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| The start of the Junior Mens race this year - Braveheart your way across the football pitches and then straight up the hill |
Saturday saw the National Cross Country Championships weekend with England, Scotland and Wales all holding their respective championships on the same day.
The English Cross Country Association (ECCA) home is Parliament Hill and Hampstead Heath - a naturally boggy hilly piece of ground where water springs bubble up making the ground naturally damp and hard work under foot. It's also the home athletics track of Highgate Harriers, as well as hosted with Serpentine RRC - which is the largest Running Club in the country (did you know?)
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| that view across to the city - take a closer look and check the skyline |
One of the aspects of the Parliament Hill course is the start - which has the "normal" braveheart start across the football field near the Lido, and then the massive funnelling to the first pinch point - conveniently located - at the top of the hill.
This gives everyone spectating a great view of the field - out across the london landscape as the race comes up and past the tented village where the clubs stake their claim to a bit of dry ground with their club colours.
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| Yes - thank you Saucony !! |
Live pictures powered by Pic2Go, sponsored by Saucony
You can still register here for your images - https://www.saucony.com/UK/en_GB/national-xc/
Yes, from the event we took and uploaded over 160,000 images, with pic2go barcodes to identify runners - and then sending them directly to the registered personal facebook accounts.
First pictures were going out during the first race - and then throughout the day.
With seven photographers running over 12 cameras it made for thorough coverage all around the course - with the more memorable points captured. The setting sun without any cloud at the end of the day always makes the finish line a tricky place to work too - with the sun directly behind the runners !!!
One of our photographers who caught the train to the event had some great feedback from four athletes who were chatting about the pic2go service on their way home. Apparently it made a big difference to the overall experience of the day, and it was all they were talking about for the whole journey. So - we continue in our quest to make people happy !! (with a bit of success).
It was incredibly cold in the wind and all around the course, so very well done to everyone completing the course on the day - I was grateful for the sun being out almost all day and the trees near me (at point C on the course) buffering me from some of the gusts - very well done by the team on keeping warm and working hard, and on all the athletes on getting around the course.
Full results and participants race numbers are available now from here:
http://www.englishcrosscountry.co.uk/news/saucony-english-national-xc-results-2018/
We also have a high resolution gallery available on the website - so if you want to get prints, or images without the Saucony branding on - then this is your place to get them from
https://sspimg.com/nationalXC-2018-gallery
SNOW?
Next weekend is the weekend after the snow hits. The forecast locally here is very very cold, but the thaw setting in saturday. With the Nuts Winter challenge on saturday - that might be a challenge to get to, let alone compete at (lets see how many cases of hypothermia we get!), otherwise the Steying Stinger on Sunday will be the one to make sure nobody actually dies of exposure if it doesn't warm up. After writing this blog I'm going to fashion some oversocks from an old foil blanket to see what can be done - the circulation in my toes since being on betablockers has been somewhat borderline at best, but I have some battery heated innersoles that might get a full workout soon...
Past and future races
Here's the list of recent and next races and galleries for you - can I make a totally unbiased suggestion of entering the Brentwood Half Marathon - a lovely course - including countryside and some free pictures powered by pic2go technology !
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| The view down the start hill |
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| The view from the top of the start hill across to the city |
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| Marshal point C - that muddy hill descent |
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| Off on the lap around the last but one field |
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| Who said junior running was dying out ? |
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| Catch the birdy gull thingy |
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| goin' ok coach |
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| top speed through the mud |
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| all going well on the last descent |
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| There's nothing quite like the joy of Cross country, especially when a day later you see an old friend suffering more than you did. Well done Ian ! |
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| Wycombe takes a double check of the imposter doing a very good impression of a bearded Steve Ovett, clearly time travelling back about 30 years... and landing a bit further north in Corby |
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WHY ! WHY ! WHY AM I DOING THIS ?
(character building, that's why) |
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| Easy at the end |
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| make the last descent look like fun |
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| Top finishing ! |
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| been practising correct arm technique |
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| been gardening enroute with those hands |
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| Top raised victory arm |
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| Anyone might think this was posed. Nope just awesome. |
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| don't forget the tape next year... |
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| wrong tape in the wrong place... |
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| How to finish faces |
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| taken out from behind, there was a moment's concern |
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| then up and off, it's not a gallantry competition you know |
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| It's ok, he found it |
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| Good to see Brian being a good boy... |
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| Low Fell's club secretary feels guilty for making the Club Chairman get the team point... well she said she felt guilty... |
So, get your entry into the Brentwood Half Marathon ready for the 18th of March, with those lovely free and live photos powered by Pic2Go direct to your facebook account -
http://bit.ly/Brentwood-Half
until next time, keep warm and be careful of the cold, and dress sensibly if you're racing this weekend !!
Anthony
