The course at Cranford is completely flat and mainly consists of running on grass but the rain had made it quite soggy underfoot so I found it hard to get grip, even though I was wearing spikes. What was even more concerning was that as I completed by first lap of the course, Ann Bath had not arrived and I was envisaging mutiny in the camp if there were no cakes at the finish. Therefore, it was a great relief to see Ann and Maria cheering us on as I came round for my second lap. It was a cold day for the supporters so thank you to everyone who turned up to cheer us on – it really helps to see a friendly face on the sidelines.
Jim Ley led the team home for the third race in a row, finishing in third place out of all the Division 4 runners. The rest of 26.2 team were not far behind and our first ten runners all finished within the first 21 places giving the team a score of 113 which was enough to give us first place by 73 points. Our team score was also an improvement on our score of 121 in each of the first two fixtures.
With so many taking part for the club, it is hard to give everyone a mention in this report. Congratulations to John Sweeney, Daniel Hookey and Steve Ramek for taking part in their first cross-country for the club. I hope to see you again in February. It was also good to see Chris Coghlan back and put in a very strong performance and Kevin Furlong who later posted on facebook that he enjoyed the run. Kevin, I hope you have found out who has been using your phone.
It was good to see so many 26.2ers at the New Prince in the evening for the traditional post race celebrations and to hear how the ladies had got on. It was also an opportunity to raise a glass to Thomas Chang.
This result gives us an overall lead of 393.5 points over the second place team so we are in a very strong position going into the final fixture at Wimbledon Common on 9 February. See you there!