After our teams brilliant performance at the Croft Castle race, we were in first place, so the pressure was on to hold onto the lead.
A surprisingly mild morning greeted us for this, the second race in the Herefordshire X-Country league. The relatively flat course is not one that best suits runners used to training on Bircher Common but the winter training at Lucs hopefully helped us all tackle this 3 lap flat and fairly muddy course around the crop fields of Rotherwas.
A bit of a drop on numbers from last month, but those ladies who made it certainly ran a good race.
Kelly was first Croft lady home in a hard fought battle with the front runners – she less than 30 seconds behind Becky Davies of Wye Valley Runners, who took first place. Robyn second Croft lady in 11th 48.48. There was a bit of a race for third lady home with relative new member Emma Jones and Sue Powell. The photos show them running together, both smiling and enjoying the race. Emma managed to pull away at the end to complete the Croft A team in 23 place, 53.27. The A team were third place on the day but managed to hold onto the series first place but only with a very slim four points in it, so every race is going to count.
I love that we now have B,C and D teams to report on at these races. I know I have been running for quite a while now, but we really did have to struggle just to get one team out a few years ago, just shows how strong the club is.
The B team was made up of Sue Powell (25th 54.08), myself (28th 54.51) and Katie Belcher(34 55.57). Imee Marriot was the only junior Croft runner and was running the shorter 2 laps. We ran most of the two laps together but she pushed her way in the final third of the second lap to be out of sight for her finish. She was second junior in 35.46.
Carol led the C team, running in fine form, faster than last year in a time of 58.48 with reports at the end of having loved the race. Flora was running strong to come in just one place behind in 59.26, with Lucy in 48 in 61.28.
Steph K Led the D team in 62.40, With Tori (63.46) and Lisa – now loving the mud! (63.50).
Just one lady short of an E team with Louise Reeves improving all the time (67.58) and Gemma D (73.12)
Another great turn out and great result for Croft.
Thoughts now turn to the new race at Queenswood on Jan 6th. Very close to the Christmas and New Year so hears hoping the other teams overindulge but we are on top form! There is bound to be a good turnout from all clubs for a new race, so let’s hope we are back to full strength and can hold on to that first place.
