12th November 2023

Women's

Despite the fact it was a bit of a cross country route, over brambles and the odd dodgy slope to get to our actual race, we arrived in plenty of time to check in and get the numbers. As we warmed up Millie G looked baffled by shoe tape and we learnt that Rosie has some insane plaiting skills! The immediate startling gun noise caught Lucy and lots of the teams around us off guard as we set off into the woods. A scoring four of Katie, Lucy, Beks and Millie M was a solid performance for the team, who this season, is rapidly increasing in numbers.  As we cleaned up and headed home Millie G slipped on a hill, Becks became our little mum (ensuring our safety in Walsall) and Lucy made sure that we didn’t miss our bus. Sadly, our fastest sprinting was not through Birmingham new street where only some of us made the first train, however, with solid runs by all and the group making it home safely we are left in good stead for the next race where fingers crossed we have vests and a full team 🤩

Men's

Firstly I’d like to shout out some of the no-shows to the race. First up is none other than Ryan Splarn himself, his reason for not coming is that he had a lot of stuff to do. So instead of getting on with that stuff he made the trip all the way to Daventry just to do a parkrun, shameless from an exec member. Next up is some silly fresh behavior as Max Winfield bashed his knee the day before rendering him unable to run, or maybe that’s just an excuse I’ll let you decide. Other honorable mentions go to Levi and Ben Winfield.

Secondly, a HUGE thanks to Cameron for being our volunteer for the day and making it all possible, as well as to our pres TJ for still coming along while injured to support the lads, awesome work!

Now to finally get into the day itself. The group met up in the whole at platform 7 in Birmingham new Street where we were graced with shouting and chanting from some drunk football fans which showed me that we needed some enthusiasm and WUAXC chants of our own. The footy fans got on the train with us, much to the displeasure of Joseph Hearn who had to sit with them and bear the noise. I recently found out  they were from Wigan which explains their behaviour (brummies are usually lovely right?)

On the bus over most of the guys decided that they would rather stand at the front instead of sit down, although strangely they all stood in silence probably dreading what's to come as we arrived at the park to the scary sight of Will Barnicoat, leaving VJ scared about how he can defend his title against far superior athletes.

The race started soon after with the boys in the middle of a massive field, being cheered on everyone did well to start at a sensible pace! The course was not hilly but was never flat for long and plenty of bumps and mud plus a stream crossing in a ditch, no matter for the guys as Matthew Taylor stormed into being the first Warwick round the first U-turn.

Soon we all made it round to the finish line and since I wasn't distracted chatting afterwards, I definitely saw everyone finish and how well they did(where are the results😭). Vinnie raced amazingly to be first Warwick closely followed by myself. Then Matthew Taylor made a great debut Brum league to 3rd place followed by Toby then Scrutz with Morzy sneaking in to the last scoring team spot.

The others came soon after with Jacques and Dan Hayes. Then Zhi took a B team scoring spot with a great debut for WUAXC, with Simon right behind. The rest of the guys were not too far behind with Joe Lunt and Parmenter finishing very close together with Pav also in the mix.

Last but not least we had veteran of the game Matteo along with newcomers Will and Fred. Then Joseph followed by James brought an end to a very successful first race. And I expect an even better turn out next time.