National XC Championships
The National this year held at the spiritual home of English cross country running produced sport on a grand scale. The course climbed right from the start and a succession of winding ascents and descents, woodland trails and intricate traverses of Parliament Hill gave arguably the toughest cross country race of the year. And then there was the mud. Enough to say half the course was ankle deep, glutinous and strength sapping, and the other half the mud came up to the knees - Mark Boot retrieved his shoe after the race and produced a great run in the mens under 17 race despite the problems of racing in mud much of it with just the one shoe.
In the senior mens race Rich Wilkinson battled on after another calf injury on lap one overcoming Rob Fox near the end after his own battle with the mud. Phil Walters and Colin Bostock both ran gamely in the testing conditions and were heard describing the course in colourful language. Five intrepid runners indeed.
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