The Stags Rise to the Challenge at Epping Forest in the Chingford League

Saturday 20th January morning saw the fifth Chingford League race of the season at Epping Forest and, as always, at this venue it was a tough one. Even the start on the flat was tough with the first 800m proving very congested unless like Steph Harrison you find a path through the forest that has never been trod by man before. The rest of us found ourselves stuck behind runners hesitating on the frozen ruts and trying to avoid the many thorns. It didn't get any easier after that although we were at least spared excessive mud and thanks to Charlie White most of us were sensibly wearing trails rather than spikes. While most of us were chatting and enjoying the comforts of the Clubhouse, Charlie had tested out the course during his warm up and rushed back to inform his less experienced team mates that we should wear trails. It was good advice.

The course was 2 laps, 8km in total, and included 2 very steep hills, sharp downhills, and frozen ruts. The downhills, in particular, proved tricky with both Gary Randle and Paul Bassa taking the desire to fly past competitors too literally and falling spectacularly; sadly in Paul's case he was shaken up too much to continue but was unhurt and proved to be in fine form at the Evening Social. 

The hills were very challenging for most of us but seemingly not for Mandy Violet and Kirsty Johnstone who ran up them with relative ease and accordingly had great races as did Steph De'Ath 'slipstreaming' behind Kathryn Ellis. James Marschalek (3rd of our men to finish) and Charlotte Michael (2nd of our female finishers) each had fantastic races in their first club race of the Winter season; hiking in the mountains of New Zealand is obviously good preparation for this race. Jenny Lambert, Lynne Cox and Bev Dewberry were full of smiles and energy while Dermot McHugh had a fine club debut.

Kevin Valaydon had a terrible start to his morning; arriving late due to work commitments, struggling to find a car park space, losing his car keys and reaching the start of the race to collect his number (thank you! Pauline for looking after Kevin) 5 minutes after everybody had started. It would have been easy for him to give up and go home but that is not how Stags behave in the face of adversity; instead he showed great determination and resilience and ‘motored’ round the course. A great example to us all!

At the front of the race our men were led home by Ed Fraser (of course!) who seems to thrive on all courses and in any conditions while our 2nd finisher Richard McCormick had another superb race and is leading the Individual M60 Points Trophy with maximum points to date. Magnificent! In the women’s race Jana Jilkova, who is having a great cross country season, led our women home with a great run.

Once again a feature of this year’s Chingford League has been our travelling support and on Saturday we had Pauline and Costa, Scott and Victoria, Mel and Sara cheering, taking photos and helping. All very welcome!

All 42 Stags (compared to 20 the previous year) who competed deserve great credit and on the day our women won the Division 2 contest while our men were second. After 5 races it is worth reflecting on the season to date and it looks good; our men and women are both top of Division 2 and by a comfortable margin having finished first or second in every race. In the Vets category which includes all 21 teams our men are fifth and our women are seventh and in the B team contest, also out of 21 teams, our men are fifth and our women are third. Brilliant!

Our high turnouts, coupled with a fierce competitiveness, great camaraderie and team spirit, are delivering great performances and proving a great advert for the Club.