By Sadie Towell (U13’s)

It was a 6am start for the Inter-Counties X-Country on Saturday.

The coach arrived at Tiddenfoot at 6.15am before it went to Luton and Bedford. We were all really excited and nervous on the coach journey which was really long. As a team we all really enjoyed being on the coach together.

I was really happy to be running in the Inter-counties and the whole experience was amazing fun; I got especially excited when I found out that the whole event was televised! There were also famous people running like Rebecca Murray.

It was a lovely day in Birmingham as the weather was really quite hot and sunny. The whole course had tape around it so you knew exactly where to go. The grass was all cut a bit like a golf course, however there was of course some mud on the way round. (You never finish a X-country race with your spikes clean).

The atmosphere at the start line was fantastic. We all started in pens which was really cool!

The encouragement throughout the course was wonderful, however it wasn't an easy course. Crossing the finish line always feels good and this one was no exception.

305^th out of 305 isn't the best of places however there is always room for improvement.

It felt great to be wearing a county vest and representing Bedfordshire.

Overall it was a great experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

In addition to Sadie, there were a number of other LBAC athletes who were selected to run for the county and made the trip up to Birmingham. Joining Sadie in the U13’s was Ellie Rabbits, Jordan Clay and Charlie Mead both ran in the U20 men, while Simon Coombes and Pete Mackrell both were in the senior men’s team. It is a fantastic achievement to be selected for the team so all six of them should be congratulated.

The U20 men in particular had an outstanding result to finish in 5^th place out of 26 counties on the day with Jordan home as 3^rd scorer in 60^th.

Full results can be found on UKCAU website