http://www.loftus-ac.co.uk/forum/topic28-is-there-anyone-out-there.aspx Loftus and Whitby AC - Cross Country - Is There Anyone out There? - Messages en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Jitbit AspNetForum Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:41:21 GMT Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:41:21 GMT http://www.loftus-ac.co.uk/forum/topic28-is-there-anyone-out-there.aspx Well to be honest I just don’t seem to have had the time this year, the months have just slipped by. It’s been another busy year here in B&B land, and what with the afternoon re-runs of “Only Fools and Horses” then the Athletics in Daegu, and to top it all the storyline in “Doctors” has been unmissable.
Anyway finally I’ve found five minutes so thought it was time to make a contribution and try and bring the forum back to life.
So here goes;
(For Catherine)

Cross CountryFile

With 2 NYSD Cross Country meetings already been and gone, there’s a bit of catching up to do, there’s already been some notable performances, notable debuts and notable absentees (yes Chris your not going to get off that lightly).
Starting with the youngsters I have to admit to not knowing most of them but always cheer them on from the side, and it should come as no surprise to see the names Kent and Marstri…….Mastral…….Mastrawl……(Julie’s Kids) featuring prominently, I’m sure if they stick at it they’ll soon be faster than their ‘not getting any younger Mums’. Saying that I’ve got to hand it to Nicola though, she seems to be getting faster as she gets older, having started the Cross Country season as she ran the Summer Fells, still running fast, still mentally strong, and still straightening her hair so as not be mistaken for Rebekah Brooks. Julia has also started really well, I won’t say anything derogatory about Julia, she’s too nice a person for that, Oh except for the moment at Olivers Mount where to encourage me from the side she shouted “Come on Mick, this is easier than a Fell Race” just as well I was too out of breath to answer.
So all’s well with the ladies, 2 wins under their belt, top of the shop already and we hope on the way to yet another series victory.
Bit more mixed for the men though.
We were a bit under strength at Acklam, I’ll get to Chris Ellis later, but first we should focus on the positives. Firstly I seemed to have acquired a new name “Nick Clark” don’t know how that happened but I’m okay with it, he seems to be doing better than Mick Clarke ever did. Secondly the club seems to have acquired another good runner, cross country debutant Mark Young has made a good start and he’ll only get better, he’s a young man, he’s a new recruit, and I’m sure he finds it fun to run in the NYSD, (there’s a song in there somewhere I think, maybe for another time).
So a disappointing result at Acklam, however Scarborough was a different story. We had a very strong team out at Oliver’s Mount, and Chris Ellis did make it but we’ll get to him in a minute. The team in fact was so strong that as we gathered at the start a good number of us “non counters” decided to play the “finish in the same position as your number game” just to give us something to aim for. On the day this game was won by Alan Bottomley, he paced it brilliantly and got it bang on, number 70 finished 70th, well done Alan, although he was run very close by Paul Smith, number 66 finished 67th. This could make for a good competition for which we could have a trophy at the end of the season (Dave), lowest accumulative difference between race number and position, best four races to count. With all our male race numbers between 50 and 70 this seems to be biased towards us “not so good runners” which is fine by me.
So with us lot meandering around trying to count runners and trying not to get lapped it was easy to forget that at the sharp end there was a race going on, in which our team did rather well, with 6 runners in the top 18, and John Hunter, James Wilson and Paul Butler finishing 4th, 5th and 6th respectively. Good to see Paul Butler still managing to run well even with a poorly knee. In fact it’s been a really up and down year for Paul, he had the highs of the Summer Fell series, winning almost all of them, then the low of picking up a mystery knee injury, then the joy when Steps announced they were reforming, only to be shortly followed by the devastating news that West Life were calling it a day. Life can be tough sometimes Paul, although I’m sure you’re spirits are lifted each weekend when you see how well Harry from McFly is doing on Strictly.


And so finally to our notable absentee at Acklam. Chris Ellis, the once mild mannered, smoothy drinking, gentleman of the club, seems to have gone off the rails and turned into a beer swilling, loud mouthed hard man, (just ask David Kirk). Truth is Chris, as I was catching you on that last lap at Oliver’s Mount the thought that went through my head was “What’s going to happen if I overtake”, so I backed off a bit. Seems Nicola had the same dilemma at G’bro 3 Tops, brave of her to finish only 2 seconds behind you but obviously couldn’t find the courage to go past. I suppose there is a plus side to this, keep it up and no one will overtake you, and soon you’ll find you’re winning every race, as long as you’re sober enough to make it to the start line.

Just as a bit of an aside, has anyone seen the brilliant BBC series “Origins Of Us” with Dr Alice Roberts. First episode described how our human descendants ventured out over the African plains by evolving a body that was designed to run, that’s me I thought, obviously I’m in touch with my distant ancestry. Second episode showed how when we learned to cook it gave us a critical advantage over other human like species, that’s me too I thought, cooking breakfasts every morning for guests and meals in the evening for the family, I must be really at one with nature. To be honest I couldn’t really follow the third episode, something about how our brain size made us more cleverer than other animals.

Actually my brain just clicked into gear and realized that Chris Ellis is the Forum Moderator, so no one is going to get to read this anyway.]]> Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:41:21 GMT