Normally on this particular Sunday in January you will find a group of Stadium Runners keeping nice and warm inside Meltham sports club before making a last minute dash to the start line to avoid getting too cold. This year however there was a change of plan with the West Yorkshire Winter League cross country taking over as the first event on the race calendar. The bonus is that this race was completely free to enter, the negative was that it was very cold, very wet and very muddy and that was before we started running. This was the fourth race in the WYWL calendar and I wasn’t the only one who was about to try cross country for the first time since school (it was in black and white back then). What was it like? Well it was ridiculously good fun, running soon makes the cold disappear and after 400 metres you’re not going to get any muddier or wetter than you are already so that’s fine. The course around Temple Newsam was wonderful and well marshalled and having to spend all that time concentrating on staying upright means that you soon forget about distance. The last mile was the toughest, as promised beforehand, and the last 200 metres to the line made a sprint finish look very much like a round of It’s A Knockout. If you are reading this and you didn’t run yesterday then put Sunday 2nd March on your calendar as that is the last race in this winter’s league. It’s handily positioned a week after the Huddersfield 10k and a week before the Spen 20 and it would be wonderful to have a really huge turnout especially as it is being hosted and organised by our good friends Stainland Lions, more details when I get them. Full results and points for both the WAVA and Grand Prix are up on the club website, but here’s the top three ladies and gents.
For the ladies Adele Souster started where she left off last year being the first Stadium lady home she was followed by Bridget Hughes with Angie Sura completing that female triumvirate. Bridget and Adele swapped positions in the WAVA competition with Helen Clegg coming in to fill the third place spot.
On the men’s side of things Saul Muldoon warmed up for the race by cycling from Huddersfield on a selection of paths and trails because 5 miles of very muddy running isn’t enough for some people. Johnny Cartwright was just a couple of seconds behind him with Anthony Phillips making up the trio. Steven Croft made up for not getting maximum points in the first race of last year’s WAVA championship by, well, getting maximum points. Johnny put his extra years to good use by pushing Saul in to 3rd place in the WAVA standings.
A huge well done to all the Stadium Runners who took part and an especially huge thank you to all the Stadium supporters who cheered on the runners and helped to get the scores right despite the horrible weather.