Tenacious Ten Keep the Kettle Boiling

To the naked eye it appeared this might be one of the more straightforward National courses of recent times; but to run it told otherwise.  A soft surface sapped the strength from the legs, and with most of the terrain rutted, plus some very sticky parts, around nine testing climbs and Garmins coming up at around 13k, it was as tough an exam as any.Belgrave came with a team of survivors as both the men and the women closed in without a body to spare, to sum up this head-fry of a season.

Women

If we needed any reminding of what an outstanding achievement it was to place in the top 6 at the National for the last three years, this has shown us, as we had to start missing up to 10 aces.  The ladies did a fine job though, with Sam Amend a clinical 56^th, up 37 spots on her debut of 2011 and only 15 down on her best ever, after five Nationals in six years.Christina Pennock chose this day for her best run of the season, and her 213^th/739 shows a runner maturing nicely.  Although Lizzie Goldie-Scot and Megan Bailey were not ‘tripping the light fantastic’, the critical thing is that they got the job done, as we put big-hitters like Winchester and Woodford away.We’re very grateful to all four for making the trip and should recall that before 2011 it was very rare for us to close in at the National, achieving it just four times between 1976-2011; but we’ve now closed five years in a row, and what a ride it’s been.1 L Partridge 30:35; 56 S Amend 33:52; 213 C Pennock 38:33; 263 L Goldie-Scot 39:44; 305 M Bailey 40:39.  739 finished.1 AFD 47; 2 Hallamshire 140; 3 Vale Royal 224; 30 Belgrave H 837.  84 clubs closed in.

Men

A team of top-8 potential a few days out started slipping… and slipping.  With heavy hitters like Wicks, Lowe, Jaksevicius, Buckle & Auden all nearly men, and Alex Miller present but not starting due to sickness; and Gus Upton having to step off the course (Achilles); we were running out of ideas.This was a race too far for Paskar, while Zek came through soundly but is also better than that.  Nick Bundle had a solid run but then required medical attention.  (I sometimes joke to the tribe that I want them puking black gunk at the end of a race, but I don’t mean it literally as this).  Nick Smallwood started out cagey and worked his way through all day.Of my 18 Nationals on the spin, this was by far the most painful, but I got a jolt a K from the end when Tom O’Beirne’s three strategically placed dolly-birds gave him a shout, as the stealthmunk had crept to within 5 yards of the cockerpillar.  We then grimly scrapped to claim the last scoring spot, but it turned out we were both needed anyway.So how do we view the result?  Of course 25^th is lower than we’d like, but we placed a spot above Tipton, by far England’s top cross-country club of the last 50 years (12 National wins since 1969); then there’s the best ever, Birchfield (29 wins), wallowing down in 77^th.  Recent champions AFD produced the winner, but had to wait 177 spots for their next man; while other luminaries Salford (45^th), Gateshead (2 runners) & Bingley (1 runner) flail about miserably.  In the Surrey League stakes we were fourth, with our rivals:  Kent 10^th, H/W 16^th, HHH 20^th, Ranelagh 68^th, SLH 99^th, while Thames (2 runners) and Clapham (1) dnf’d.So in short, we’ll be back: look at the rich and varied tapestry of our results at the National when the year ends in 6 – quite the journey indeed!1896      -                 no Belgrave entry1906      -                 no Belgrave entry1916      -                 No race, WW11926      -                 DNF, two runners1936      -                 2nd1946      -                 1st1956      -                 7th1966      -                 4th1976      -                 DNF, two runners1986      -                 61st1996      -                 DNF, three runners2006      -                 7th2016      -                 25th1 J Hay (AFD) 42:09; 92 P Owor 46:30; 185 Z Abery 48:31; 232 N Bundle 49:16; 370 N Smallwood 51:22; 463 W Cockerell 52:57; 487 T O’Beirne 53:20.  1730 finished.1 Morpeth 130; 2 Notts 307; 3 Sale 326;… 25 Belgrave H 1829.  123 clubs closed in.