Two weeks in February

· by · in Race Reports. ·

It was the final cross-country fixture of the NESS Cross-Country League this weekend as 26 runners from Great Bentley headed to Suffolk to take on the hills of Hadleigh. It was another great event and one where we had to stay within reach of Harwich Runners to guarantee our place in Pool A.

Our men’s team finished in sixth place, just two points behind Harwich in fifth, whilst our women finished fourth, with Hadleigh behind them in fifth. Overall, this was enough to secure us a fifth-place finish in the league and secured us another season in the top flight. Alongside Colchester Harriers, Ipswich JAFFA, Witham Running Club, and Springfield Striders, we’ll also be joined by Halstead Road Runners, who were promoted from Pool B, next year – and it already looks like one where we’ll need another strong turnout from everyone to take on the larger clubs.

Elsewhere this weekend, Dan Palmer was at Winchester 10k, a one-lap closed road route starting outside the historic Winchester Guildhall, which he completed in 47:58, whilst Tim Clifton was in action at the Zig Zag RIOT Run. This trail event saw runners completing various distances on a 5.3km lap of Brandon Country Park in Suffolk. Tim completed a marathon distance in the fantastic time of 5:33:39, despite the less-than-perfect conditions.

The week before, Paul Davison was in action at Welwyn Garden City 10k, where he finished seventh overall and first in his age category in 39:41, whilst Fiona Gosling took on 50 miles through the undulating countryside of North Norfolk at The Winter Poppyline which is organised by Norfolk and Suffolk LDWA. Speaking after the event, Fiona said:

“I survived! It was tough and very wet walking along the shingle beach at the end. Thank goodness it was light winds and I had an umbrella and good companions. I finished one hour faster than in 2022.”

We’ve also seen some fantastic running at various parkruns over the last couple of weekends, including:

And, don’t forget, for the full breakdown of who did what at parkrun, you can always take a look at the full consolidated results:

👉 10 February;

👉 17 February.