17 Hillingdon Senior and Veteran ladies traveled to a very muddy Stanborough Park on a miserable Saturday where the course took revenge on anyone not turning up in cross country shoes with long spikes!!
All 17 starters finished this hilly and challenging 3 lap course and were led home by remarkable debutant Rachel Boswell in 25th position and Hannah Wells in 31st. The Paterson twins followed with Catriona in 35th and Dr Heather Paterson in 54th position Top veteran Karmen Pardoe finished in 67th position with water bottle carrying Nicola Penty-Alvarez completing the A team in 79th position. That gave us 210 points and a very good 4th position on the day out of 12 teams in the top division. We stay in 6th position overall.
The second team demonstrated the value of 'Pack' running when the entire 5 lady team ran as a group and finished within 7 places!!! This was made up Karen O'Rourke in 98th, Zoe Dobbs in 100th, Elise Delrange in 101st, Pauline Fischer in 103rd and Melanie Spencer in 104th. These performances gave us 86 points and 5th position out of twelve teams in division 2 on the day and remain in 6th overall.
A welcome return to HAC by Morgane Lesanne finishing in 111th led home the C team. Nastaran Sepanj (143rd), Caroline Pretty (144th despite starting late and giving the whole field a head start!!!) and top coach Vicky Brownlee in 149th position meant we had a full C team and scored 61 points in division 3 finishing 8th on the day and moved up a position to 8th.
In the Veterans divisions we started without our two fastest Veterans and our A team finished 5th on the day but remain in 4th position in 12 team division 1 and our B team are 11th in the same division following their 9th position today. WE NEED A GOOD TURNOUT IN THE LAST FIXTURE AT TRENT PARK IN A MONTHS TIME TO AVOID THE B TEAM BEING RELEGATED FOLLOWING THEIR PROMOTION INTO THE TOP DIVISION LAST YEAR!!!!!!
We had two scorers for the 3rd Vets team with Lucy Duncan finishing in 154th and the guaranteed finisher Angela Duncan in 161st meant we remain in ninth position in division 2.
So WELL DONE everyone – a good turnout and some GREAT performances but to avoid our 2nd Vets team being relegated we need a strong showing in 4 weeks time on February 11th. Please make EVERY EFFORT to make it to the last fixture
Keep running and stay healthy!!
Andy T