This no-holds barred race report is by Lauren Bird.

ALNWICK RACE REPORT

The sun was shining upon us as we ventured into the worst discipline man has ever known:

the terror of… pause for dramatic effect…. CROSS COUNTRY!

(Not for the weak of heart, this event is full of people who are either mad or are called Lauren.)

As Og, Dormouse and I drew up to the start line, a dreadful sense of foreboding came upon us. Huge black clouds blew over (probably from either Siberia or, worse, Sunderland) and even my mother might have been cold (it was hard to tell under all those layers. Even she thought she might have been a teensy bit overdressed- and believe me, that’s saying something. If possible she would have put her duvet under her other 456788890000+ layers). “ExcUSE me girlfriend, but I think that is MY space,” Og and I yelled at everyone in sight. Jess got a teeny bit annoyed with us at that point. We got the giggles.

As the cross country people seemed to have yet another rude gun with them (what is it with these organisers and firearms?) I started the race rather irritated, only to be faced with random hills, non-existent finish lines and freezing conditions.  Also, may I now impose a ban on all runners with irritating elbow-you-in-the-face running styles.  They slowed me down considerably at the start, until I remembered Og’s brilliant advice: ‘In x countries, violence is always the answer!’(Her father would be so proud.) This spurred me on considerably through the rather scenic (well, if you have a fondness for sheep poo, that is) cross country route. However, this was only the beginning… of what we all knew was going to be an absolutely terrible… I mean awesome… race.

Despite all the annoying elbow-you-in-the-face style runners I had the misfortune to meet this cross country, we all had a great run, finishing as follows: Og:5:34  Dormouse: 5:18 Jess:5:38 Me: 5:14 Jake:5:16.

I was also consoled by my mother’s excellent organisational skills. She actually packed spare socks! And a towel! I am impressed. (And I must say, the cake was delicious too.)

The U13 boys also ran well, with an excellent run from Jake and Finlay Dorman finishing 21st and 23rd [Jake finishing 13th on time].

Lily Hall also ran well, with a time of 20:05.

The women ran brilliantly, with 1st place from Magda Grinsdale (in MY spikes 🙂 ).

Just thought I’d mention that to ya 😉

By Lauren Bird