By Natasha B, Year 10 Journalist Leader

Last Thursday, 16 athletes from Years 6-11 braved the cold treacherous rain at the annual GDST Bromley Cross Country Rally. Having this event been cancelled the previous three years due to Covid, it was great to see this event back with 14 GDST schools taking part and many of us were keen to return to the course after so long.  

Year 6 were first to brave the muddy course with a distance of 1,730m with a special mention to Violet for winning the race and Alice and Emily who placed a very strong 6th and 15th. Year 7 was next to run with a slightly further course of 2,600m followed by Year 8/9 who ran 3,100m. The weather conditions began to progress even worse throughout the day with a torrential downpour happening in the Year 8/9s race! Special well done to Sofia (Year 7) for placing 7th in her race.

Finally, Year 10 and 11 took to the course with an even longer distance of 4,000m (although many of us can agree it certainly measured further on our watches!!). Well done to everyone who raced for a strong day of cross country running and for braving the mud and terrible conditions!

Following this run, we decided to share some of our top tips for cross country running in extremely muddy conditions!

Tip 1 – Bring a spare change of clothes!

After our race many of us found ourselves drenched in mud so were very thankful to have brought a spare change of clothes to get warm and dry in!

Tip 2 – If the queues for the showers are big – make the most of the wet weather!

As many other schools all trooped off in large numbers to have a shower, get cleaned up and changed inside Bromley School, myself, Isabella and Emma (Year 10) found a very innovative way of cleaning our muddy shoes in the big (but cleanish) puddles outside the school! We found this a really funny effective way to clean our shoes – although we did get quite a few stares!

Tip 3 – Bring three pairs of shoes!

Eadi in Year 11 told us how we should bring an “extra,” extra pair of shoes to very muddy cross country fixtures; one for walking the course, one for running in and one clean pair to put on afterwards. Don’t forget the “extra,” extra socks too! 

Tip 4 – Bring Bin Bags!

Although this may sound like a very strange tip, we found putting our school bags inside bin bags protected them from getting soaked on the ground during the run. They also acted as very good seats when we tried to put our shoes on rather than sitting on the ground!

Tip 5 – Take pictures of your muddy legs as evidence!

Many of us older years students enjoyed taking our muddy legs pics to show our friends when we got back to school – so make sure you get your pictures in!

We hope you enjoyed some of our top tips for muddy cross country running and well done again to everyone who raced!