News

Overheard at the Oxford X-country fixture yesterday “It’s not really better than last year”. Agreed,…. it was probably worse. It was cold and dank, with intermittent rain. And boy was the ground wet and muddy. This year, the organisers recommended 12mm spikes minimum for all runners “as in January, some runners in trainers were failing to get out of the ditch!”.

With more fallers than the Grand National (despite spikes) our hats must come off to everyone who got round. It was brutal, but so good to see so many smiling (muddy) faces at the end of the races!

Impressive grit, strength and determination was seen with some great runs. Medals were won for many – both by individuals and teams. It is worth saying that it was our good turnout yesterday that pushed some into those medal positions, so it was a real team effort, and has been all year. In so many ways, a perfect ending to another Cross-Country season for the Club.

Well done everyone!!!

Cassiobury Park really is a testing course, and it is great to see it as a regular fixture again in the Chiltern League. The grasslands for the younger years make way for predominately gravel paths and woodland tracks for the older age groups, so as ever footwear choice is really tricky. It was even more challenging as the sun had melted the ice on the top, but the ground underneath was absolutely rock solid.

Of course, nothing gets in the way of our athletes, and although unfortunately there was a lot of illness about, we still had good numbers out. Their good spirit and efforts never fail to impress, and it was so pleasing to see that some were really happy with their runs – so they should be! As you will see from the results, there were some really great performances (and remember that some of our runners are a year down in their age-groups too!). But all of our athletes should be proud of what they did and getting round!

Oxford next, the last match of the season, on February the 8th. Hopefully all the coughs and colds will be long gone, and the injuries will have all healed up by then….and there will be a coach! It might even be less muddy than last time (surely it has to be!)?

A small team of SNHAC athletes made the journey down to Trent Park on Saturday to take part in the county cross country championships. Top performer was Sarena So who took bronze in the U15 girls race. Also competing in the same race were Neve Sayers (7th), Hannah Cook (8th) and Indiya Quinlan 9th. U17 woman Esme Searle was 4th in her race, with U17 man Aubrey Murray 7th. In the U13 races Haysan So was 9th in the girls' race and James Cook 13th for the boys. Under 11 boy Matthew Cook was 11th and finally Senior Man Adam Searle came 41st.

Full results can be found on the county website at http://www.hertscaaa.org.uk/2020results.html

On a wet and windy Sunday, Fairlands Valley Spartans hosted the 5th running of the decennial Stevenage Marathon. After a good autumn preparation period with some solid results ranging from 5k to half-marathon, Christopher Westcott was thrilled to finish in second place and be the first "local" runner home. His time of 2:49:43 on a challenging course also saw him take County V50 gold.

Whilst the weather was far from ideal, it was great to see so many supporters dotted around the course and as someone who has lived in Stevenage for almost 50 years of his life it was great to cross off the "to-do" list.

Other SNHAC runners in action were Paul Murray and Phil Turner who completed the marathon in 4 hrs 22 minutes 4 seconds and 5 hours 53 minutes 48 seconds respectively, while Paul Spicer sompleted the half marathon in 1 hour 39 minutes 33 seconds.

Having faced the very real prospect that the Chiltern League could fold, it was great the season was able to start yesterday at the Keysoe Equestrian Centre, Bedfordshire. 28 athletes competed for SNHAC, with turnout from our girls / women particularly impressive.

It couldn’t be more different to the summer. Laps of an all-weather track were replaced with laps of an equestrian horse course, including the notorious water-jump which hilariously one of our team said, ‘wasn’t that deep!’ Perhaps for horses!

The weather was variable. It wouldn’t be 2024 if there wasn’t rain intermittently, sometimes very heavy - those by the tents were asked at one stage if they would like to take cover in the big marquee there! Pity those running in it!

Well done to everyone. A great effort as usual and fantastic to see some new faces amongst the ‘old’ regulars (who have seen and done it all before of course!).

The results are on the results page. You will see that the juniors are doing brilliantly again, taking up 3rd place in Division 2…..out of 22!!! I am sure that we will get even stronger as the season progresses, next stop Milton Keynes on the 9th November.

There are photos of some of our athletes in action on the gallery page and others can be found at https://markeaston.zenfolio.com/f532397138