South of the Thames

Saturday 26th November was the first of the two South of the Thames Cross Country races at Nork Park in Bansted. Whether the distance, the weather or the upcoming Kent league events, turnout was unfortunately down to an eager bunch of 8 Harriers, with representation only for the men's XC (this was a combined race, so places are for male runners only, not including women).

However, this was made up for by a particularly stunning performance on a very exposed and windy course, that to summarise was doing 3 laps of a giant hill.

Newcomer and unfortunately only here until the end of the year, Hibiku 'Hibi' Maruoka in his first ever XC race showed the Harriers what a natural gift and 10 years of running can do, finishing in 5th place.

Next home was Terry Everest 57th in a time of 34:13 and with no help needed from the medical tent.

Third and fourth places to make up the scoring were myself in 78th 36:16 and Matt Clark 86th 36:55.

Full results

1 John Gilbert Kent 28:07

5 Hibiku Maruoka TWH 29:35

57 Terry Everest TWH 34:13

78 Edward Steele TWH 36:16

86 Matt Clark TWH 36:55

112 George Harris TWH 40:36

113 Michael Russell TWH 40:48

124 Dan Cook TWH 42:44 (includes additional 300m sprint after race had started)

Finishing distance was apparently a bit more than the 5 expected, some clocking it in at 5.4miles

The mens team finished 12'th in the four to score out of 28 competing teams.

193 total finishers, 141 in the mens competition.

For the full results please follow this link: http://www.sotcca.org.uk/archive.htm

Next race is -

3rd December, Sparrows Den, West Wickham

2pm start Senior men only

Please let me know if you are interested in running this race or I'll be in my usual encouraging mood at the clubhouse this Wednesday.

Remember to bring your number along, If you've lost or otherwise misplaced it, let me know before the race to save me running around.

I'll send out the usual final details with car sharing arrangements later in the week.

Hope to see you there.

Ed Steele (men's cross country captain)