WHO SAYS "WITH AGE COMES WISDOM?!"

33rd YVAA Cross Country Championships

We might never have made it to the venue and there were times during the afternoon I wish we never had.
Frank Reddington assured us he had been to Graves Park before, quite recently and that his Sat Nav had a programme which guided you back to previous haunts. Great!
Only at one stage, as we crawled through a small but crowded Saturday lunchtime high street, with plenty of tightly packed shops but very few signs of any off-road run-able terrain, I thought we were going to end up at the place that Frank’s work colleagues held their Christmas do.
Oh ye of little faith McGhie… not long after, and largely as a result of Steve Moss molesting half a dozen passers by for navigational knowledge, we pitched up (and note the term UP) at a green space I had last seen 21 years ago, albeit at a much warmer and drier time of year.
The several hours climbing the final assent to the park entrance had put doubts in my mind and Graves Park turned out to be an undulating South Yorkshire version of Table Mountain - a plateaux on top of a mountain - albeit not as sunny this time of year as it’s South African twin.
The ground was firm but muddy, the course was what Yorkshire folk love to describe as “scenic” (translated into English as Bl****y hilly) and the changing rooms had a mid-fifties feel that screamed out such homely encouragement as “cold showers afterwards, lads”. The post race icy water never materialised - in fact the showers were probably the highlight of the day and turned out to be the only thing that didn’t have cause indescribable pain.
You may have guessed I am not the most avid fan of Cross Country yet had turned up to represent Spenborough with Frank and Mossy – among the two craziest off-road nuts at the club. If it don’t cause excruciating pain and leave you frozen, wet and tired, it ain’t worth doing according to these hardened head-cases.
I have infinitely more sense, believing that to be worth doing a race must be flat and you have to be able to see the finish and all the course from the start, but I also possess an inability to say no.
The Yorkshire Veterans Cross Country Championship was therefore a new experience to me and turns out to be an annual gathering of every generation of runners, except the new generation, who still can’t accept that a pair of slippers and well stoked fire are infinitely more inviting on an early February afternoon, than slashing around a muddy field!
The younger age group (under 50!) had to wait another hour but us Super-Vets (and Spenborough were only represented in the Over-50s race) set the meet’ in motion, alongside the halfway (2 laps) for ladies, with the first four-lap endurance test, apparently 10km and lasting seemingly until the following Wednesday.
I ran half a lap with a stone buried in one of my pair of spikes that hadn’t seen the light of days since being shelved in my garage three years ago (when I ‘retired’ from XC!) and have been limping through the bruising to my tendon ever since!
I began OK, finishing lap one around fifth but things went rapidly downhill (although sadly only metaphorically!) from there.
With eyes tightly closed in pain I finally struggled across the finish line 11th, while Frank and Steve, ninth and 14th in their age groups, trudged in shortly afterwards in the full knowledge that they would have to give away an aggregate of almost 20 years between them in making up and Over-50’s team. We were all fairly proud that Spen’ still placed sixth overall…and ahead of the likes of Holmfirth and City of Hull.
Upon arriving back home I tossed the spikes back into the garage with the promise that would remain there for another long time…or at least until the National XC Champs at the end of the month… told you I couldn’t say NO!

Team Spenborough: Steve Moss, Keith McGhie and Frank Reddington at the part of the course one of them at least thought was the best – the finish!

Result (top five and other important runners, like US!)

33rd YVAA Cross Country Championships
Graves Park, Sheffield - 6th Feb 2010 Race 2 - 10km - Veteran Men Aged 50-69

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Pos Name Club Time Cat CP Team

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1 KEVIN NEWMAN ...... DONCASTER & STAINFORTH 38:50 M50 1

2 DAVE BROOKSBANK .............. BARNSLEY AC 39:12 M50 2

3 DAVE ANSELL .......... STEEL CITY STRIDERS 39:16 M50 3

4 TADEUSZ ZARANKO ....... RICHMOND & ZETLAND 39:25 M50
5 TIM TETT ............... SHEFFIELD RUNNERS 39:37 M50

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11 KEITH MCGHIE .............. SPENBOROUGH AC 40:36 M50 (9)

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49 FRANK REDDINGTON .......... SPENBOROUGH AC 45:52 M55 (9)

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59 STEVE MOSS ................ SPENBOROUGH AC 47:54 M60 (14)