The first race of this year’s RR10 was at Fleming Park. An excellent turn out from Wessex with two new runners (welcome to Andrew and Chris), it could have been even better if it wasn’t for the parking. Poor Phil got stuck in traffic with queues to get into the car par extensive, meaning he missed the start of the race – Tim only just made it to the start in time and is still looking for his car.

As expected, with the first race of the year, numbers were high (492) and the starting line was packed, with difficulty getting away. A relatively flat start and then it was onto some climbing. The course did seem to climb endlessly and despite the dry weather there were some patches of heavy mud – trails shoes essential. Some narrow sections, as always, made overtaking tricky with some low hanging branches an added bonus. It was a two lap course so at least the second time we knew what to expect. A flat 500m for a ‘sprint’ finish to the end of the race.

All Wessex home safely in the order Andrew (168), Nigel (207), Tim (244), Chris (252), David H (269), Richard (277) and Steve (278). Katie finished in place 141. Good to post a Men’s team result for the first race, hopefully we will continue to get at least five runners out in each race.

Thanks to Fran for taking the photos and collecting race places at the end. I thought the ‘Parkrun’ style results system worked pretty well. Onto the next race in only two weeks’ time, parking has already been highlighted as limited so car sharing likely to be essential.

Unfortunately we were missing Doug MacLean at this race, who unfortunately died at the weekend. Doug had been a longstanding member of the Club and had been running in the RR10 since its start in the 1990s. He was very welcoming to me when I joined the Club and will be missed.