THE LAST stop in the Gloucester cross country league for this season was at Pittville Park in Cheltenham on 18th February.

The women’s race was contested over 6.4 kms. Joanne Emerson set off conservatively and made her way over the tricky stream crossing hesitantly, before powering through the field to cross the line in 51st in 31.39 mins.

Angela Bushell was back after a short break and finished in 99th place in 35.51 mins. Judy Mills is another consistent performer in all weather conditions and was next over the line in 38.28 mins.

The men’s race was competed over 9.3 kms. Rob Watkins has perfected the art of completing the second half of races quicker than the first, aka ‘to negative split’. This often results in a host of runners who have set off too quickly trailing in his wake as the race progresses.

He employed this tactic again, overtaking many fatigued runners to finish in 65th place in a time of 40.04 mins. Rob Hopkins had one of his best performances of the season to finish in 40.53 mins, securing 82nd spot. Mike Willis and Nick Langridge usually compete at the top of their age categories and this race was to be no different, Mike was 4th MV60 (43.54 mins, 132nd overall) and Nick was 5th MV65 (44.36 mins, 137th).

Paul Thomas ran at the Kingsway parkrun in Gloucester on Saturday, finishing high up the field in 4th place out of 247 runners in 19.52 mins. David and Anne Palmer were out and about again, this time in the scenic setting of Lake Windemere in the Fell Foot parkrun.

David finished 52nd in 30.16 mins and Anne was 79th in 35.46 mins. They will have deserved their tea and scones after that effort!