Parliament Hill, 16th November 2019
“What’s the most iconic thing to do in London?” asked Kieran Santry on Facebook. “If you call yourself a runner and live in London then it’s XC running at Parliament Hill!”
Depends on your definition of “iconic” I suppose - and specifically, whether this includes scraping dried mud from your legs, having ankles that ache for days, and being shouted at by your wife when she’s still finding grass in the shower nearly a week later (just me maybe on this last one).
But Kieran is a persuasive man and together with Hayley Kandt he somehow convinced around 40 Eagles into trekking up to North London on a Saturday afternoon to take part in the Southern XC Championships.
This is a huge event: over 350 women and 500 men were set to take part. And the course is (literally) breathtaking. The first few hundred metres are straight up Parliament Hill itself; once you’re at the top the whole of London is spread out below you - if that is you can spare a second to tear your eyes away from where you’re putting your next foot. Although the weather on the Saturday was reasonably kind, with no rain around unlike the previous Saturday’s Met League fixture in Welwyn, there had been a few steady showers throughout the previous week, and those expecting tough conditions were not going to be disappointed.
The Eagles managed to establish a base camp halfway up the hill, with a good view of the start line. There was the usual pre-race discussion around the tarp about spike length. As a relative newcomer to XC, I sought advice. In summary: those who had 12mms and no 15mms were going to be wearing 12s; those who had 15s and no 12s were going to be wearing 15s. Not exactly definitive. In probably the only sensible decision I took all day, I plumped for the 15s and hoped for the best.
The women were up first at 1:15, running a 6K course in contrast to the men’s 10K (unlike Met League, no gender equality here…).I wasn’t on the course at this point myself so I’ll have to leave it to those who were to describe it:
“Learnt the definition of ‘mud bath’ today and it was brilliant! My white spikes are no longer white…” (Hannah)
“Second time doing this race and loved it. Although I had forgotten that the start is uphill. Struggled for air once I got up there and then it was mud galore. Happy days!” (Andrea)
“No rain, no wind - perfect! Plenty of glorious mud and hills. Pity it was only 6km… Great team turnout with lots of support from fellow Eagles” (Gráinne)
“Sticky, sticky mud! Loved it… ” (Claudia)
Despite the mud - did we mention in was muddy? - the women put in a fantastic performance. Scoring at the Championships is on the basis of a point per place - 1st place gets 1 point, 2nd place 2 points and so on - and the first four runners from a club score for the team, with the lowest aggregate score determining the place in the final team positions. An absolutely fantastic run by Melissah saw her romp home in 33rd place, with a time of 25:35. The three other scoring Eagles were Alex (72nd place), Sophie (131st) and Hayley (143rd), giving a total team score of 379 points, with the team finishing in an amazing 15th place out of 31 teams. The comparable stats last year for the women’s team were 599 points, and 22nd place out of 27 - showing just how far the club has come in the last 12 months.
At 2:00 it was time for the men. After a brief warm-up, I made my way down to the finish line and inexplicably found my way to somewhere near the front. When the gun went off without warning - no preliminaries or niceties here - I had no option other than to run as quickly as I could, or else I’d be trampled under a few hundred pairs of spikes.
After barely 200m, I was more or less spent after the sharp climb, and there would be no respite for the next 45 minutes. The course was now properly cut-up. I thought I’d experienced cross country conditions at Welwyn last week… in hindsight it turns out that that was basically running over a slightly damp field. Here, there were long stretches of liquid mud with footprint-shaped puddles, stretching wide across the course making any attempt to look for a faster racing line impossible. And when the course wasn’t going uphill - which it somehow seemed to do for about 90% of its distance - it was going down, often sharply. One or two sections of the course went through small clusters of trees, bringing the additional challenge of looking out for tree roots. At one point, I heard someone shout “Root!”, and my feet were so soaking wet that I honestly thought he’d shouted “Boot” to alert me to the fact I’d lost a shoe. I just couldn’t tell anymore. Not that looking at my feet made any difference: everything from the knees down was caked under a good half inch of wet mud.
It soon became easy to work out who had the right length spikes on (not to mention the few brave souls who were running only in trail shoes) and I quickly learned to give other runners a wide berth on some of the downhill corners, when they would slip sideways by up to a foot.
It didn’t take long at all for my ill-advised starting sprint to take its toll. I was probably fourth Eagle to the top of the hill but the rest of the race saw a succession of Eagles stride past me as I slowed further and further - first Jose, then Harry and Colin - as well as the rest of the field. I was being properly schooled in XC race strategy. And I was also finding out that 10K is a long distance in cross country shoes.
I crossed the line to find six other Eagles waiting for me. The leading men had managed to match the women with some equally brilliant performances. First among them was Jack Whitebury, continuing his fantastic form and coming in in 99th place, with a time of 42:35. The three other scoring Eagles were John (126th place), Oliver (128th) and Jose (133rd). This gave a total score of 465, putting the men in 16th place out of 38 teams - again, a real improvement on last year’s figures of 550 points and 19th out of 35,
All that was left now was to compare stories in the pub:
“Loved it! Muddy, hilly, great downhills too!” (Oliver)
“Brutal!” (Jack)
“Either up or down, the only constant is the mud. Totally worth it though” (Gerb)
“Missed XC last winter and today was the first of this… not a bad way to spend a day in London. Must be other ways to earn beer though!” (Matt)
“Iconic course... Great finish” (Harry)
“First race in two months and I chose this…” (Bernard)
“I like mud run and I cannot lie… This is mud run on another level! Great fun!” (Wei)
It was a brilliant day out, and if the comments above don’t convince you that running around in wet mud can be brilliant fun, then nothing will. I shied away from taking the plunge for three whole years - something about my “delicate ankles” if I remember - and since giving it a try last month I haven’t looked back. You really know who your team mates are when they’re still there cheering you on, standing in a cold field covered in mud.
Final thanks must go to Lisa Snell for organising the entries and doing such a great job in managing to get nearly 40 Eagles registered and in the right place at the right time.
And the last word goes to Stuart, demonstrating the real spirit of cross-country:
“DNF - brought cake”.
Women’s results
Womens’ scoring team:
Melissah Gibson (33rd place; 25:35)
Alex Openshaw (72nd)
Sophie Santry (131st)
Hayley Kandt (143rd)
Other finishing Eagles:
Claire Ellison
Malgorzata Kucharska
Katrina Davison
Hannah Smith
Jess Hood
Gráinne Devery
Helen Pugh
Anne Sampson
Andrea Hendy
Una Crotty
Liz Ainsworth
Lisa Snell
Caroline Rush
Fade Solanke-Mitterer
Claudia Avilés
Women’s team result: 15th (out of 31); 379 points
Men’s results
Men’s scoring team:
Jack Whitebury (99th place, 42:35)
John Foxall (126th)
Oliver Gildea (128th)
Jose Manuel Pabon (133rd)
Other finishing Eagles:
Colin Clifford
Harry Claxton
Simon James
Nils Liborg
Gerb Alkema
Ryo Kitahara
Kieran Santry
Matt Powell
Ben Cale
Bernard Sexton
Paul Dodounou
Baljit Dhanda
Wei Sui
Piers Keenleyside
Jerzy Raczynski
Men’s team result: 16th (out of 38); 465 points