Halstead Road Runners hosted the season finale in the NESS cross country league at Gosfield School today. It was a beautiful sunny day for running and conditions underfoot were extremely muddy.
Halstead had 4 juniors competing in the Fun Run with Will Chandler making a solid debut in 42nd position for the boys. Martha May has competed in every race this season and finished 22nd girl on the day and 6th U11 girl for the season only 6 points behind 3rd place. Josh Roughan has also raced well in his first season completing 5 out of the 6 fixtures. He was 45th boy on the day. Lily-May Hollinshead had a smile on her face as she sprinted across the line in 50th position for the girls.
In the senior race, after a brief re-start, the course took a slightly different route to previous years making use of a neighbouring field. Wes Atkins finished the season strongly in 14th position. Mat Hutley (33rd) and Ivan Filchev (54th ) made the most of the home fixture. Steve May (56th) Sam Wolton (108th) and Antony Denton (147th) completed the scoring team. The men finished 3rd in Pool B on the day.
The ladies fielded an incomplete team, with Anna Bambridge (45th) who has had a fantastic season and Lorraine Garnham (60th) making a welcome return, finishing 4th in Pool B on the day. This left Halstead 4th overall in Pool B on the day and 3rd in Pool B at the end of the season.
Away from cross country Axel Voigt returned to the Test Track 10 miler crossing the line in 1 hour 34 minutes over 2 minutes quicker than last year and his 2nd fastest time over the distance.
John Warne did the Hare and Tortoise anniversary event on the Flitch Way where runners had 6 hours to complete as many laps of approximately 5.3 km each within the time limit. John managed 9 laps which equated to 29.6 miles in 5:51:29. He ran the first 10 miles with his daughter who is training for the Colchester Half Marathon.
