Report from Peter Simpson:

The combined Buckinghamshire & Bedfordshire cross country championships were held on Saturday, 8 January at Hughenden Park near High Wycombe. As usual I was representing VRUK in the men’s race over a distance of 13K, 3 laps of the park with 2 long & tough climbs. Fortunately they were within the first 2K of each lap, allowing the runners a relatively comfortable 2nd half. The course was also well grassed so little mud with hardly a splash on the legs.

The competition as expected was tough and it was more of a case of trying to compete with runners in my age group. As the race progressed I picked up some places and after climbing the sixth and last hill I seemed to be leading a group with a long gap ahead of me. Just when I was feeling confident of maintaining my position, I was overtaken by two runners. One continued to go further ahead whilst the other I overtook again for a short time before he recaptured the lead and had a bit more left in the tank in the last 100 metres to pull away.

It was only a couple of days later I learned that I was 43rd / 57 in the Bucks Champs and 5th V50, the 1st V50 was in fact 3rd overall and a very fit RAF High Wycombe representative. In the combined two counties race I finished 72 / 100.