Old Down Country Park was the venue on Saturday for the opening round of four races in the Gloucestershire Cross Country League, writes Matt Johnstone.

Thornbury Running Club were out in force at their local race with 21 runners across the ladies and men’s teams, ranging from the dyed in the wool cross-country veterans to those taking part for the first time.

The Old Down course was a baptism of fire for the first timers. As well as contending with strong winds from Storm Callum on the exposed sections, there were plenty of tight turns, steep hills and hazardous roots to avoid in the woods.

The ladies’ 6.7k race started first and it was new recruit Hannah Kinlock Haken who led out the 8 Thornbury women, with Laura Orna not far behind. Hannah and Laura produced the best performances of any of the Thornbury runners on the day, with Hannah making a great debut in 23rd place in 32:08 mins and Laura in 28th in 32:52 mins.

While Hannah and Laura ran in relative isolation from their clubmates, the other Thornbury ladies were constantly jostling for position during the 3 laps. Jo Emerson charged through the field and into 46th place in 34:44 mins and 4th in the LV40 age category.

Ros Rowland and Emma Barnes swapped places throughout the race, with Ros prevailing in the end in 59th place and 3rd LV 55 in 36:09 mins, to Emma’s 62nd position and 36:21 mins. Lizzie Williams was next in 71st and 36:53 mins, followed by Sarah Newnes making her cross country debut in an encouraging 100th place in 40:25 mins and Judy Mills in 199th in 43:03 mins.

All the friendly competition between team mates helped to propel the women’s teams to new heights in the league table.

The first three TRC runners across the line comprised the women’s A team, which finished in 10th place out of 31 teams. The B team were 20th and the Vets team rounded off a great performance from the ladies in 7th place out of 21 teams.

Some of the experienced runners who had sustained the team going through the leaner years could scarcely contain their shock at seeing so many enthusiastic Thornbury men ready to earn points for the team over the 10k race. Many had been bribed with pictures of home-made delicacies for anyone who finished the race.

Matt Johnstone found himself in uncharted territories further up the field than usual and finished in 50th place in 42:47 mins. Henry Orna was next in 83rd in 44:29 mins. The next two TRC runners were making their cross-country bows, Paul Clarke running particularly well in the second half of the race to finish 94th place in 45:16 mins and Dave Beard the next athlete across the line in 45:21 mins. Jim Godden was close by in 99th position in 45:33 mins and achieved a top 2 finish in the MV55 age category.

Rob Hopkins recovered from a slower start and picked his way through the field to finish in 125th in 47:00 mins. Ben Foss came dashing to the finish line, passing some runners in the process and gaining vital points for the team. Ben’s debut for the team showed promise and he was 151st in 49:14 mins. Ian Evans was close by and finished in 154th in 49:26 mins. Nick Langridge had the notable honour of winning the MV65 age category, finishing 161st in 50:13 mins. Sean Underwood was 192nd in 55:37 mins, Kevin Cundy was next in 195th in 55:55 mins and Steve Dimond was 2nd MV65 and 197th overall in 56:35 mins. Debutant Duncan Pauly hung in to the end and was rapturously cheered over the line in 208th position and 70:18 mins.

The men’s A team, which comprised the first six TRC runners, were 13th and the B team were 22nd out of 22 teams. The men’s vets team had a great result, finishing 7th out of 21 teams.

Rob Watkins is the current TRC record holder for the London marathon and has several sub 3 hour times to his name. He has focussed on longer, off-road events in recent years, but on Sunday he travelled north to run the Yorkshire marathon. The race starts and finishes at University of York with miles of flat country roads in between. The course is suited for quick times, but conditions were far from ideal on the day with cold temperatures and heavy rain. Rob still produced a fine run under the circumstances, finishing 298th in 3 hours 13:27 mins.

There were 3 TRC runners at Thornbury parkrun on Saturday, Colette Jackson was 2nd female finisher in 23:19 mins, followed by Mike Bennewitz in 25:43 mins and Richard Illingworth in 32:40 mins. At Chipping Sodbury parkrun, Kevin Wood ran 23:03 mins, David Palmer 26:40 mins and Anne Palmer 34:09 mins.

Kevin Arnold was at Eastville parkrun and ran 26:10 mins and Garry Slater was 4th finisher at Wotton parkrun in 20:30 mins.