"It is the Wembley of cross country running" - 2009 National, Pt.1
This is what it's all about
That’s right, its National weekend! ‘The oldest cross country race in the world’ at the most famous of venues – Parliament Hill – takes place this Saturday. Spikesmag beat us to a history of story, which we were planning to write today (honest!)
If you want a real history lesson then head over to the ECCA site, here you can see the men’s and women’s age-group winners dating back to 1876! This is the list to be on if you want to be considered a cross country great, and no less than three wins would put you in the National legend category.
Speaking on spikesmag three-time winner Richard Nerurkar says
It’s got so much history. Every great British distance runner has competed there. Also, it’s a great club event and where would any of us have got to without clubs? My first National win in 1990 at Roundhay Park, Leeds was one of my career highlights. It represented a big breakthrough for me. Plus it was on my home patch, so to speak, and I still remember watching Bernie Ford winning there back in 1978 when I was a schoolboy.
Dr. Nerurkar - a GB endurance great
Of course we need our winners, the heroes to look up to, the men and women who litter the history books, the fleet-of-foot who skim across the dirt, the dream makers. But it’s the masses, the ordinary club runners, the 1500+ weekend-warriors who make the event so unique. I can remember running in the Welsh junior champs in the 80’s and watching the seniors gallop through the mud in their hundreds, that smell of embrocation (so synonymous with the 1980’s in my view) the steam of the showers (if you were lucky enough to get there before the water was cold), the clumps of mud and grass covering the sports hall, ready for a loathing care taker come Monday morning.
But I never made it to the National, I wasn’t eligible, so I can only imagine that this is how its must have been in England too. I have, of course, been a spectator, but its never quite the same, you only truly feel an event like the National if you are pulling on those spikes, and having that last last nature-call, 15 minutes before you line up with the other warriors, ready to slug it out on the fields of dreams. Then there are the stories, the what ifs, the personal and club battles. Every place counts in the National, especially for those club runners who deem it their goal to be one of the 6 counters.
So, when Saturday comes this weekend the hours of reps, the hard winter miles, put in by the thousands of club athletes from all corners of England, will culminate in a small patch of north-west London. If Parliament Hill is the Wembley, then the National is the FA Cup, for the winners, the losers and the great sport of cross country.
