Here comes summer ...

So Blog, that’s the cross country out of the way for another six months or so. And now to the track and road ….

You probably are aware that, until a few years ago, the men and women’s competitions on both track and over the country were kept apart, never the twain to meet. Each year, one week my wife would race the Midland Women’s Cross Country Championships and I used to run around cheering her on – the following week I would ran the Midland Men’s Cross Country Championships and she used to run around and cheer me on. Two weeks later we repeated the process; one week she would run in the Women’s National Cross Country Championships and I cheered her on and the following week I would run in the Men’s National Cross Country Championships and she used to cheer me on!!! One particular year, presumably because of the way the calendar panned out, we ran on the same day miles apart in our respective National Championships …. It was complicated but we met up to travel home together. The meeting place was a service station somewhere on the M6, quite romantic!!!!!! She was dropped off and I picked her up!!!!!!!!!

One of the features of all road and cross country races in those far off days, was the sale of athletic kit and running shoes from the backs of a cars by several different runners all vying for custom. The car boot grew into a small van, the small van into large van, the large van then got a trestle table, the trestle table then moved indoors, the indoors moves to mail order and finally, the retail sector was born healthy when the first joggers shuffled down the streets with quids jangling in their lycra bottoms.

So, let us imagine … turn the clock back to a time when the men’s league and the women’s leagues took place at different times in different places, sometimes on the same day sometimes on different days …. But the kit cars were there!!! The only difference was that the women had to put up with some appalling courses …. Read on  ………….

1990 or sometime thereabouts … two men deep in conversation on a Friday afternoon in the gathering gloom of a winter’s day.…….

“LOOK, if the ladies are racing here tomorrow we have got to get this course sorted out today. Agreed?”

“Agreed”.

“Right then. I suggest that we have the ‘Start’ here, which means that they can use the two miles from the school they are using for changing, as a warm up …”

“….and the two miles back as a warm down-brilliant”.

“Have you checked with the caretaker about using the school?”

“Yes – we can have the one small changing room. You know, that grubby smelly one where the showers don’t work.”

“I know, the one we tried to give to the men last month and we nearly got lynched until we agreed to open up both gyms and the new shower block. Lucky we could use the sports hall as well or they’d probably have killed us.”

“Thank goodness, we won’t have that expense this time. You know, thinking about it, if we shift the start line a little this way, the field will head straight from the start for those big oak trees after about 50 metres, it will split the field right apart. Those that go to the left go through that gorse while the others will have to be careful going overs those broken house bricks. The rubble is from that other small changing-room, you know, the one that was blown down in that gale. After the storm, the council never did repair the roof properly on the one we’re using, did they? Can be right draughty at times.”

 If we send the field through that narrow gateway just past the oaks, it will funnel the field back together again. It’ll also give those that don’t get a fast start a chance to get their breath back while they wait to get through …”

 “… and the very slow ones that got left at the start will have time to catch up. Brilliant.”

“We must be careful which marshal we put by the gate. Some of the words the women use – can’t half swear some of them y’know.”

“Sending them through the gateway will save us knocking down the fence like we had to do for the men.”

“We could send them along that narrow concrete path next to the barbed wire fence… they shouldn’t damage their spikes too much on the concrete. Better warn them to look out for the electric fence though; health and safety and all that. Anyway we don’t want too much torn kit, do we?”

“Or torn flesh … can’t stand the sight of blood myself. Nor young girls crying.”

“After the path, let them wade through that stream. It’s not too muddy and anyway, the water should’ve gone down a bit by tomorrow if we don’t get any more rain.”

“I wanted to send the men through there you know, but they reckoned it was too dangerous, not being able to see the rocks under the water. In the end, it was easier to miss it out ‘cos they weren’t too happy about the concrete path either. They finished up just running around the school playing fields and the parkland. Anyway, if we bring the girls along that shale roadway, across those ditches, through the small gap in the hawthorne hedge, down the wet part of the plough and back up this side of the hill, it means they can have a fast downhill run along this road side verge before they cross back over the tarmac to the start/finish area.”

“Having the start and finish in the same place?”

“Oh yes, I think so. Don’t you? We don’t want to make things too difficult for the officials. It’ll mean that they can drive from the school and park their cars here alongside the road. Which reminds me of two more things. Number one - parking is for officials only. Number two. Must remember to ask the farmer to shift his cows.”

“Three laps for the seniors?”

“Yes, three laps should be about right, I reckon.”

“Oh we must try to remember to see the police about stopping the traffic while the race is in progress. It might be a bit difficult because the City have a cup match on their ground just over there and all the supporters come this way to get to the ground. But we had better try I suppose.”

“First Aid?”

“No not really … we already have our permit and if there is a problem, there’s usually somebody about to help.”

“We have got all the jobs allocated then?”

“Yes, I think so. What are you doing?”

 “Oh I’ll be selling my kit as usual. And you?”

“Me … I told you. City have a cup match on their own ground over there.”

      Nowt changes Blog. Nowt.