Get ready for the Met League cross country season
As usual, the first Metropolitan League Cross Country race is at Claybury Park and the season kicks off on Saturday 15 October. That’s less than a month to get your legs to forget about the smooth and speedy track and learn to love hills, grass and, of course, mud!
We’re looking forward to a great winter season. With a good turnout of athletes we should be able to get our Women’s team back up into Division One. It’s even tougher for the Men to get promoted, because the number of runners needed to score good points is so much higher. But let’s go for it!
The season consists of five races of between 7-8km and the terrain is a mix of grass and tracks. You’ll charge through fields and woods, splash through a stream in Uxbridge, and trudge up and down a load of hills (except at Wormwood Scrubs which is, depending on your point of view, either merifully or boringly flat).
It’s a terrific team event, with hundreds of runners taking part in the senior men’s and women’s races, from under 20s to the over 60s.
Our club’s fastest finishers score points for our teams (eg the top 10 men and the top 5 women score in Division 2) You can see that we need a decent turnout at every race! The number of points depends on the number of runners in the race… so we need strength and depth. We need our best athletes to finish fast and lots of others to score in our second and Veterans teams and boost the overall number of points on offer.
Last season our numbers were a little low - there are so many other races during the winter - but we do hope that this season, lots of you will prioritise competing in the Club competitions. (Part of what your Club annual subs pays for is our entry into these races, so individuals do not have to pay anything).
Last season, our team spirit grew throughout the season with young athletes staying on after their races to cheer our seniors on and earlier finishers jogging back to bolster spirits of their slower team mates. And there is always cake at the end… sometimes with healthy ingredients and sometimes it’s just chocolatey carbs.
Met League dates 2022-23
Saturday 15th October 2022 - Claybury
Saturday 12th November 2022 - Wormwood Scrubs
Saturday 3rd December 2022 - Uxbridge
Saturday 14th January 2023 - Welwyn Garden City
Saturday 11th February 2023 - Trent Park
The exact timetable for this year will follow, but the young athlete races usually start around Midday, then the women's race is followed by the men’s.
Please let Anna Murray (anna1murray1@gmail.com) or Dave Byrne (dbyrne415@btinternet.com) know if you’d like to compete in the Met League this season so we can enter you and allocate you a number for the season. (we can declare your entry on the day, but it is much easier in advance!). You can join our Met League WhatsApp group by messaging 07999 534805
Anna Murray