Met League 1: Senior Women
The Woodies may have been flagless and tentless at Saturday’s first Start Fitness Met League “at home” on this mild October afternoon. Legless they were not.
With our least competitive Met League season for some years just behind us - 6th place overall and 7th in the Vets competition last year, it was very encouraging to see ten Women on the familiar start line for the new look League - one twentieth of this whopping field of 198. Could we do any better this year?
First home in green and white was Emily Moss (8). A six place and 47” improvement on last year’s 14th, the newly full-time employed Emily was delighted with her top ten break. Right behind her in ninth, cheered to the line by new hubby Mark, was second-claimer Dani Nimmock making a very welcome return to our fold. Having run the race together it was new first claim signing Suzanne Turvey making third scorer for 17th at her first (we hope of many) Claybury outing, just 8” ahead of training pal Kat Gundersen (18). A great run from both to make it 4 in 18; especially the “fit but tired” V40 Gundo, no doubt pleased to be back inside the top twenty at this fixture. Fifth and 1’44” behind Kat was Kettering’s Fran Ashworth (40) making her second claim debut for Woodford; an impressive run for the U20 who placed fourth overall in her category. Closing for the As, 29” off Fran, stalwart V45 Bernie Pritchett made it 6 in 47 taking the Woodettes into 4th place overall – just two points behind third placed Heathside, 43 behind second placed Serpies and 75 behind League leaders Highgate Harriers.
Jenny Thomas (85) made it home first for the Bs. In her first race for exactly six months since collecting the coveted Brenda Bray trophy in the spring, the V45 was pleased to finish in one piece. Just over a minute behind was our third second claimer of the day, Anne Gombert (106); another welcome returnee to our happy band, making a significant improvement on last year’s injury-induced 134th. Third B was Kate Stockings (112) running a minute quicker than last year for a gain of only two places in this ever expanding field. Behind Kate was Brenda Bray Trophy runner-up V50 Karen Horswood (133), running an almost identical time as last year but down a pesky 23 places.
A strong start to the Season, with four top twenty places helping us get to fourth place in both Division 1 and Vets competitions. So great to do this with a mixture of familiar and new faces. Stevenage here we come!