You know it’s a Masters event when you overhear someone say “I can’t see the number, I haven’t got my glasses”, although the eyesight may be failing and the hearing is a little unreliable there’s certainly nothing wrong with the legs and the lungs of the older generation based on this showing. With all runners over a certain age, the certain age being 35, you’d expect the quality to be a little lower, the pace to be a little slower but if you were expecting something a little less competitive than the usual bread and butter of the cross country league you would be surprised by the quality on show. Standing together in the reception at Wolverhampton & Bilston’s Aldersley Stadium the first thing that stood out as the lean look of everyone around you, the weathered appearance and that steely glint in the eye as they considered the opposition. If you could imagine Lee Van Cleef in a Coventry Godiva vest, or a Tipton hoody and a woolly hat knitted by his wife then you get the idea.

With age the first qualifier and the second being that entry is only open to those registered with the Midlands Masters, the wheat is sorted from the chaff and you are left with a top class field of old men and women. The proper, old fashioned grizzled gun slingers with one eye on the opposition to see who turned up and who might have moved into a different age category this year, and the other eye on the clock as it ticked towards an 11.30 start time. There may have been less than a hundred lined up but the later start time at least meant the temperature had risen slightly and we were left with a beautiful winter morning. The grass crunching underfoot, the faint traces of ice in shady patches and the sun shining brightly in a sky the colour of a blackbird’s egg as runners zig zagged across the field performing elaborate warm up routines surrounded by the heady whiff of Ralgex. It takes the old bones at little longer to get going.

As the field lined up at the second of two sawdust lines there was a brief word, a moment of reflection for the passing of Ken Evans, the recently departed former Wolves & Bilston Secretary, this time last year it was Any Holden, and we were off. A mad gallop downhill towards the first turn, the runners charging away at the front like Werther’s Originals were on offer, before a left turn and left again following the perimeter of the start/finish field before the women and older, over 65, men peeled off for their own separate, shorter 6k race. The younger of the old men were round again before splashing through an icy puddle, struggling through mud before finding a rock hard icy patch, more mud, more twists and turns and round again. On paper the course looked relatively easy, no significant hills, just a few twists and turns between hedgerows but the combination of the little inclines here and there, gradual gradients of no significant height but some considerable length and the stamina sapping terrain made it tough. Coupled with the high quality field meant you were always trying to go half a yard quicker than was comfortable just to hold a position for fear of coming last.

It should have been easy, a sprint of only 8k on paper but in reality a fraction less, but it was brutally hard, the thought of going round again enough to make you go pale, but the leaders seemed to make short work of this one. Mark Couldwell of Charnwood taking first place overall in 24.44 from Scott Hazell of Coventry Godiva in 24.55 but still taking his age group, and Stuart Hawkes of Amazing Feet RC in 3rd in 24.14. In the women’s race Kerry Marchant of Staffs Moorlands took 1st place in 23.12 for their 6k race from Claire Smith of Charnwood in 23.25 and W&B’s Audrey Wilson in 3rd place in 23.31. There were individual prizes in 5 year age groups and team prizes for every team years, with Coventry, Charnwood, Dudley Kingswinford, Wolves & Bilston, Tipton Long Eaton and Cannock & Staffs all taking team medals, meaning the results were rather convoluted and the prize giving long and extensive.

Due to the quality there were no easy medals in this event – unless you were over 75 and had outlived your competition – but it’s depressing that you can’t catch runners in their 50’s and 60’s and can only hang on for as long as you can as they skip away from you. They may not be as good as they used to be but don’t get taken in by the excuses, if they’ve seen better days their better days must have been bloody good.