South of England Cross Country Championship – Parliament Hill

The horn blew with 5 minutes to go, a call to arms for all runners brave enough to take on the fight. Woodall and Stirk bounded towards the line, thighs sharp as daggers, calves locked and loaded. Cox and Tennyson and Lythell followed, hardened from previous battles, wiser from greater fights. Finally came the two Bens, Egan and Evans, cutting through the war ensemble with a flash of emerald light.

The team was ready.

In completely the wrong pen…but ready.

Ahead lay an enemy like no other. A 9 mile cross country course through the darkest recesses of Hampstead Heath. The longest in country, muddiest in the country, the most competitive field outside the Nationals.

‘A challenge,’ said Woodall.
‘A nightmare,’ said Lythell.

In the end the course this year barked and roared, but kept its sharpest fangs buried at the back of its mouth. Some stretches still felt like running along the Deepwater Horizon, the hills were occasionally like mud-caked cliff faces, but overall the relatively dry conditions kept the course at the pretty-awful-but-could-be-much-worse-and-certainly-was-last-year level. The quality of the opposition however, remained undiminished.

First home for the G’s was Adam Stirk who finished in 152nd Place in a time of 57.03. Reveling in the most demanding of courses Adam has been in exceptional form so far this year, with a top 10 finish in the Box Hill Fell race and Newland Corner cross country already etched on his vest. Much is to expected at the Nationals in two weeks time.
Just behind came Ben Evans, 4 seconds and 2 places back 154th. Rated amongst the top 5 road runners in Surrey, Ben has been learning the Cross Country trade for a while now although will probably still  find an amateur excuse as to why he could have done better. Not changing your spikes for a year might be a good start.

There was further sense of competition between the next two Guildford runners home – Mark Tennyson and Marc Woodall, who continued their recent rivalry with impressive finishes in 315th and 333rd in 1.02.06 and 1.02.50 respectively. Tennyson knew the course well and agreed it was a good year for a quick time, although Woodall’s improvement of 6 minutes over last year was perhaps even more than even he could have hoped. Minimum 55 mins expected in 2012 Marc.

Ben Egan registered his customary explosive start to complete the 3 laps in 1.04.39 for another top 400 place, and he was followed by the experienced duo of Paul Sanderson in 1.07.45 and Nick Green in 1.09.54 in 506th and 563rd places. To the latter, the biting cold wind and the layers of mud seemed as threatening as dust blowing off the back of a kitten.  I felt rather pathetic holding 7 layers of clothing in my bag ready for the finish.

Matt Lythell completed the team in 1.12.31 for 653rd place. Another dramatic improvement of over 6 minutes from last year, fitness presumably rocketed from all his Thursday night road-running sessions.

So as the sun set over Parliament Hill and the temperature plummeted to its usual sub-Arctic level, feelings were mixed amongst the emerald greens. Good individual performances had raised the team up one place on last year to 37th in the South of England, but with many members absent there was a strong sense of what might have been. With a full team out one wonders if a top twenty finish may be within G&Gs reach - and there is also the highly prestigious trophy for being the top team in Surrey with at least 12 runners finishing to consider as well!

The dream of a Green and Furious charge up Parliament Hill remains one for next year. See you all next week in Richmond.