Calling All Cross Country Runners

It might seem early, but the committee have been discussing the 2015/16 cross country season already and, given the weather we’ve had recently, it feels like it’s already time to start running around in the mud.

We’re really excited about this years’ season and we’re hoping to build on the success and performances from last year.

For those of you who are new to the club (or any who have forgotten!) the cross country races take place in parks around the Manchester area. The terrain is usually undulating and over grass or through woodland areas. The distances are around 4-6 miles for the ladies and 5-7 miles for the men.

All the races take place in the afternoon, so no early starts!

The key thing you should know about cross country is it is predominantly a TEAM event. Yes, we run an individual championship within the club, but the great thing about cross country is we are ranked on our team place within the leagues we compete in.

This means that every runner, no matter how fast or slow, whatever your experience, can help contribute to the success of the team in the cross country league. One of the big things you can do to improve the team is just SHOW UP AND RUN. We are very good at that.

Usually, we need 4 runners to field a women’s team and 6 runners to field a men teams. There are occasions when we don’t have enough runners on the day to field a team. Again, no matter what your standard of running, we would much rather have a full team present than not have enough runners to count. So if you’re worried about your capabilities, please don’t be.

One of the other benefits of cross country is the men and women run separately. This means you usually always have supporters along the way during the race. Personally, one of my favourite things about cross country is cheering on the men after we have done our race (for the ladies we have the added benefit of feeling smug as we have already finished). We are known to have a particularly loud cheering squad (Jen has previously made pom poms) although we are now facing some tough competition from the Chorlton Runners.

In terms of the Championship, we’re back to the old format of having the Manchester League and the South East League to count. This means there are 9 qualifying races and you will need to complete 5 of them to finish the championship. There are prizes up for grabs for the first 6 men and women in the club championship.

Our main aim is to finish both of these leagues having fielded enough runners each race to count for a team place, with the result that we have teams finishing in both leagues.

We had some brilliant results last year, particularly in the men’s team which is going from strength to strength. We really feel we can make an impact this year and hopefully end up with some good team results. There is a great opportunity to do well in the South East Lancs League which is smaller and doesn’t have the same competition from the very big clubs with hundreds and hundreds of runners.

If you have any questions about kit, the races or any queries at all please do speak to me or Mark; we are happy to talk you through it. If you have any trouble with travelling to races we can usually arrange lifts and the majority of the races are local to Manchester.

There will be an email going round in the near future with the details if you want to enter the cross country races. It’s £20 for all the races in the Manchester and South East Lancs League if you let JP know you want to enter before the deadline – a bargain!

I have copied the provisional dates below. See you for a run in the mud!

— Hannah Brierley Co-Captain

Saturday 10 October 2015 – MACCL – Woodbank Park, Stockport Saturday 7 November 2015 – MACCL – Sherdley Park, St Helens Saturday 14 November 2015 – SELCCL – Leigh Sports Village, Leigh Saturday 5 December 2015 – MACCL – Boggart Hole Clough, Blackley Saturday 12 December 2015 – SELCCL – Heaton Park Saturday 16 January 2016 – MACCL – Heaton Park Saturday 23 January 2016 – SELCCL – Tandle Hill, Oldham Saturday 30 January 2016 – Northern Champs, Blackburn Saturday 13 February 2016 – MACCL – Wythenshawe Park Saturday 20 February 2016 – SELCCL – Boggart Hole Clough, Blackley Saturday 27 February 2016 – National Champs, Venue TBC