CC 2006/2007

Each year TVT compete in the Thames Valley Cross Country League. Below is a summary of 2006/2007 with reports and results from each race. The club finished the league in 8th place. With a full side out we were finishing higher and competing against much larger running clubs and so we certainly justified our inclusion in the league.

12^th Nov 2006	Datchet Dashers	results	report
26^th Nov 2006	Sandhurst	results	report
5^th Dec 2006	Handy Cross	results	report
17^th Dec 2006	RRR	results	report
7^th Jan 2007	Tadley	results	report
28^th Jan 2007	Finch Coasters	results	report
4^th Feb 2007	BFR	results	report

The season’s opener as usual was held on Remembrance Sunday, as usual. Numbers from TVT were not great but this is the time of year that people often chose to take a breather from training and spend with the families they have neglected for the past 6 months.

The first challenge to the team was a mild rebuke by the race organisers for not having a TVT club kit. After debating the pros and cons of the ladies competing in bikinis during winter we agreed to take this issue back to the club! One of the suggestions made by an organiser was to go skins; an interesting suggestion to receive from a lady – but I am not so sure about taking that one back to the club :)

It was a sunny day and not particularly cold. The course was flat and dry except for the ditch halfway round which means you then spend the next 15-20 minutes running with one wet foot and one dry foot. The start is friendly with a couple of laps of a field to spread the pack out before hitting the towpaths for the next 10 minutes or so. Overtaking on these is a bit tricky especially as they are open to the public and you don’t want to a) mow anyone down, b) attempt to mow down their pointy toothed dog or c) overtake on the wrong side and make an early recce of the Windsor Tri swim course.

Joel Winter led the team home and promptly proceeded to “warm-up” the refreshments table for the rest of us trooping in after him. (The chocolate min-rolls were especially well received by a certain person!) Helen Garforth and Andy Leedale both ran well for the ladies, so much so that someone tried poach Andy for their side. There might have been a touch of mistaken identity involved as well :)

Results wise we were never going to do well as we didn’t field a team and even then not all of us were trying to run fast. “Missing” team members are adjudged to have finished 1 place behind the last actual finisher of the race and makes a massive difference to the team total. Out of 13 teams we finished 12^th.

Q – What sounds like a herd of cold wildebeest stampeding through a swamp during a monsoon? A – Us lot at Hawley Lake.

Now this has to be the most apt name for any of our races this season as the place was completely soaked. As warm ups go, waiting in the car watching lightning strikes and the rain pelting down is hardly inspirational or very warming. At one stage we had to contemplate moving the car as we were concerned about it being washed away in a gully that was beginning to form in front of our very eyes. Well hats off and a pat on the back to the 6 who turned up - Sharkie Jaggard, Jo Edwards, Helen Garforth, Andy Leedale, Gareth Cooper and a double hats off to Paul Weald who cycled to this event through the thunderstorms.

Anyway, suffice to say that the race was an experience and unless I was delusional I saw Noah preparing a boat halfway round the course.. .. .. It was difficult for runners to pick a line because you could never tell if that puddle was just surface water or a couple of feet (no lie!) deep. The same went for the mud. And all the time it was bucketing down. I suppose a mention should be made to those brave souls who were out there marshalling the course which in better weather is a top cross country loop.

Everyone put in a good effort in those conditions and should take credit for their performance and in representing the club that day.

Unfortunately for Sandhurst Joggers it was difficult for runners who had been drenched and frozen and in need of a warm bath to get back out of their cars and enjoy the late morning tea laid on. It was still raining so hard that by the time you got back to the car, which was the only dry place left, the cup of tea you picked up was somewhat watered down and cold.

Hero of the Day award to Paul Weald for getting changed back into his cycling gear to cycle home again. (He also won the Daft Bugger award for cycling there in the first place!)

The strengthened team placed a little better in the end coming in 11^th. 230 runners ran.

After racing in the conditions at Sandhurst and the High Wycombe race’s reputation for hills, we weren’t sure if anyone would turn up. Well, we were wrong. Triathletes are made of tougher stuff or just have short memories as the usual suspects for the season turned up. The threat of rain at the beginning soon went and after a stroll to start it was down to business.

