By Andy Inchley

The 137^th running of the National cross-country championships at Parliament Hill would struggle to be any further removed from the 136^th running at Weston Park last September.

Last September’s race – which was highly unusual due to the postponement from February – was run on a lovely late summers day around grassy parkland at a stunning rural venue near Telford. Amy and I were the only club representatives that day and thoroughly enjoyed the outing (without the kids!).

This time around, with Amy still nursing her dodgy hamstring, and no other ladies entered, it was left to a team of eight men to do the LBAC representation.

Although I suggested above that it was the polar opposite to September, there were one or two similarities. The sun made an appearance, Rob Elmore got out of running by helping out with the course again and the view from the course was great. That’s where the similarities end!

Parliament Hill is always muddy, whether it’s the National or the Southern championships taking place. In 2018 it was the driest it’s ever been, but it was still pretty sticky at the bottom of the hill. There’s never been an occasion where we’ve escaped without having clean the spikes thoroughly. However, you can usually expect the second half of each loop, along the top of the hill, to offer some decent running and a chance to recover at little from the quagmire at the bottom. Not this time!

Even paced running is never an option on one of the nation’s most notorious courses. Not only do you have the mud, but you have three significant hills on each lap that continually reduce the legs to jelly as you weave around searching for the best line to get you to each summit or corner. Then of course there’s the slight cambers on the course that make your feet slip sideways and you end up clipping your legs with your own feet and desperately trying not to fall over. However, I think this was the worst I’ve ever known it, in twenty-five years of traipsing round the heath – it was just relentless. All sounding positive so far?

Well. What we all need to remember is that cross-country isn’t meant to be easy, and we like a challenge…… don’t we? This is one of the biggest and possibly the most spectacular cross-country race in the world. There’s a great feeling of camaraderie as you line up with two-thousand other runners displaying nervous smiles on their faces. There’s the unspoken battle between you and some random fella from Maidstone, who is trying just as hard not be beaten by a random fella from Leighton Buzzard! There’s then the elation you have when you cross the finish line, knowing that the slog is over at last. You then just have to work out how to remove your footwear. Finally, there’s then the gathering at the side of the finish straight where you shout home teammates and exchange stories of how horrendous it really was!

Soon afterwards the pain fades and it becomes just another race you’ve run, until the next time…….

This year’s race also offered the joy pf being able to relive it through the online coverage. What more could you want than seeing the pain on your face after having just felt it all? At least it provided some evidence of what the course was like, even if the worst bits weren’t shown on the TV.

How the eight of us actually performed is a bit of an unknown. It’s kind of like asking a swimmer whether they got a good time in the bog snorkelling! What we do know is that all those that started, also finished. We also know that we sneaked into the top half of the teams, with 56^th place out of 112. Beyond that, it’ll be interesting to see what the RunBritain handicaps make of it.

For those that feel inspired by it, the next one will be in the North region, so perhaps we should make a bit of a trip of it?

Position	Name	Time
365	Tom North	0:55:10
444	Andy Inchley	0:56:36
571	Gary Prysbet	0:58:55
720	Tom Inchley	1:01:10
722	Carl Dalkin	1:01:12
939	Warren Rose	1:04:51
1135	Greg Pearce	1:08:17
1386	Matt Styrka	1:15:03