Floods, cake and a swarm!

2023 Warwickshire County XC Championships
 

Report  – Paul Hawkins

It was golds galore for Stratford AC just before Christmas at the 2023 Warwickshire County Championships on a wet and muddy day at Warley Woods, Smethwick!

An all-time club best of five team golds equalling last years result plus a silver together with two individual golds and four silvers were claimed by the Stratford team.

While it was a sparkling performance from the team unfortunately the organisers performance was less so, as the overall team results have only just been released.

After winning this last season, we slipped to third place, close behind Birchfield and BRAT Club but comfortably ahead of major clubs such as Royal Sutton Coldfield, Leamington, Kenilworth and Rugby.

Unfortunately the Stratford team were fewer in number than previously due to injuries and illness which affected to overall result.

Report – Paul Bearman

After developing a back problem in the summer of 2022 that was suspected to be growth related, Under 20 multi eventer Lucy Lane has finally returned to competition.

After a long bumpy period of doing nothing and then, after a late diagnosis of fractures in a lower vertebrae her doctor said it was something that could be lived with and after a long slow grind of exercise and rehab Lucy tentatively was able to start competing again in August 2023. 

After 12 weeks of winter training Lucy enjoyed a low key run out over 60m hurdles and Long Jump in December with thankfully no ill effect on her back or a foot problem she suffered in the summer and so Lucy entered the England Athletics combined events Pentathlon championships in Sheffield last weekend.

With limited technical work under her belt and not feeling particularly well, the first event, the 60m hurdles was a resounding boost to her confidence with Lucy comfortably winning her heat and running 9.53s, a half a second PB.

High Jump was the next event with a best clearance of 1.51 which was just below her PB,  this was followed by a “below par” Shot of 7.65m and a Long Jump of 4.82m, again just outside her PB showed things had generally gone well. The final event was the 800m and as a sprinter/jumper the 800m is never something to look forward to but despite not feeling great Lucy decided to push on and give it a go and in her first 800m since 2019 Lucy managed to run a PB of 2:51.5 giving her a final points total of 2771 in her first Pentathlon.

Afterwards Lucy reflected “I’m really pleased to have managed to finish! Hurdles was my best event and was half a second quicker than in Loughborough a few weeks ago but I know I can still go quicker with more training. High Jump and Long Jump were OK but Shot and the 800m were shockers”. She added “I was completely exhausted but really pleased to have finished 12^th overall but even more pleased to get the gold medal as the first Midlands athlete”.

From my and a coaching perspective I couldn’t be more proud of Lucy with her guts and determination to get back on the track and do so well. It’s been a long road nursing her back to be able to compete again, especially as combined events is a very exhausting  event.

This result gives us a benchmark and we can continue working on things that makes the outdoor season something to look forward to. ????

Report – Pip Bell

In late 2022 Susan Hunt told me about a race that I MUST do in January 2023 called the Fladbury Festive 5 but she told me not to dilly dally on entering as spaces are limited.

Well, I was too slow and didn’t manage to get a place booked in time. I was not going to let that happen again and I made sure that I got a place for this race this year!

I also managed to convince a few other club members to enter as well and told them all that we would be rewarded with cake at the end.

Needless to say they wasted no time in entering!

Fladbury Festive 5 is not very festive, but it is a 5 mile route, although it had to be changed due to flooding. The organisers did a fabulous job in salvaging the event and I can honestly say that is was a great way to start off 2024.
 
It was a mixture of road and trail, so the topic of conversation that morning (except about the lovely cakes) was which shoes should we wear?? 

About 150 runners set off on a sunny but cold morning and all of our SAC runners were amazing. Rob Gisbourne, Jan Turner and myself won our age categories and were happy to be presented with trophies for our efforts. 

I am so glad that I managed to get a place for this race and I encourage you all to give this delightful event a go! See you there in 2025!