Early victory for Imperial

It was cold and windy last Wednesday afternoon when 25 members of the Imperial Cross Country and Athletics Club arrived at Hampstead Heath to take on the other London Colleges in the first Cross Country race of the season: Parliament Hill.

With their shiny new red & blue Imperial vests in hand, the newest members of the club were ready to represent their Uni against the masses of UCL, Kings, Brunel and St. Mary’s to name but a few.

The London College League (LCL) is a series of six cross country races which take place throughout first and second term all over London, including Richmond (Coming this Wednesday) and Bushy Park.

Parliament Hill is the first race; 8km for guys and 4km for girls, and containing some of the most notorious climbs, it is often muddy, though the new members of the club were blissfully unaware of this.

Arriving at 2:45, there was time for the team to have a short warm up, apply some imaginative red & blue face (war) paint and snap a quick team photo before the race started at 3:15. At this point a long-standing tradition known as King-of-the-Hill took place, when several runners raced to the top of the steep climb which makes up the first few hundred meters of the course.

Imperial’s nominated contender, James ‘I run 101km mountain races for breakfast’ Ellis, surely had a fine chance, but alas, St. Mary’s had anticipated this threat and were quick out of the blocks to just steal the crown by a few metres, adding more evidence to the case that they are in fact running cyborgs.

The race continued on over the scenic hills of Hampstead Heath, with a number of Imperialites setting out well to the support of Women’s Captain Cloudy Carnegie, who had been forced to sit it out. The course was complicated by limited marking, and there were several cases of runners going the wrong way.

Thankfully after a couple of laps, all made it back without adding too much distance to their race. After some hard-fought battles against fellow students, mud, dogs and ‘The Flash’, team Imperial came home strong. Returning member Kimberly Mason was first woman back for Imperial, and debutants Jess Prior and Anna Lawson brought home the top three girls team after their lap.

They then turned their attention to an incredible sight; fresher Chris Olley coming home in first place! An impressive victory considering the many good runners from St. Mary’s and Kings. Not far behind was another newcomer, Mike Ridley, and old timer Liam Smith.

Great displays were also shown by Rupert Hepton and Johnny Bosch, while newcomers Tom Stokes and Chloe Mason had navigational issues and Will Jones gallantly dropped out of the race to help a runner from another college who’d sprained their ankle. All in all this was a great performance in tough conditions and a brilliant start to the year for team Imperial.

A well-earned club meal in GBK followed. Feel free to join us next week for a far flatter run amongst the deer in Richmond Park or one of our many other scenic Training sessions.

For more info find us on facebook or email us on run@imperial.ac.uk.