THE BOBBLE HAT RUN

It was a Shirley Diver inspired fashion parade last Sunday as the bobble hats were out in force. 36 Werrington Joggers turned out for race 4 of the Frostbite series.

The facilities at March are good. Car parking is plentiful, well organised and free with the only downside being the walk from the parking to the venue, described as 5-10 minute we took a little longer but really nothing to complain about.

Inside the clubhouse is where the Werrington Joggers had made camp, pleasantly warm out of the strong wind with tea, coffee, cakes etc being sold. The ladies toilet did have a considerable queue outside though. I must admit that 15 minutes before the race there seemed to be a lack of men about and I was worried that my recovery run may become a recovery race. I needn’t have feared, the fellas arrived to support the very strong ladies team.

The course is I think roughly the same as the Whitemoor 5 Miler race run during the summer. From memory it felt the same. Starting on the road you take an almost immediate right turn onto a pathway/stone track then most of us came to an immediate stop as we all funnelled over a bridge. I didn’t really enjoy the stony path, so moved where I could onto the verge. You go out and back along these paths to where you started on the road, past where the race would eventually finish and out into the wilderness. The surfaces here were mixed, mainly hard under-foot but with clumps of grass and mud on the road. In wetter conditions this would be slippery, but on Sunday it was dry making the mud an ankle turning risk, so it was eyes on the road. At mile 4 we turned the corner onto the exposed river bank and into a strong head wind. I felt this was the toughest section of the course with the wind and the grass underfoot was a little long and the surface uneven. Thankfully it didn’t last long before we were back onto the stony paths towards the finish, again I ran as much as I could on the verge. Back on the road and across the line at the playing field. A mainly flat course, no horror hills, just one or two obstacles under foot to beware of. Most people I spoke to after the race seemed to have enjoyed it.

We finished 8^th on the day and are 7^th overall. Our 10 scoring runners were Jack Green, Jeff Lucas, Ellie Swire, Phil Hamlyn, Malc Jacklin, Andy Keir, Jeremy Green, Sadie Boor, Derek Smith and Ann Wood. Well done all.

The next race is in Bourne on the 3^rd February. It’s also a Club Championship race