The course was the same as last years which meant it was going to be hilly with patches of real sticky mud; even if they made changes I am sure it wouldn’t have made any difference.. .. .. Up and down we went and for some runners down actually meant face down as they slipped or lost footing whilst trying to hare past someone on a decent! Some of the mud sections were so thick that shoes were being sucked off feet which is especially bad if you have people behind you – I mean, just how do you stop to dig a shoe out of the mud whilst other people are still slugging their way through it?

Well, Sharkie Jaggard led the squad home again and Helen Garforth and Jo Edwards did a good job for the ladies. Our leading club member was Andre Van de Merwe (forgive the spelling if wrong, Andre) although he had somehow managed to join Finch Coasters by mistake and was running for them; next year he’ll be with us he says. We hope so! Joel Winter put in a guest appearance running as a guest because as he arrived so late he needed directions from spectators to follow the course and wasn’t registered as a team member so he didn’t score for us.

The start was dry as was the finish and this was good news because there were a few hungry faces about the place eager to sample the post race nutrition that was definitely not endorsed by any leading sportsmen, scientific institutes or Gillian McKeith. So as you can imagine it tasted pretty good to us and meant that the team spent some time after the race having a bit of a natter.

Hmm, low numbers again cost us dearly but not as dearly as other teams whose runners were probably still recovering from Sandhurst and caught up in the early Christmas shopping demands. We came 9^th.

Held in the grounds at Bearwood College it brings on a Chariots of Fire type feeling. Then you realise its early on a cold Sunday morning and you have got to get ready to run. Still, it was nice whilst it lasted as they say .. ..

They also say that you need to introduce a new food to an infant many times before they are willing to accept it and a similar approach is required in persuading club members to try cross country. Over the weeks an effort was made to talk to people and try and get them to turn up, but turn up because they wanted to and not because they felt obliged to. This effort delivered results as 8 people turned up to compete on what was a crisp but dry morning close to Christmas.

This course is a great mixture of undulating single track through woods, flat grassy fields, wide driveable tracks and a bit of mud ;) so there are stretches of the course to suit everyone; apart from those people that don’t like cross country running I suppose.

Once again Sharkie Jaggard was home first but this time had some company in the form of debutants Alex Scott and Paul Albrow a few places behind him. The ladies team – and yes, they had a complete team putting the men to shame – did well with Andy Leedale and Jo Edwards running this course for the first time. Special mention goes to Rebecca Spires who turned up to run for the club for the last time before emigrating to New Zealand. (This was a planned emigration folks and nothing to do with the jokes I made before the start of the race.)

The grub was good and the sunshine kept us warm outside as we ate. Quite a post race social developed as there were new faces to welcome and an old (in club years only Rebecca!) face to wish well and say goodbye to so we were some of the last people to leave the site.

We came a creditable 7^th in a well participated and organised race that included a free bright yellow woolly hat handed out at the finish. So if you see people running around town with them, you know where they came from.

So Christmas came and went. The question for most people was, had the extra couple of pounds of “winter insulation” added over that period done the same? One way to find out is to take part in the cross country race at Tadley. A lot of people must have been asking this question because we had a large squad at Tadley. So large in fact that we actually fielded the first complete team in about the last 4 years!! I like to put it down to my Captain Mainwaring style of management and motivation but I think there may have been other factors at hand :)

Nonetheless, TVT had a total of 15 turn up to face a course that involves fields, woods, hills, mud and the double water jump which is a bit like Beecher’s Brook for runners, oh and the odd gate / style or two to negotiate - Welcome to the Thames Valley Cross Country Grand National! With so many runners it was a good job that Derek was there to help organise us all.

One thing the course didn’t have was adequate marshalling near the start so that the top 15 or so runners all went the wrong way shortly into the race! You can imagine the amusement of your average runner when they suddenly get passed by a dozen people going twice their speed – where have they come from, am I slowing down, what the blazes is going on etc? It was only when Mark Gittins said hello to me as he went past that I found out what was happening.

