The DARK! holds no fear for the Stags at Hog Hill in the Chingford League

The evening of Tuesday 7th November saw the third Chingford League race of the season at Hog Hill and there were a lot of positives for the Club. Once again numbers were up significantly on the previous year and this is true across all the Winter races; the Club is definitely on the up and up.

For once it wasn’t raining and bitingly cold at Hog Hill; a real blessing. It was, however, DARK! (pitch black dark!) on a large part of this hilly and challenging course but many of us like it this way and wouldn’t wish it any different since it’s what makes this race unique in the Winter calendar. There were more torches being used by competitors this year and the faster ones proved useful hares to the rest of us when we could see them. It also has to be said that the men never felt especially lonely on the dark stretches because we could hear our female teammates cheering in the far distance. We definitely had the best trackside support on the night and I hope we were able to reciprocate a little during the women’s race. We tried! The views over London were wonderful too.

Our women’s team (2nd in Division 2 on the night) was led home once again by Stephanie Harrison who had another great race and enjoyed the dark. Kathryn Ellis followed her home and has rediscovered her speed; she didn’t enjoy the dark so no doubt was keen to get home quickly. Stephanie De’Ath and Sian Stanton (2 days after a Half Marathon blighted by illness!) followed in close proximity and delivered great times on their season’s debut. Kate Phillips was quick too in spite of an unreliable torch while Shayna Godin also had a great run. Nathalie Gilligan was impressive on her Club debut (Hog Hill is a tough introduction to club racing) and will get better and better in the years to come.  

The men’s team (1st again in Division 2) was led home superbly once again by Ed Fraser (a magnificent 17.03; 2nd in Division 2 and 12th overall) who is on sparkling form while Calvin Wu and Kelvin Koloko clearly enjoyed their return to racing; the first Club race for Kelvin this Winter. Callum Sydenham was as quick as ever and it was good to see the return to Hog Hill of former U20 Chingford League champion Nick Scott after 4 years away at university. An injury free Andy Welsh had a great race too and is recovering some of his speed of old.

Even though the first three races have been at locations that don’t suit us due to their proximity to Moscow both our men and women’s teams are leading Division 2 which is fantastic!