XC season comes to a close

The return of the Mud 

The highlight of this week was undoubtedly Chiltern Cross Country and the final event of the season at Horspath Oxford. A HUGE congratulations Claire McDonnell for her 2nd place after 5 races, in the FV55 Category!  A fantastic result – well done Claire!

Claire receiving her award for 2nd place

Mud and more mud!

Having been led into a false sense of security last time out with bright blue skies, firm ground underfoot and not a puddle in sight, we were back in full traditional cross country running conditions: a grey sky, drizzle, Mud, water jumps and more mud!  So a  huge well done to our fantastic Team that cheerfully splashed their way through the last race of the season.  The pictures certainly tell a tale of great fun and camaraderie.

We had a team of 20 take part and for this race the  men race first, followed by the  women. The pictures were taken after the races and you can spot the mud and the cold.

The course 

The women run 5.7km  and the men a slightly longer 9.1km.  (As always I find the expectation for men to run further  a little strange – but hey ho! ) both routes are a similar two lap affair, across fields and farmland – with the long back section highlighted on the map as “very muddy” and a ditch with at least a foot of water.

Muddy!

The mud was most definitely a source of much discussion on shoe choice before the race, especially after the heavy rain the night before. Spikes were recommended to those that wanted any chance of remaining on both feet with shoes still attached after the ditch. So too was the choice of clothing – run in shorts for legs to dry quicker after the ditch?  or long leggings to at least be warm for part of the run?

The ditch!

Despite all the pre-run Anxiety, the photos suggest everyone had a great time. Whats not to love about splashing through mud as an adult ? and the results were once again fantastic. Well done everyone on some super strong running.

 Here are the results for Oxford XC 

1. Individual results – match 5

Well done to Matt Ashby for an outstanding run and a top 20 position. Judging by the finish times there was some strong racing from all !

As a reminder – the scoring works as follows:   Each runner is award points for the position they finished in. Hence if there are 100 runners in the mens race, the 1st man home scores 100 points and the last 1 point. If there are 190 runners, as there were on Saturday, then the first finisher scores 190 points and the last 1 point.    The points are then added up for each race for each club, according to the running categories, to give us a score and a position in our league (Division 1).

2. Team result for Match 5. Horspath, Oxford 

As you can see , in this race we finished in 12th pace in the league, nicely above Watford Harriers. The men were 12th  and our women’s team, were 9th at this event

Overall Team result

Our veteran women were truly outstanding and finished 2nd!

Veteran Women – Match 5 Horspath, Oxford

3. Results for the season 

When the results of all 5 fixtures are then added together …  we finish 14th overall. (Men 14th , Women 10th). A great result that keeps us comfortably in Division 1

Overall position after 5 events

4. Results for the season – individuals 

The individual standings after 5 fixtures are calculated using the best 4 races. Also, in this case, its finish positions that add up to make a score – and the lowest scores wins.

Once again huge congratulations to Claire McDonnell  for 2nd place in the  FV55 in Division.  Well done too to Jon Roberts for this 7th place finish in V50 men. .  And a big shout-out to our women’s team – Such a huge achievement for the club  to have 6 women finish in the top 20 of their categories.

individual standings after 5 races

So that bring XC to a close for another season. Well done to all that took part across the 5 matches. Let make sure we bottle up the team spirit and camaraderie for other events this year.