Crocodile 8

Race Reports

The second race of the year in the Croft Club Championship series was well supported by Croft Ambrey runners.

There is a race limit of 350 and at registration I heard an announcement over the public address system that there were only 5 places left to enter on the day, so it must have been very close to a sellout and 29 of those were Croft members.

It was a very hot Sunday afternoon and to create a bit of shade for the afternoon, we did erect the club gazebo. I am not sure everyone knew it was there, and maybe it would have been better positioned near the finish, but it created a bit of a club focal point and somewhere to store our bags. If anyone wants to use it at any future events or races, please just ask Brian as he is storing it for us.

So, a big crowd at the startline, and a fast uphill start to try to make sure of a good place in the queue for the bottleneck that is the kissing gate out of the churchyard which marks the end of the first mile. This has been frustrating to me at previous races, but either I am getting less focused on times, or I was further up the crowd this year, but the wait wasn’t too bad and we were entertained by some talented musicians.

The rest was a hot, tough run around the orchards, lanes and footpaths leading up to the infamous ‘steps’ of the crocodile’s back in the wood. A very tough climb in very tough conditions but we all made it, to be rewarded by the all too short run in the shade of the wood, before heading back across Tillington Common, around some more fields and along the road for the final stretch back to the startline.

There were some very good Croft results – Most notably Gemma Mallet finishing first lady, Nigel Taylor 1st MV50, Emma Jones 1st FV45, Rob Wood MV60, Ashley Robinson 1st MV65 and Brian Davies 2nd MV70.

The full results can be found on https://www.stuweb.co.uk/race/2gA’ but I have copied the Croft results below and put them on an image – easire than copying down all the croft results but they are not in order as some people entered without putting ‘RC’ at the end, which affected the search engine. Just double click on the table to enlarge the image

 

  Thanks to Jo T and croc 8 facebook page for the photos.

A brilliant Croft turnout and it is looking like a proper contest for the club championship series this year. The next race in the series is the Wyre Forest half on Sunday 14th July I think there may limited places remaining so don’t leave it too soon to enter.

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