Report By Glenn Sexton

After the cancellation of this weekend’s Summerhill Skeddadle, Shona and myself decided to do the Cambridge XC instead. The initial early squally showers cleared to being just squally by race start time. We did a 1 lap reccie with Chris K, which was 2km. The first and last thirds were on a park with reasonable underfoot conditions and the middle third left us feeling it was a bit more suitable to young flexible ankles and legs, due to the long grass and uneven surfaces. With the warmups and people going over the course before the race, it had pretty much flattened out by the time the racing started. so it wasn’t too bad.

The kids’ race had 59 entrants which is very good with Hawks having 9 runners. We took 1st and 3rd in the 4 person teams event. Nathan Woolerton and Jasmine Rasmussen Shawyer took out fastest boy and girl and there were gutsy efforts all round.

Hawks had 14 of the 50 runners in the adults’ race with the field spreading out pretty quickly by the time we got to the technical bit. Aimee Ferguson was first Hawk to finish, then 7 more of us finished within a minute. We got 3rd in the teams event. I ran with Rowan for the first 2 laps, her pushing on the flat but being a bit more tentative on the middle third, giving me a chance. On the final lap, Rowan pulled away a bit and others started coming back and suddenly Rhys had some cross hairs on his back. By then everybody was as knackered as each other so my cunning plan to first attack on the hill failed, then to catch him on the next flat fell through so I thought I’d save myself for a final push with 400 metres to go. End result no gain and he stayed ahead of me through to the finish. At the same time, I had cross hairs on my back. The race for the vitally important 18th place was on. Anna, a bright young star with a devastating kick ass sprint finish who wants to beat anybody she can no matter what grade they are in versus me, a once brightish star, now dimming with not much of a kick who also wants to beat anybody I can, no matter what grade they are in. Anna thought she won, I thought I’d won and the finish line marshall didn’t know. There was confusion.

Experience told me to get to the race finish tag guy first. Luckily that is where I’d stopped (more like, it is where I made it to) whereas Anna’s sprint was so good she ran past him and had to turn back around.

Either way, it was an outstanding sprint and with our different trajectories, I’m not likely to see it again unless I’m standing on the sideline watching.

Thanks to Cambridge Harriers for being great hosts, and providing a great afternoon tea making it an enjoyable day.

TBD Full results view here