Monkhall Farm, race 4, X-C series

Race Reports
After going to watch Hereford FC play on Saturday, which was abandoned due to severe rain and a waterlogged pitch, I could only ponder what fun Monkhall was going to be on Sunday.
Waking up, I was glad to find it a beautifully sunny winter’s morning so at least the weather whilst running was good.
On arrival at Monkhall, reports of the new course were that it was 2 x 3.1 mile laps and that there weren’t any challenging hills which sounded good to me. The start was on a road for about 100m before turning into a field to start the two laps. I can only describe the conditions underfoot as challenging. There was wet ankle deep mud around the whole course, except for about a 300m up and downhill section, or you could try and run on grass about half a foot wide around the edges of the field which had a camber. People were slipping and falling everywhere to begin with but soon enough everyone seemed to get used to it.
Halfway through the first lap I could see I was in the company of runners who normally are ahead of me, including Nigel and Greg who always appear to have a good battle. I considered slowing and taking it steady but I felt happy with the pace and decided to keep at that pace. After the first lap Mike let Greg, Nigel and I know that one of us would make up the A team. Having never been in the A team before I was determined to try today. I took the lead of our little group and tried to up the pace and lose the others. However, on one of the rare hills Greg “steamed” past and opened up about a 5 metre lead. I tried to close him but couldn’t do it. Greg managed to hang on and almost overtook young Toby who had fallen earlier in the race.
I was happy to see results from consistent training and hopefully can keep the same company at Presteigne.
Mark had a great race showing he bounces off mud rather than sinks, coming in 3rd. Sam ran well whilst feeling ill and just lost out to his rival Steve Flowers.

2 thoughts on “Monkhall Farm, race 4, X-C series

  1. Well done young Ben. You are right – consistent quality training is the key. You have the talent and you are now giving yourself the chance to develop it.

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