Abbey Dore – Summer Off-road, race 1- Guy

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We’ve had wet before, but this was something else. Continuous rain all day, which eased a little as we assembled for the start, meant that the 5 mile course involved splashing across fields, through puddles on roads and over the common, through numerous brooks (where was the deep one, with a safety rope? psychological tricks being played on us!) down streams into lower meadows, up through streams again to the final few fields and one of Mervyn’s jokes, a final steep climb up to the finish. We had 21 runners competing, in a field of 97, and had 11 runners in the top 29, so there was quality too. Simon and Stacey had a great individual tussle, determined by Simon (7th, 33.17) holding off Stacey (8th) by two seconds. Newcomer to the league races, Sam M (10th) was not too many strides behind (33.51), with young Toby neglecting his Biology revision to finish 12th in 34.10. Nigel (18th, 35.33) is fast  regaining form, ahead of Dave G (21st, 36.02) who completed the male element of the B team. Glyn (23rd, 36.08) just managed to beat Pat (36.11) and Martin (36.20), together the C team. Another Croft pair finishing together were Ben (28th, 38.04) and Stuart (38.21), followed by another couple of newcomers to the summer off-road, Greg (36th, 38.52) and Paul G (38.59), who managed to push Wye Valley’s first scoring female back a couple of places. Our leading lady on the night, Sue D (53rd, 41.04), had to accept a few (mostly) younger runners in front of her. Neil T (55th, 41.12) had a good race, as did Mark (57th, 42.08) still getting back to form. I was 60th (running number 61, so nearly in sync), a few seconds in front of Gary (62nd, 43.15) who pushed Gemma back into 63rd (43.16). Sam, still moving up the ranks, was 68th (44.16) and Tom will no doubt be pleased with his 78th place (45.57) ahead of brother Brian (86th, 47.17). The A team lie in 3rd place, the B team 5th and the C team 8th=.

1 thought on “Abbey Dore – Summer Off-road, race 1- Guy

  1. Some action shots are now available on the Gallery. Apologies for the lack of quality and for missing some runners. I was attempting to record the finishers whilst holding an umbrella and quickly clicking my camera and, as we all know, males can not multi-task. Great turnout from Croft considering the lengthy journey for an evening race. I am glad that I allowed myself plenty of time to reach the venue, with a few wrong turnings and a degree of reversing. We have given Wye Valley a start, but it is possible to drag that back over the remaining 3 races.

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