Sweeping at the Intercounties

Results | Photos

The inaugural Broughton Heights Race was established for the Inter Counties championship, the first time it’s been north of the border. Ok, my title isn’t strictly accurate, but the class of the field means I didn’t run close to my percentage on Chris’s website.

After a hail storm we got underway in glorious sunshine and were treated to nearly 10km of magical running. I’ve no idea why this route hasn’t been raced before as it made an ideal event. It was a perfectly runnable figure of eight route with 5 climbs, some grassy descents, some heathery descents, and some great undulating runs along the ridges between the peaks.

I had a steady run, at the foot of the first climb I reckon I was only 50m behind the leaders. But once I appeared over the top I looked over to the next one and could see them half way up it already – the pace at the front must have been incredible. Chris experienced it first hand as he raced the leaders around with his camera. He found himself leaping barbed wired fences and patches of stinging nettles as he battled to stay in front.

I wasn’t looking forward to the finish. Some races, like the Ben, you come into the finish field and have to do a loop of the field before finishing. The organisers took this one step further here – a river leap followed by a sharp up hill sprint. I managed to take advantage of it though to pull off a final overtake as I approached the finish line.

Great race, I hope it becomes a regular feature on the calendar!

69. Cameron Burt, 1:00:36
94. Shona Robertson, 1:05:07
117. Peter Grassl, 1:12:32