The Cabbage Patch 10

Sunday 19 October 2003

Now in its 21st year and sold out well in advance, the Cabbage Patch once again lived up to its reputation as one of the flattest and best 10 milers in the country. It's also the fastest, boasting the all time British record of 46:02 set by Richard Nerurkar in 1993. So it was fitting that this was the venue for the final Club Championship event of the year and the results exceeded expectations.

The Twickenham Pub that lends it's name to the event acts as race headquarters and also doubles as the changing facilities/unofficial baggage store. With in excess of 1,200 competitors it is rather cramped, but incredibly popular after the race - can't imagine why. The only downside was severe congestion for the "facilities" - and as we soon discovered there are very few discrete bushes in the town centre.

The course has a few twists and turns and involves crossing several roads, but considering the location it's remarkable that there were no problems with traffic. This was mainly due to the marshalling which was excellent and a credit to the Stragglers certainly know how to stage a good race. Even the age old gripe about lack of drinks stations had also been resolved with two new sites at 3 and 7 miles.

The following is unofficial and will be confirmed as soon the official results are calculated, but it looks like Ian Robinson won the Club Championship finishing in 1:09 24 - his best 10 miler since 1994. Meanwhile Jac Aldous completed the full set of PB's from 5K to Half Marathon with a 1:14: 09 finish for a 2:36 improvement. However the biggest shock of the day was by Michelle Sampson who may have just snatched 2nd place in the Championship from Jac with a PB of 1:30:36 - an astonishing 10 minute improvement over her previous best at this year's Maidenhead Easter 10.