A festive round-up from Buxton AC athletes saw some double action on New Year’s Day when five hardy runners took part in not one, but TWO parkruns on the same day.
The resolute bunch started 2020 at Lyme Park where a sizeable field of over 330 ran the hilly course. Ben Light was an outstanding 4th overall in 19.39, Samantha Willis 38th in 24.01, Pete Bailey 56th in 25.07, Bev Golden 112th in a personal best time of 27.28 and Charlie Narejko 232nd in 33.24. Next up was a quick dash over to Wilmslow to join an even bigger field of 525 runners where Light again led his team-mates home in 15th place, 18.35; Samantha Willis 75th in 22.36, Pete Bailey 118th in 23.44, Bev Golden 209th in 26.32. and Charlie Narejko 346th in 30.27. A great start to the year.
The New Year’s Day double bill was an encore for a couple of the runners. Not 24 hours before, both Bailey and Golden ran at the Wormstones fell race over at Glossop on the last day of 2019. Starting at The Beehive pub, the four miler’s race profile consists of some testing ascents, and gave the 150 runners a run for their money. Outstanding result of the day was Buxton’s Lauren McNeill who was 1st female to finish, 12th overall in 39.09, with Junior Lucy Bednall taking 4th female spot (29th overall and 1st U21) in 43.26. Jake Fearn was a superb 3rd overall in 36.46, while Junior Sam Soles was 6th in 37.25, and Finlay Grant 7th in 37.49. Jo Bednall was 2nd FV50, finishing 80th in 51.57, while Tania Wilson was 2nd FV55 (84th in 52.43). The ladies took the team prize too.
Just 24 hours prior to Wormstones, McNeill had taken part in Bakewell Parkrun, finishing in an excellent 17.24 which gave her the superb accolade of 5th fastest female finisher in the entire country’s Parkruns that day. A magnificent achievement.
Boxing Day gave the chance to work off some of the Christmas Day excesses with the aptly-named Two Turtle Doves fell race held out of Totley, an almost 5 miler with 800 feet of ascent. Jake Fearn started his racing warm-up by claiming 4th spot overall from a field of almost 140, in a time of 35.32 while Jason Brunnock was just a couple of places behind in 36.14. Finlay Grant finished in 8th, 37.02, Stefan Ledin was 63rd in 49.27. Pete Bailey, also warming up nicely for his Festive race programme, finished in 74th in 50.46 while Kate Ledin came home in 88th in 53.02. 
The cross country season starts with a series of autumn league races, followed by January County Championships and, over the first couple of months of the New Year, Inter-County, Regional and National championships.
Last Saturday saw the Derbyshire County Cross Country Championships and Buxton weren’t found wanting in any shape or form. The ladies fielded 16 runners and every single one came home be-medalled, an amazing achievement and testament to the hard work put in over the previous year. Elle Twentyman was first finisher overall, giving her a brilliant gold, while Tania Wilson claimed Silver 2nd Vet 55 and Jo Bednall 3rd Vet 45, giving her bronze. The Senior Ladies were not only first team, but claimed second spot too – so both gold and silver, while the Veteran teams were proud to take first and third team placings, gold and bronze. An unprecedented set of results for the hard-working runners.
Not to be outdone, the Senior Men were also in the prizes, with David Soles taking gold for his 1st Vet 55 finishing place. Gold went to the Senior Men for the team prize, consisting of Jason Brunnock, Rob White, Ben Light, David Fryer-Winder and Chris Rushworth.