Horsenden Hill is special to me as it was my first EVER cross country race when I guested as a vet for the club in February 2012 – when it snowed and the ground was lovely and firm, writes Donna Nash.
This year, I felt privileged to be one of the nine Hillingdon women running at Perivale and helped gain the senior team fifth place in Division Two , which keeps our sixth place in the season.
It was a nice calm sunny day but the race was tough in extremely muddy conditions -incredibly sticky and soft underfoot and it really sapped the strength from the legs. I overheard one competitor comment that it was even muddier than Ally Pally!
Lesley Conway, running strong and consistently this season, helped drag me round as I tried to keep her in my sights. We are developing a little friendly rivalry which will serve to keep us both going when the going gets tough. It was close between us but this time on the second lap I found something extra which had deserted me at Ally Pally and I finished as fourth Hillingdon runner.
Another rivalry was developing up front between Eva Mack and Hannah Wells , ending as Hannah ahead of Eva for the first time this cross country season. She was first club runner home in impressive style in 26.15 mins coming 31st overall out of the 152 in the field. Hannah said she felt good going into the race following a good week of training; that it was really hard going from the start, particularly where the course narrowed and she got slightly trapped. “It was tough because it was so muddy without much let up. After the first 2 km I got into my rhythm and started to overtake; I felt strong up the hills and managed to push a few places higher which I was delighted about.“
Eva finished in 35th place (26.39) then Christina Hall 84th (29.40). I crossed the line in exactly 30mins , 95th overall with Lesley only 8 seconds behind (97th). Pauline Fischer came in 31.06 (106th) , then Lucy Duncan 33.07 (122nd) followed by Angela Duncan 35.48 ( 137th ) and Maria Hernandez-Humm 36.17 (139th) .