*The NWRRC ladies team at Bangor (*l-r) Cheryl Frost, Gwennan Charlton and Kay Hatton.
Back to the mud and hills for the first cross-country fixture of the season at Treborth, Bangor.
Report by Don Hale. Photos by Steve Jeffery and Lesley Goodson.
Five members of North Wales Road Runners entered the first North Wales Cross-Country League fixture of the season, well-organised by hosts Eryri Harriers at Treborth, near Bangor, last Saturday, and staged over a rather muddy, hilly, and challenging series of varied courses.
With different distance routes offered in respect of ages, and male and female races, ranging from juniors to masters, the general feedback was most encouraging with many runners welcoming a positive return to some sort of normality following an enforced period of uncertainty.
NWRRC members ran in either the senior women’s race, or the senior men’s event, over approximate distances of 3.5-miles, or 5.5-miles respectively, and my report is based on the provisional results compiled by the hard-working NW cross-country league secretary Bernie Jones.
*Will Williams (*above) at Bangor.
Will Williams and Stuart Culverhouse ran in the latter mentioned senior race, with Will running very well on his cross-country debut, finishing 50th overall, out of 163 entrants, in 38 minutes and 7 seconds, and he was 4th in his MV50 age cat.
Stuart, meanwhile, also enjoyed a determined performance with a strong finish in 41.47, and he was 87th in 41.54, and finished 10th in his MV50 cat.
Will later said: “That was so much fun today. Absolutely loved it. I took a cautious approach to the start then worked my way through the field well as far as my little legs would take me but need to work on my decent my face on the downhill.
“Not bad for first XC race, and I ran well within myself for the first few miles, but maybe held back a tad too much! That said enjoyed the run much more this way than balls out and hold on.”
And Stuart Culverhouse added: “First cross-country race of the season, the usual lung-bursting mud fest!”
*Stuart Culverhouse (*above) at the NW XC League meeting at Bangor.
Cheryl Frost, Kay Hatton and Gwennan Charlton represented the NWRRC ladies, and battled well against the tough conditions in the near 3.5-mile race, with Cheryl quickly recovering from last week’s Chester Marathon, where she represented Wales, to tackling the Bangor hills and mud, finishing 77th overall out of 154 entrants, in a time of 29.57, and she was 7th in her FV55 cat.
Kay Hatton was also in form again, and finished 85th in 30.40, and she was 6th in her FV60 age cat, with Gwennan Charlton enjoying her run in the sun in 137th place overall in 37.37.
After the event, Bernie Jones, the secretary of the North Wales Cross Country League said: “A big thank you to Eryri Harriers for putting on today’s league race and for managing to keep it sunny throughout the races. Thanks too to all their volunteers, helpers, and officials for not only putting on a great course, but also securing good weather, when it was pouring down elsewhere!
“In particular, I would like to thank Helen Blair, who organised everything, and made sure it all went smoothly. I hope you all found the new Treborth courses to your liking?“It was fantastic to see such a good turnout particularly in the older races, which is encouraging, and we were back to pre-covid levels in some of the races.
“There were some fantastic performances, so well done to our successful athletes. However, a well done to all athletes for completing such a tough course.
“We’re quickly onto the second fixture, which is at Eirias Park, next Saturday (21st October), and if there are any athletes who aren't already registered, but want to run, please let me know asap, and I will arrange for the numbers to be ready and put into your wallets.
“Finally, if you are interested in representing North Wales in the Welsh Inter Regions in Newtown, please let the team mangers, John Messum and Crispin Backshall, know asap."
*This is the link to the provisional results from Bangor: