South of the Thames

Ed Steele (men's cross country captain) writes:

Saturday 17th December saw a small contingent of Harriers make their way up to the second of the SOTT (South of the Thames) XC races in Roehampton, the race itself being 2 large loops of Wimbledon Common itself totalling around 7.5 miles. Whilst the weather treated us well given the time of year the conditions made for some challenging terrain, with slippery slopes and mud pits as deep as your shins making it more of a "mini-Eridge 10" than the playing fields that a lot of the XC races are set in.

Evident at the start the London clubs had put a lot of their good field out, whilst I thought it would be less serious it ended up having even fiercer competition than the Kent League races!

First home for the Harriers and in his last race for the club, Hibiku Maruoka took 21st and finally made the pledge to buy some proper XC shoes. I 'followed' in the loosest sense of the word some 8 minutes later in 103rd, although thankfully with enough left to sprint finish 2 rivals on the last stretch. Neil Clark and Mike Russell then finished the Harriers line up in 140th and 141st.

We had a single lady returning from work related absence, our previous female XC captain Becky Smith came home in 46th.

Unfortunately, due to some hasty absences we did not have enough to make up a 6 to score team! 

If you get the chance I thoroughly recommend this one next year, one of the best XC races of the year with a good balance of peaks and troughs, recovery flats, closed woods and open fields - overall great scenery and great XC running.

Full Results

21 Hibiku Maruoka
103 Edward Steele
140 Neil Clark
141 Michael Russell M40
W46 Becky Smith