By Cameron Mumby

#LOVETAUPO says the iconic sign and that goes for their cross country course too! This was my first time running the NI champs and I absolutely loved it. Despite heavy rainfall, the volcanic soil handled it well and there were surprisingly few (if any) really muddy patches.

The course has a little bit of everything, some low hurdles, some ups and downs and plenty of twists and turns where you can check out your competition and gauge how you’re doing. For spectators too it’s a great setup with loads of vantage points to easily walk between. This is key as the crowd support really drives you on; it’s so much harder to take your foot off the gas when there’s someone there on the sideline spurring you on.

Finally the post-race hot coffee and muffin (included in our race entry) went down a treat and was just what we needed on a cold wet day.

A decent crew of 25 Hawks make the journey down and we punched well above our weight with numerous podium and top 20 performances. Our athletes spanned 65+ years from our under 10’s to our over 75’s and we even managed a couple of new course records; with Jack Stirling storming home to break Sam Ruthe’s Under 16 3km record and Dave Clarke setting a new time for the 75-79 Masters Men.

In the team points comp we ended up 6th but this comes down to a numbers game, with Olympic Harriers (64 athletes) and Lynndale (53) taking out the top spots. So how about it Hawks, put this one on your calendar for next year and let’s bring an even stronger team to take on the big guns.