The fifth running of this event held in the scenic village of Eaton , sadly having set in the stone the date of this year’s race only to have other major local races along the way want to use the same date, Grrrrrr!However Chief promoter Tony Allen with a subtle mix of good marketing and implied threats managed to get a great turnout on a perfect morning weather-wise for the race. Naturally on `home soil` Stilton Striders were out in force but also shirts from Stamford Striders and Barrow Runners were part of this year’s start line.
The winner led from the off, a young lad who won the event two years ago could even afford to go wrong in his victory, he was positively flying!
It was up to the rest of us, the downhill start to the race is good however that none of us took our warm up serious enough as quite a few puffing and panting over the first churned up field. Last time I did the event it was a two lap affair and I have to say the single lap format made it much better for me, congratulations to the course developer as it had something of everything-certainly trails, hills and splashes of mud, rope climb, woods, fast descents, stiles, ladder climb and a splattering of road.
Much of the first 5K I sat in 5th place before getting up to 2nd place between 5 and 8.5k only to lose it in the last 1.5K and coming 4th, however was very pleased overall with my performance. Had a great racing tussle throughout with the guy who finished 2nd and fellow Striders Mike Bryan and a very strong Michael Atton.
Real credit to the organisers and the village of Eaton, lots of friendly marshals and helpers, the cakes were indeed way up to standard afterwards, any chance of opening the Pub in Eaton next year if just for the day?
I may sound like a stuck record on this but `support your local races`! These local events are often put on by a small amount of people and when they are gone they are gone and you`ll just be left with big bucks entry corporate events, get out and support them! Thanks to Tony and his team, excellent day! [Rob]
Selected results:
- 1-Katie Hateley 48.00
- 8-Celina Silver 62.59
- 14-Steph Barlow 69.34
- 3-Michael Atton 43.00
- 4-Rob Beers 43.13
- 5-Mike Bryan 43.26
- 8-Luke Eggleston 46.17
- 9-Dan Valencia 46.23
- 11-Simon Bottrill 47.50
- 12-Michael Cooke 47.58
- 13-John Houghton 49.35
- 17-Nicholas Smith 56.52
- 28-Tam Nicol 69.35