Blaydon Cross Country – Harrier league race 2 Saturday 17^th November

A good turnout from Ponteland Runners saw 7 men and 3 women taking part, meaning for the first time we had full teams and scored points in the league.  Following on from the first race at Cramlington it was again a very popular event with record sized fields taking part, and the standard of competition was really high compared to the typical road races that most of us have entered in the past.  Finishing positions are hard earned in this league that is for sure.

In the senior women’s race Eva ran well from the medium pack and finished a very creditable 53^rd.  Ali Guadagno made her cross country debut digging deep to come home in 94^th place, whilst Lucy peel again ran well and completed the team in 150^th place out of a field of 198 runners.  Overall the women scored 297 points and finished in 13^th place out of 15 teams in division 2 – a terrific effort for only our second race.  Any other women who would like to take part would be very welcome as we only have 4 registered runners at present meaning fielding a full team will always be tricky.  Please e-mail me if you are interested.

The men’s team was lead home by debut runner Mark Lyon in 149^th place – a great effort.  Second counter was Chris Wright in 305^th place – who eased passed me on lap three and proved uncatchable.  I came in 313^th position but managed to get round blister free this time!  Our good Chairman David B was next in 377^th place on his cross country debut “It’s a lot harder than road running” was his understated view on running in the harrier league.  Dave Legg was next in 387^th who had run hard to nip ahead of Adam Graham in 394^th.  Bart completed our runners in 425^th place out of a record harrier league field of 460 senior men (and vets).  The men beat 6 other teams in division 3 and again this represents a great effort in only our second race.

Next race up is at Jarrow on Saturday 15^th December – it would be great to see as many runners on the start line as we did at Blaydon, more details nearer the time.