Berry Hill Park, Mansfield, 4th November
Well done to our juniors who competed on Saturday, getting them out of bed for a 6.30am meet up for the mini bus was the first triumph of the day bearing in mind how teenagers like their sleep. Well done to the parents for getting them up.
The drive started off misty but as the journey progressed the sky got darker and 15 mins outside Mansfield the rain started which never stopped all day. A big thank you to our superb driver and (competitor) Mike Russell who did a magnificent job and Andrea for organising the trip. This was a seven hour round trip, a long day for everyone involved. With waterproofs put to the test ,we were all wet . The tent ended up in a sea of mud, not much fun for Andrea who is going to have to hose it down sometime soon.
For most of these runners were making their debut on the National running scene not only representing Elswick but the NE as well. All the top clubs were represented.
The first race for us was the under 17 girls (2.5k)with 63 teams in total .
1st St Albans Striders 27.05 – 2nd Salford Harriers&AC 27.17 – 3rd Warrington 27.32
We came a superb 44th with Bella Russell 10.22 – Sydney Bungay 11.26 – Ciara Telford 12.48 total 34.37 .The only other clubs from the NE were NSP and Gateshead.
The under 13 boys were next (2k) There were 63 teams in total we were the only NE team to compete and with two teams .
1st Bracknell AC 22.31 – 2nd Cambridge Coleridge AC 22.40 – 3rd Windsor Slough&Eton AC 22.48 –
17th Elswick A team Dominic Kelso 7.47 – Ethan Eland 8.10 – Nicholas Surtees-Brown 7.38 with a total of 23.36.
52nd Elswick B team Kallen O’Neil 8.26 – George Russell 10.00 – Cole Henderson 9.41 total 28.08.
Under 13 girls (2K) 62 teams with Elswick and Birtley from the NE.
1st Aldershot&Farnon& district 27.05 – 2nd Chelsford &AC 23.30 – 3rd Birtley 23.37.
45th team Isabelle Durham 9.15 – Charlotte Taylor 10.18 – Millie Robson 8.59 total 28.33
A big well done to all our juniors, but we must mention our 3 seniors women who came down with us after a long journey and hanging around for hours Sophie, Justina and Andrea came 37th out of 130 teams amazing. And our wonderful bus driver Mike did a solo run in the men’s race and then jumped on the bus to drive us home.
Hopefully we can do more of these National/Northern event as these are experiences that the juniors will never forget.
Report by Jan & Ken