Louth Athletic Club trio compete at Northern Cross Country Championships

The weather conditions in West Yorkshire were good, not cold and with a light breeze, and with the exception of two small muddy sections the course provided good ground for racing.

In the senior women’s race, Kerry Stainton ran an excellent race, in the veteran 45 category, finishing 182nd out of 376 runners in a time of 37min 57secs.

Jane Cope (veteran 50) ran a good race to finish 338th in a time of 46min 34secs, and in the under 15s girls’ age group, Evie Brooks ran a competitive race to finish 44th out of 196 runners in a time of 15min 10secs.

* Four other Louth AC members took part in the annual Ferriby 10-mile Road Race the following day which started and finished in Skidby, in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

A major event on the racing calendar, it attracted all standards of runners from across the region.

With a new start time brought forward by an hour to 9am, it was an early start on a bitterly cold morning, with the first half of the race runners facing a strong headwind.

There were 743 finishers in all, with Kevin Wallis (male veteran 55) heading the Louth quartet in 165th, and eighth out of 49 in his age group, in a time of 1hr 12min 58secs.

Shirley Willett (female veteran 50) finished 500th, and sixth out of 22 in her age category, in 1hr 30min 03secs, while Clare Koslow (female veteran 45) was 524th, and 27th out of 58 in her age category, in 1hr 31min 05secs.

The performance of the weekend came from Ruth Edison (female vet 45) who had a brilliant run, smashing her 10-mile personal best by a massive three minutes and three seconds.

She ran a controlled race and took the first mile steady until she got into her racing, finishing 268th, and eighth out of 58 in her age category, in a superb time of 1hr 18min 27secs.