34

There were 84 finishers in the Sen Male category.

I have just two years before I am required to run with the shorter distance Sen Female race.

Sarah Platten of Hartlepool Burn Road Harriers won that this weekend, in 26:39 (over a distance of 6.0km). The fastest Vet Male, Laurence Taylor of NYMAC, covered that course in 28:46. I’d have been about 1km behind. Ho hum.

Full results not yet available.

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