South of England CC Champs 2016: Seniors
On Saturday 30th January the Southern Cross Country Championships took place under mainly blue skies at the iconic London Parliament Fields course. We had a team of 12 men and 1 lady and despite the numbers not being as high as they usually are, the athletes produced some great performances and team spirit on the day, with the Men taking the 7th team place out of 70 teams.
Photos (by Alex Wardle)
First Senior race was the ladies 8km race. Supporters of the Woodettes may have been concerned to see only one Woodford vest on the start line, but Suzanne Turvey put in such a performance so to make all Woodford supporters pleased to have been there to see it. Suzanne has been running well in the Met League and came to this race with anticipation on how the step up to the next level would go. 
Running up the first hill it was clear from the puzzled and slightly concerned expression on her face that something was not quite right. But fortunately this was entirely due to the fact that Suzanne was in slight disbelief with how high she was and feeling it a comfortable speed, if she had jumped forward 3 metres she would have been able to pat the leader on the back! As the race settled down, Suzanne found herself in the mid-20's, and on the final lap as the top ladies made their push, Suzanne became involved in a battle for 30, 31 and 32nd place, eventually claiming 31st with a good sprint to the line.
With such a performance as this, Suzanne (pictured right) must be looking at the National Cross Country with real interest to see what she could do. After the race she admitted that she had run this race to a higher intensity than the Mets and had to dig in on the last lap, but with the scalp of a very good Highgate runner who had beaten her to 3rd in the last Met, it showed she had judged the race expertly, and had got the senior racing off to an excellent start.
First in for the men was Suzanne's partner Tom Phillips in 52nd. Tom was suffering from bronchitis, he thought, and his cough made it sound like he was. He admitted that if others weren't pushing him so hard for the Ken Bray trophy he probably would have made the sensible decision to sit out, but the fact that he could manage himself and get round in his first Senior Southern CC just outside the top 50 shows the talent Tom has, but did anyone ever doubt the ability of the current Southern 1500m champion? Next in for the team was Angus Holford in 64th. Angus's main focus is the Essex 20 miler coming up, as he is hoping to represent the county against 4 other counties in a good distance initiative driven by Essex AA committee members. Thus he admitted that he had not really tapered for this race, so the fact that he easily beat his 89th from last year, shows what good form he is currently in. In third for the team was Daniel Steel in 99th (photo below with Simon Beedell). To break the top 100 is always a good feat, and it has to be remembered that Daniel's focus was pre-Christmas and the Istanbul marathon, so the fact that he is trying to get back to his second peak in 6 months for the National cross country and road relays, shows what tremendous ability he has. Daniel was also wearing the scars of a training run fall on Thursday, which looked like the injuries a Tour de France rider may suffer on a mountain descent stage, and so begged the question, how fast is Daniel running on his training runs!
In fourth for the team was Daniel Bruynooghe in 116th. On a day where injury and illness had taken out so many of our runners, to see Daniel come 20 minutes before the start was a welcome sight for this manager. Although his mileage is still low, Daniel has been rowing and running consistently with only one day off a week. But how would this routine serve him in the mud of a 15k? Well Daniel has an excellent racing brain and used it terrifically, conserving some energy for the third lap and moving from 6th in the team to 4th. As usual Daniel pushed himself all the way, but still had enough energy to run the kilometre home with his son, Henri, who although only 6, looked to be able to already do a handy pace! In fifth for the team, and with probably the run of the day, was Donatas Tumaitis in 124th (top photo above with Daniel Bruynooghe). Donatas has only been back running for little over a month, and in last Met he had a very solid first race back. But that was over 8km, this was 15km and Donatas said himself that this would be used as a training run. So how he pulled off making our top 6 and came as high as he did indicates that when he is back to 100% he could be above the level he was last season. Closing the team was Simon Beedell in 125th. Simon has been on a steady upward path of form since last season. He is as tough as you get, as highlighted by the fact he did the Berlin Marathon in September and took no time off after, as he continued training and racing, and he has been a rock to the team this year, so it was very fitting that he closed the team.
In closing 6 in 125 we took 7th place on the day. We had 4 of the Essex team out, and with Simon and Daniel B coming in, the strength of the teams were comparable, so it was interesting to note how we as Essex champions fared. There are about 25 counties in the South, and we were in the band of four clubs just below the top 3, so as County champions we did the title proud, and with a bit of luck on injuries we may have even taken 4th place on the day. Congratulations must go to Highgate, who won it from Serpentine who came second. Having the two best cross country teams in the South in our local competition shows how well we have competed this season, and with some luck hopefully in the bigger races coming we can figure in the team results.
Starting our B team was Harold Wyber in 142nd. Harold admitted before the start that he wasn't as fit as he'd usually like to be at the time of the Southerns. This showed, as on the third lap team mates came past and just edged him from the first 6. Harold can console himself that it usually takes only one ultra event to see him get in top shape, and before the start of the race, the event he was describing to this manager which was going to be in Switzerland sounded staggering, even by Harold's 24 hour Bob Graham round standard! In next was Tony Russell in 172nd. To equal exactly the place of the previous year is very unusual, but looking at the placings, Tony beat everyone he did in the counties and came just behind Ilford's Malcolm Muir, so the position was a fair one, showing how consistent Tony is, but once we hit the road this manager thinks we could see a jump up in form by Tony and he will start beating good runners like Mr Muir on a regular basis. In third for the team was Antton Marcotte in 349th. Antton is over from France on an internship, and although he has only a short time left in the uk, his contributions in the race and then in the pub after were both excellent and if he ever returns to London in the future for work, he will always be welcome to pull on the green and white for Woodford.
in fourth was Pete Caton in 373rd. Pete improved on last year's position by 24 places, but on recent improvement, just missing out on the top 100 in the recent Met for instance, he could have realistically looked at the top 300. But Pete had gone out for a near 2 hour run last Sunday and admitted that he had not felt right since, you know you've had a long run when you think the 15k at Parliament Hill is the short weekend run! In fifth for the team but unfortunately not recorded was Tony Pamphilon (Tony estimated he was 526th). Tony was not recorded as he forgot to put on his chip at the start, so has not featured on the results. 
Tony's anguish at the end (the photo on the right shows the horror etched on his face as the realisation dawns) showed how miffed he was that after all the effort to come and run he could not contribute to the team. But this manager hopes that when his team wins the club's music quiz with Tony as host, Tony's words at the end of the race of, 'if there is anything I can do to make it up to the team', is not used to imply that this unscrupulous manager had immediately used it to get 24 detailed pages of answers from Tony on the quiz. Closing the team, was the good Dr Trevor Powell in 1001st. Trevor had said before the start that he was under orders from his good lady wife to stop if going got too tough as he had not been 100%, but although the going was tough, Trevor gritted his teeth and made it round and although he admitted at the end his pace had not been its usual self due to never feeling comfortable, Trevor was satisfied with his effort.
This closed our B team in 1001. It was fitting that Woodford's first senior in of the day was a Dr in the form of Dr. Suzanne Turvey and the last being Dr. Trevor Powell, and the performance of the team, given it was the longest club cross country race of the season, bodes well for the national cross country at the end of February. Next team race is the Met league at Alexandre Palace in two weeks on Saturday 13th February.