Bath cross country 2025

I recently ran a cross country race in Bath, along with several members of my running club. Bath cross country is the third of four races in the Gloucestershire cross country league. It is also the county championship race for Gloucestershire, Avon, Somerset and Wiltshire.

I remembered from last year that the journey there was quite long and stressful, so made sure to set off earlier this year – 10:30am for a 1:15pm race. I gave a lift to a lady from our club, which was nice. It meant I had someone to chat with and someone to help with navigation!

The cross country race takes place on the University of Bath campus. There is a large car park, which was pretty full when we arrived. Payment was only using the JustPark app. The only toilets were a set of portable toilets in the car park. The first person I saw when I got out the car was my friend Joy aka Pink Oddy, running her first ever cross country race.

The more experienced members of our club set up the club tent. There wasn’t much room left for us on the field! Most of the clubs have junior athletes too, which meant they arrived earlier and had more space for a tent. Everyone from our club provides tea, coffee and cakes to share after the race. I say ‘everyone’, but I actually don’t, because I don’t drink tea or coffee, but I can see it is a nice communal thing to do.

The ladies from our club who had arrived on time did a warm-up jog together, then had to get out of the way because the under 17s race had started! Three of the ladies were travelling together and arrived with not much time to spare.

Our race was the senior and masters women, under 20 women and over 65 men. It was the seventh race of eight during the day. Racing had started at 11am, with under 11 girls, followed by under 11 boys at 11:15. The races get longer the older the runners get. Our senior women’s race was shorter than the senior men’s race, which is always the case. Our race was 6.6km (about four miles), consisting of two short laps and one long lap. The men’s race (senior, masters and under 20s) was 10,3 km, made up of three long laps and one short lap.

We lined up at the start line a little way behind the super-fast University of Bath athletes. The runners were a real mix of very young and very fast with lots of middle aged and older athletes. And we were off!

I remembered the course pretty well from last year. It is a long, straight, gradual downhill on grass. There are a few rocks in the grass, which it is important to avoid, especially if you are wearing spikes, as I was. Then there is a muddier left turn and a long climb up to the top. While the downhill didn’t feel like much of a downhill, the uphill feels much more challenging! We ran up higher than the start line, before turning left and running along the top of the course. Here there was a really strong headwind and also the thickest mud of the course.

The conditions were pretty good for December. There had been a few rainy days in the previous week, but it hadn’t rained for a couple of days before the race. So the course wasn’t too muddy. The weather was dry and mild enough to run in a shorts and vest, although the wind was quite cold. The men from the club were dotted around the course cheering us on, which was really nice. Any support always gives me a boost.

And then we started the second lap and did it all again. I felt like I was running strongly. As I knew I would be, I was the second lady at our club. The first lady is an awesome runner and was way ahead of me. I always think I’m bad at hills, but after a year of racing up hills, I’ve obviously got better at it. On every hill, I overtook people and nobody overtook me. Although the climb on the second lap felt harder. I felt I should be halfway through the race and realised I wasn’t. I started to question whether it was actually three short laps and a long lap, rather than two short laps and a long lap.

But it definitely was two short laps and a long lap! The long lap starts just the same as the short laps – down the hill and turn left, then up the hill. But as you get to the top of the hill, you run down again through the middle of the course, then back up again. That last climb felt really tough. It is slightly shorter than the uphill section of the short lap, but felt so much harder. Once I reached the top, there was just a short downhill sprint to a very welcome finish line.

I really enjoyed the race and was happy with how I’d run. I felt I’d put a lot of effort in and come out with the best possible time I could. I finished in 31:13, which was 23 seconds faster than last year. But in cross country you run for position rather than time. Conditions vary so much from course to course and year to year that you can’t really compare times.

Last year, we ran in a storm. This year, the conditions were much better. Last year was my very first cross country race and I was very pleased to pick up a county age group bronze medal. This year, I hoped to pick up a different colour medal and was very pleased with my silver medal. Between us, the ladies from the club picked up two age group golds, one age group silver and one age group bronze. Not bad considering there were only 10 of us.

Then we all stayed behind to watch the men’s race and cheer them on.

Running photos credit: Rob Hulme