The Cross Country season started with a bang on Sunday with our two head honchos taking 1st and 2nd in our home event. I got out on Saturday with James for a steady course inspection and was pleased to see the majority of the course was very firm with the usual soggy bits near 'Dead Mans Valley'. Unfortunately the weathermen got it spot on and their forcast of heavy rain ffrom late Saturday to all Sunday meant the gound was a bit heavier.

I was also on-call for work and couldn't get any cover so I had to race off not much sleep and I was called out 50 mins before the race started, luckily it didn't take too long to resolve the problem! There was the usual great turn out and it was great to see some of the lads from the other teams on the start line. Although competitve, the league is a friendly affair with good natured ribbing going on before the off.

As usual I was quite optimistic of PLS chances, especially as I couldn’t see anyone beating Macca and the Swenssonator. I really wanted to get top ten and I knew even though he's not long completed a tough marathon, Neil Kelly would be close to me. We suffered with strength in depth last year, quite often our first four finishers were as good as all theo ther teams. On Sunday we were missing a few lads but newbies and olbies oithed in to grab us the 2nd team slot.

I finished one place further up than 2011 in 13th, I wasn't too pleased with the way my race panned out as I wanted a top ten. I did get close with about 1.5 miles to go whem myself and Chris Millington from Spectrum surged through to catch up with Liam Walsh, Ian McGill ex PLS Luke Parker and Mark Jacques but once we turned up the hill from Allerton Towers Chris pulled away and by the time I hit the muddy section they were out of sight! I did want to hang on until the last half mile were going is good and apart form the tough uphill finish there's a good stretch to dig in.

I kept pushing but it was obvious I wouldn't catch the group and they ended up pretty much in the same order. I was caught near the finsh by Dan Ankrah but luckily for me one of his team mates shouted GO ON DAN so I dug in and held him off - him and Davey Edwards weren't far behind me, great running considering they'd both ran the Liverpool marathon a few weeks ago.

So, hats off to Penny Lane for organizing a briliant race with ace butties and tea at the end.