Race Report: ESCCL Round 1 - Blackcap

Peacehaven Run Club introduced themselves in fine style last Sunday at the first round of the East Sussex Cross Country League on the Blackcap course in Lewes.  A fresh but dry day gave good conditions for running with no mud to contend with, and had warmed up quite a bit by the time the seniors had finished.

A course just shy of 5 miles begins with the first half of the run over a mix of wide open grassland and narrow chalky trail, with a couple of gates, to the turn point at blackcap.  This first section completes around 500 feet of vertical ascent.  After that it is mostly a downhill scramble as fast as your legs can carry you, with just a couple of little “lumps” thrown in before the final half mile across the plains to the finish.

First up were the junior races, a two lap circuit of about a mile of parts of the senior course.  Eva Winton was the sole representative for PRC and finished in an impressive 12:49 and second place U17 overall (just 19 seconds shy of fastest boy) and first place U17 girl.

There were 405 senior runners on the day, and with eight runners across multiple age categories PRC were always sure to land a few points for our composite team, made up of ourselves, Seaford Striders, Polegate Plodders, Seafront Shufflers and Tri Tempo.

Thomas Solomon came in first of the PRC bunch with a stonking 30:31 and thirteenth place overall.  Tommy K was close behind on 32:09 (28th) and Barry Smollens on 34:52 (70th).  After this Steve and Ollie Sprague came in at 36:14 (93rd) and 36:26 (98th) respectively, Ollie stopping after he caught the leaders in an abundance of caution for the upcoming marathon!  Tobias Bunyan, Lisa Tindle and Jane Chant finished off the PRC parade at 38:08 (130th), 40:58 (185th) and 54:38 (365th).

On the team scores front those splendid performances have placed the composite team in third place with three points behind Eastbourne Rovers and Team Bodyworks (second) and Lewes AC (first) in both the overall and east sussex clubs ranking for the competition.

There are some photos on the ESCCL Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1488235034751345/

The next cross country event on the calendar is the Sussex League event at Stanmer on Saturday November 8th.  As this is Sussex and not the East Sussex league, PRC members still need to enter this event online.  Entries are not yet open but we will share the link with members once they are.  In the meantime you can read about Sussex Cross Country League here: https://www.sussexathletics.net/take-part/cross-country/sussex-cross-country-league/