Leighton Buzzard Athletic Club

The 28^th British and Irish Masters Cross Country International Championships

Santry Demesne, Dublin

by Gail Duckworth

On Saturday I was representing England in the annual Home international for the 10^th time! I can’t quite believe that my first English vest was in 2002 in the W45-49 in Cardiff. The event moves from country to country each and this year was The Republic of Ireland turn to host it. So, 13 years later and in the W60-64 I competed in Dublin.

The format is the same each year with all women running together W35+ with the Men 65+ over 6K. In our race each country can select 4 runners’ with 3 to score. England usually has more depth and reserves are named some of whom travel and then run in the Open race. The men have two other highly competitive races M50-64 and M35-49 both over 8K and the Open follows these. read more

Saturday started out wet and windy when our dedicated team of volunteers led by Richard arrived at the course to continue the set-up that had begun on Friday. Waterproofs had been donned by most people as the rain was not due to cease until mid-afternoon and there was a lot of work to be done to make another successful event.

Now Richard works very hard on the fixture and as we all know has added in the additional stress of the cross-challenge for the last two years, just for the extra difficulty, but he loves it really. He definitely couldn’t do it without all the help from other people both within our club and outside though. There are too many to mention everyone here, but from everyone who was able to run instead of having to man a car park or marshalling point, thank you very much to those who gave up their day to do exactly that. You may not feel appreciated as we run past scowling, but you are. read more