Still, Mark was first home for the club coming a stonking 3^rd in the end and a shame he can’t run for us all the time (Hint!). The Purple Heart award went to Darrell Robbins who having been knocked unconscious off his bike the day before still turned up for the run. (I suppose that it was no coincidence that our base before the race was next to the St John’s ambulance!) Paul Weald once again did good as the leading male Vet and we also had a welcome return from Karen Gallantry and Maureen Sweeny with Nick Green taking the opportunity to use this as his warm up for Wokingham half marathon, some 5 weeks away ;)

We all congregated back at the school hall for some well earned grub and I think that a certain person set a new record for the number of jam tarts consumed. (Yummy!) With such a large number of us there it meant we could catch up on gossip, talk about race entries and training etc and really did feel like a proper club event. We even started to look a bit like a club as most of us ran in black tops. This has now been adopted as our club cross country colour with the view of talking to the committee about helping with a club running strip – not that they all know about this yet so keep stumm!

After the heady euphoria of fielding a complete team we were expecting that there would be a return to reality at Finch’s race. We were to be pleasantly astonished as we fielded another complete team for a trip through the woods near the Hants Police College – may explain the fast times then!

Not many of us had done this race before, in fact we had a few debutants in Ewan Hewertson, Claire Hester and David Gurney with us as well. The weather was dry but somewhat chilled with a fresh breeze blasting us all. Still, at the start huddled up like penguins we all felt OK. Now this course was interesting. For a start the start is someway away from the “official” meeting point and because some of it was the same as used in some recent mountain bike race, it meant in places it went up and down more often than a stairlift at the old folks home. And had there been a stairlfit there it would have done good business on certain hills. At least no-one got lost at this race.

Once again Mr Consistent Jaggard came in first with Paul Albrow and Gareth Cooper not far behind slugging it out at the finish after a long duel. Kevin Marshall made a welcome return to the side and promises a bigger season next year now that he has finally sorted out his house. All the debutants put in a good showing and special mention to Karen Gallantry who turned up to her local race to support even though she couldn’t run due to a broken wrist sustained during a low speed mountain bike “dismount with half summersault” incident.

We then migrated back to the Memorial Hall for a recovery feast. Most of us drove back but Sharkie and Jo Edwards jogged backed – medal of the day goes to Jo then! The food hall was indoors = good :) but was not the largest space = badish :( It made life interesting as everyone was packed in like the proverbial sardine but thankfully we all smelt just a touch better than that. What made up for it was the top nosh coming out the kitchen and not only were the chocolate brownies top of the tree but the chocolate cornflake thingies were a small piece of heaven and when they brought out the cheese on toast I was nearly overwhelmed! So the Tea of the Season award goes to Finch Coasters. Being squeezed in gave us the opportunity to have a chat to newcomers, get to know the other club members a bit better and also to plan future training activities like the cycling groups.

By now we had heard that the last race of the season had been cancelled as Ruislip council had blocked the run on grounds of environmental damage to the course – make your own judgements about that one.. .. .. This meant that the season’s finale was going to be at The Look Out. And “Look out!” indeed for it was darn cold! So cold in fact that the Stewards had declared the course Firm to Hard with Icy Mud in places. Lat year this course somehow stretched a little further than expected and was over 10km long. This year they had to change the route because the Crown Estate had installed a number of gates to try and curb motorbikes etc and it is not feasible to get a couple of hundred runners through them.

Numbers were slow to start with and we were agonisingly short of a team when it was time to start. Although a new course it was still tough with some demanding up-hills and even more demanding down-hills. Those with dodgy knees and the like were in for some fun. Quite a few people were also foxed by the reduced distance of the course and when they recognised they were near the finish upped the pace considerably.

A jaded Mark Gittins came home 8^th overall, first again for the club, and didn’t have to wait too long for Sharkie Jaggard and Gareth Cooper to arrive after him. Julie Rayfield made an appearance for the club and was a creditable 8^th lady home. Claire Hestor finished with her trademark beaming smile and the old guard of Paul Weald and Darrell Robbins placed well for the Veteran contingent of the men’s team. And Alan Wylie; wait a minute – he wasn’t there at the start? Alan arrived late and had to run to the start and ask for directions! He only knew he was in the right place when he passed Paul Weald wearing his TVT T-shirt. With Alan’s finish we now had a team for the unbelievable 3^rd race in a row! (Derek nearly fainted when he heard this news.)

Back at the Look Out for food we commandeered a table to digest the sandwiches and tea laid on and discuss our finishing positions. We didn’t spend as long as usual chatting because it was cold. We all agreed that we had a good run out that day and could now look forward to warmer days when we could complain that it was too hot to run.. .. no pleasing some people. We finished as 6^th team again which was a great result.