Cross Country

Boggart Hole, 5th December 2015

A huge congratulations to the Fantastic 5 who braved the worst conditions I’ve ever seen at a cross country match. A special mention to Verity who had already run earlier in the day for her school and by braving the weather a second time, meant we had a full U11 girls team. Wet, windy, wild and very, very muddy, this was Cross County at its most brutal.

Manchester Area Cross Country League (MACCL) is often seen as a stage for the best athletes in the North West. It is a starting point for future GB athletes and competition is very tough especially considering most clubs are halfway through the season, so fully up to race fitness.

Cross Country is very much a team event but you need 3 to count in each age group. And whilst we can’t officially compete as a club this year as we only entered halfway through the season, it was great to see that had we been included in the club scores the U11 Girls (Niamh, Annabelle and Verity) punched well above their weight, beating teams from big running clubs such as Vale Royal, Liverpool Harriers and our local rivals Macclesfield, to come what would have been 4th.

Marcus was our only U11 boy. All U11 started together and he worked his way through the field to come a credible 18th (whilst also holding off Niamh who was snapping at his heels all the way round). The pack was tightly bunched which meant he was only 20 seconds off a top 10 finish. If we can just get a few more U11 boys I really think we can do well as a team here.

Jemima was by herself in the U13 girls, which involved a punishing extra loop through a very muddy wood. Runners with long legs always suffer when it gets really muddy but she dug deep all the way round in what was a very competitive field. She will come in to her own on drier courses.

The next race is the Cheshire Championships on the 9th of January. This will be a less competitive than MACCL and if we can get a full team team out, I think we could get some medals!

Click HERE for the full results