Mince pies, brandy butter and a few runs

Races are thin on the ground this week but we still had a few runners in cross country, a couple of road 10ks and lots of parkruns. Other runners mainly ate mince pies.

A clutch of cross-country crazed club members braved the cold and the turkey sweats to get one last cross-coountry race in before the end of the year, at the Chingford League in Trent Park. Richard Macaulay came 9th overall and Rebecca Bunting came home as 4th lady - well done both -  with James Wooldridge, Andrew Brooker, Jonathan Litchfield and Jessica Vinluan also representing Heathside round the 5 mile course (same as the Fraternity and Sorority Cup).

Further afield, in the Heathside heartland of, er, Clitheroe, Mark George, Rebecca Taylor and this week's roving race reporter (Jane) ran the Ribble Valley 10k. It was a lovely countryside route with lots of good Northern banter on the start line ("Come in here where it's cosy, duck"), although the organisers may have had a bit too much sherry before labelling it as flat. Mark was pleased with his time of 41.35 but disappointed to be overtaken by his brother.  Yours truly (Jane) was pleased with a PB but annoyed the timing chip didn't work so only recorded by Garmin. Rebecca was also pleased to get under her target time.

In Stratford-upon-Avon, Dan McKeown and Louisa Pointon did the Tempo 10K. Dan came 15th in 40.30 and Louisa came 65th in 48.26.

That's it - fairly thin on the ground for races this week. However don't despair Jerry, Heathsiders did not spend all their holiday time eating mince pies and drinking brandy butter - a few made it out to parkruns over Christmas week. Full results below, and first places this week went to Andrew Brooker (x2), Cathy Jeremiah, Clare Miller, Caroline White, Matt Collins, Rebecca Piggot, Richard Macaulay and Rebecca Bunting. Cathy also wins the most far-flung parkrun of the week award, in Melbourne. Throw a shrimp on the barbie for us, would you Cathy?

Park Run Results 27th December 2014 and Park Run Results 25th December 2014

Chingford League, Trent Park

9 Richard Macaulay 29:14
12 James Wooldridge 29:44
27 Andrew Brooker 30:52
46 Jonathan Litchfield 32.22
53 Rebecca Bunting 33.40
104 Jessica Vinluan 38.50

Ribble Valley 10k
327 Mark George 41.35
398 Jane Higgins 43.24
751 Rebecca Taylor 51.22

Tempo 10k, Stratford-upon-Avon
15 Dan McKeown 40.30
65 Louisa Pointon 48.22