It was another relatively quiet weekend before a cross country storm but athletes were still able to find some serious action.
This was mainly because of a shift in the calendar as the British Masters Road Relays, originally planned for Sutton Park in May, had been parachuted into the cross country season because of issues with the original venue. As a result, a small group found themselves standing on the tarmac at a windswept Mallory Park in Leicestershire to compete against the best of the older generation in the country looking for some shelter and trying to prevent their race numbers from blowing away.
In an event that involved a 3-mile loop around the motor racing circuit, great for spectating but not particularly ideal if you wanted to keep out of the wind. The M35 team of 6 placed 12th in a total time of 1.42.57 with Greg Asbury running 17.27, James Wright 16.58, Dan Brazier 18.05, Ashley Atkinson 17.26, Ben Foster 16.55 and Rob Meredith 16.04. The M45 team didn’t need so many runners as it was only 4 in a team for their age group, they placed 16th in 1.18.55 with Tony Cheema taking the first leg in 18.18, Dave Norman running 19.21, Mark Illidge 20.20 and Stu Whitehouse clocking 20.55.
Paul Dean was at Coventry for a 10k which entailed three laps of the War Memorial Park placing 16th in a time of 40.06. There was a win for Dan Maskew in the Beckbury Trail race coming home 3 minutes ahead of the runner up in 38.59, Mark Perry was 74th in 57.34.
Further afield Rob Carrington took part in the Conwy Half Marathon starting off on the harbour before setting off towards Llandudno, completing a lap of the Great and coming back for a finish alongside the estuary. Rob came home in 973rd place in 2.03.34.
And finally, an apology, in last week’s update I missed Chloe Cashmore-Jones who placed 37th in 6.40 in the U11 girls race in the West Midlands Young Athletes Cross Country League. In my defence there were pages and pages of names to scroll through, but I should have spotted it. Sorry I missed you.
Dave Norman
