Met League Race One: Claybury

A beautiful day to start the winter season in weather that is typically Claybury (sunshine, hard underfoot) but not typically cross country (raining, soft underfoot)!  Barnet struggled with total numbers but the athletes in attendance performed admirably and kept us away from the bottom of Division 2.  For those that know, this race is defined by a very steep hill, ascended 3 times by senior athletes.  For those that don’t know, there is a bloody steep hill that you have to fight to the top of 3 times, it is not uncommon to see athletes reduced to walking, especially on the third lap!

The women’s team, comprising Emma McCluskey, Jana Jilkova, Steph Harrison, Yllka Istrefi and Amanda Violet (1 short of a full team) finished the day in 5th place, out of 11 Division 2 teams.  All our women raced well and earned their place in the middle of the pack.

Whilst the men’s team, comprising Alex Horton, Will Morris, Noah Clarke, Brian Lallaway, Costa Michael, Gary Randle and Chris Violet (3 short of a full team) finished the day in 11th out of 14 Division 2 teams.  There were big gaps between our first 3, and next 4 athletes and we have work to do packing out the field to move ourselves away from the bottom of the division.  A special mention for Carmelo Quattrocchi who made the journey, only to pull up due to injury in the first 500m of the race, rest and recover Carmelo, we need you later in the season.

Those in attendance will have been aware that the senior races were significantly delayed due to an on course injury.  You will be glad to know that the athlete was released from hospital that day and is recovering.  And demonstrating the care and camaraderie of our Met League community, numerous runners stopped their racing to help, including a paramedic from Serpentine.