There’s a sense of a cross country storm coming, we are holding our breath a little knowing that when the winter comes, we will be in the guts of another round of weekends spent in muddy fields. There was another skirmish on Saturday before the big battles of the winter commence, this week the opening shots were being fired at the National Cross Country Relays at Berry Hill in Mansfield. This was a dance that many chose to sit out, but the Senior Ladies put in a team and raced to a 29thplace finish in atrocious conditions after storms had ravaged the East Midlands leaving the course looking like you could plant potatoes on it. Maddie Matrolonardo took the 1st leg finishing in 11.35, Holly Baddeley took the second leg in 12.12 and Beth Tabor brought the team home in 11.54 to give them a total time of 35.42 over the 3 x 3k distance. With over 100 teams competing on the day, it was a superb effort from the ladies.
Twenty-four hours later Mark Perry travelled down the M5 to take part in the Guy Fawkes 5 in Tewkesbury coming home in 39.52 in 174th place.
And further south there was more marathon action, this time in the south of France in the exotically named Marathon des Alpes-Maritimes Nice-Cannes event, still 26.2 miles of thoroughly hard work despite the fancy little. There amongst the French club names of Ga Noisy Le Grand and Amicale Athletisme Du Roumois was Dave Joynson in 409th place in 3.17.09 and Gillian Mitchell who crossed the line in 5.37.20 to take 5821st place.
