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Northern & Yorkshire Vets Cross Country Relays – Graves Park, Sheffield -5th Oct 13

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Running conditions were great at Graves Park, south of Sheffield.  The turf and woodland paths through rolling terrain were still firm even after the rain of the last few days, and a fine day with a light breeze and the early hints of autumn colour made a perfect XC venue.

The ladies V45 team (41.26; despite all their excuses!)  lead all the way with Sue Becconsall (12.52, ‘I’m not fit yet’ as she gets to grips with newly discovered food allergies;  fastest V45 lady and only 2 seconds off fastest V35!), Mary Green (14.18,  still fighting with a cold), and Andrea Dennison (14.16,  didn’t like the steep bank in the woods!).    Our V35 team (44.31) was 3rd with Becky Weight (14.39), Lesley Watson (15.25) and Marisol Carerra Vivar (14.27), with Holmfirth (38.59) and Barnsley (42.55) in first & second.

Due to last minute work commitments we only had two for the senior team for the Northern.  Becky Holmes ran first and third legs and ran faster and felt better on the second leg (14.24, 14.17).  It must be all that marathon training.  Katie Phillips who was seeing which way the race would take her her cold did the second leg (16.45).  Katie was chilly afterwards so maybe the cold was winning.  Lesley & Becky (H) enjoyed their first XC relay  with Lesley especially pleased to get her first race award.

We  enjoyed cake & coffee afterwards in between cheering the guys on, and I had a car full of chat and a little snoozing on the way back.

I’ve picked up Katie’s photo,  and commentary about the gents races from Peter Ellerton and John Smithurst on Facebook  to give a full picture of the day.

 

Ladies_XCountry

Peter Ellerton 5 October 20:41

Thornes Park XC relays – both M60’s and M70 teams were the top performers today thanks to Superstar Fred Gibbs! The M60’s were a man short and even if one of us did 2 legs we would not have been eligible for trophies. We got agreement from officials that Fred could run first leg for the M60’s and third leg for the M70’s. This gave a win-win result for M60 team of Fred, Bryan Parkinson and Peter Ellerton and M70 team of Dave Barber, John Smithurst and Fred. He ran 2 x 2 mile laps and collected 2 gold cups – not bad for a 75 year-old!
John Smithurst 5 October 21:07

Two golds for the male Vets today at the YVAA Cross Country Sheffield.The M70’s gold with Dave Barber,myself and Fred Gibbs.
The M60’s team had only two Peter Ellington and Bryan Parkinson and you need three runners per team.So we loan them Fred Gibbs to run the 1st leg for them,we got him back so we could win our gold.They then went on to win there gold with Fred help.
The girls were in the medals as well,but have not got all the details yet.I’m sure Becky Weight will be putting a race report in.

Full results on  the Northern Athletics website

http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/2013/nxcrsw.htm