Becky in action at JIRCS in Sandringham
On Saturday the 23rd of June I went to the JIRC’s (Junior inter-regional championships) in Sandringham to run for the South West Junior Squad. On Saturday it was the individual race with Sunday being the relays. Fortunately it was sunny on the Saturday which made quite nice running conditions. Sandringham is a Country Park and therefore quite a flat area with only the occasional uphill. However despite this most of the courses were made quite slow because of the tall bracken hiding a lot of the controls. This also made it harder to run through. A lot of the navigating was off paths as there were quite a few of these.
Whilst we were all waiting for our run we were in a large field where we could watch our competitors run through the spectator control.
After a hard days running we all went back to a sports centre nearby. There we had tea, a shower and most people watched the football match on a very large screen! At 10:45pm the lights were turned out and the alarms set for 6:00am, an early start for us as a lot of teams had to get back home early. (So that they could watch the football!)
On the Sunday, it was cold, wet and raining, typical conditions for England! The first start was at 9:15, the boys relay, they were made to stand in the pouring rain whilst listening to the rules. There was a surge of runners that soon came through the spectator control just after the girls had started their race. It took quite a while for the girls to start coming through the spectator area, much longer than expected, therefore the W14’s and M14’s were waiting for a long time in the changeover box, this was quite interesting as the rain started getting heavier. The 14’s races were quite short and quick and I felt like I had a very good run. Though soon after running the rain stopped and it became very warm and sunny (another typical condition in England). Before we all knew it the races were over and the presentations being handed out. Our team came 4th overall which is our best result so far.
Becky Whittingham