By Rob Elmore

The last cross country race of the season (unless you’re young enough to be at the English schools or good enough to represent Great Britain at the World Cross Country Championships in Uganda!), were the British Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships which took place at Prestwold Hall, just outside Loughborough, this weekend.

For those not familiar with this event, the Inter-Counties is a chance for the top runners in each county to compete against each other. Selection is based on your positioning at regional county championships and/or your cross country performances during the season. Ideally 9 runners are selected for each county, however, due to injuries/illness this isn’t always possible.

The venue was a new one to the cross country calendar and upon arrival it looked pretty flat. Unfortunately it wasn’t and turned out to be extremely undulating & sticky underfoot!

LBAC had 3 runners participating on the day. Amy Killick in the U15 girls race and Jordan Clay & I in the senior men’s race. Simon Coombes was also selected, however, did not compete due to an injury – get well soon Simon! Amy & Rob were representing Bedfordshire and Jordan was representing his university county of Cornwall.

Amy had a great run which is proof that all the training and hard work with the adults is paying off. She finished the 4000m course in 229^th position in 18:37. This was her first time representing the county & will be the first of many I’m sure!

Jordan had another solid run capping off a great cross country season. He finished the 12000m course in 123^rd position in 42:56. Jordan is turning into a fantastic athlete and has enormous potential, so keep up the good work!

I had a fairly average race and couldn’t really have gone that much quicker. I finished in 220^th position in 45:21 but was extremely happy just to be selected after making a comeback after over 11 years!

A quick shout out to Darren Deed who also represented Bedfordshire in the senior men’s race, and a few of us know. He is running as well now as he ever has done despite approaching 40, finishing in 8^th (yes eighth!) in 39:16. Top runner and a top bloke!

Also thanks to Richard Inchley for being our team manager as well as his support, along with Nick Clay, David Killick and my old man!

Time to clean the cross country spikes for a final time and put them away…for a few months anyway!