Croft X-C Nov 2018 – Ladies report

Race Reports

What an amazing Croft Turnout for the first race in the winter cross-country series thanks to the postponement of the Fforrest Fields race because of the flooded course.

It was great to see so many sky blue tops at the start line and fantastic that 21 were ladies!

The sun was shining down on us as the 2 minute silence for the 100 anniversary of the end of world war one. A bit of a briefing from Mike and then we were off.

Right from the off this was not an easy race, the long grass making us keep our knees up, the bottleneck around the pond and the muddy gateway then uphill nearly all the way to the Ambrey does not make for a fast first mile. I was definitely struggling having not allowed myself enough time for a warm up (apologies to all the ladies patiently waiting for their race number while I returned home to get them) and found the first mile a real hard slog – must do better next time.

It was good to get to the top of the Ambrey although the descent was a little treacherous with all the mud slowing everyone down, so not many PB’s this year I’ll bet. As far as I could tell everyone stayed upright, so that was an achievement, and the second lap was much easier for taking the right hand turn, although twice up heartbreak hill is a killer!

What a fantastic race Robyn had. It is great to see her hard work paying off and she was the first Croft lady home in fourth place, only 20 seconds behind the first lady. Gemma was only 18 seconds behind in 6th place followed just 19 seconds later by Kelly in 8th place. Such great times and positions meant that the Croft Ambrey ladies are now in first place, lets hope we can keep this up for all the races ladies!

Just looking at the team results table just shows how fantastic Croft Ambrey ladies are with 7 teams! An amazing turnout with some amazing runners.

The B team was lead by Roxy in 41.01 (23) closely followed by Louise Reynolds one place and 8 seconds behind. Jo Marriot 42.04 (28), not feeling her fittest after moving house only a couple of days before, flying past me on the downhill (couldn’t catch her on the uphill!) completed the B team (8th placed team).

I led the C team in 42.10 (29) with new member Emma Jones 42.47 (31) and Sue Powell 43.28 (38). D-team was led by another new member Katie Belcher, 43.45 (40), with Imogen hot on her heels in 43.54 (41) and Flora 45.02 (45).

E team – Lead by Liza 46.35 (57), Lucy W 46.40(58) and Carol 47.04 (59)

F team – The ever smiling Steph K, 48.26 (64), Tori 51.07 (76), Louise Reeves 52.56 (79)

G team – Lisa Gray, who always says she hates the mud but I think is beginning to enjoy it! 53.32 (81), Gemma Davies 55.10 (85) and Theresa Jones 60.35 (92).

The numbers worked out really well in that everyone was part of a team- we must remember to always attend in multiples of three!

A really great effort from a really great team of ladies. Not forgetting the band of volunteers who were on car parking, marshal and refreshment duty. It is so great to be part of such a fantastic club where we can all pull together to give such a great result.

So onto Rotherwas in a couple of weeks to maintain our hold on the lead. Well done ladies, once again you were great.

The computer randomly selected the size of the photos!

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