by Hannah Hall, Club Captain for Southern XC League.
“It’s September, the kids are back to school and the evenings are drawing in, which can mean only one thing – cross country season is coming!
For anyone who doesn’t know me, I’m your club captain for the Southern Cross Country League which holds fixtures on Sundays from November to March.
HRR also compete in the Hampshire League which races on Saturdays, and for which Andy le Roux is your captain. Don’t worry, you don’t have to choose between us! You can take part in both leagues and this year there don’t currently seem to be any weekend clashes between the two, which is great news.
Southern League races are approx 8km multi-terrain events, so think hills, mud, woods – all the good stuff! The four fastest men and women are the scorers for the club, but every runner counts as you will help to push down the scorers of other teams. As a club, we have the potential for a really strong performance in this league if we can get teams out with the breadth and depth that represent the club.
If you’re new to cross country, or just need a little reminder of all the fun to be had, here’s a few highlights:
Cross country races are FREE to club members! You don’t need to register for the Southern League races, you can just turn up on the day.
You get to race as part of a team for your club which makes it fantastic fun and a really different dynamic. Runners of all speeds are encouraged to take part. There is a really wide range of paces at Southern League and no, you absolutely are not too slow to take part. The League does exclude the very fastest runners; please see their website for details or talk to me if you might be in this category. Cross country races are a different way of racing – you’re not tied to staring at your Garmin and analysing your pace, you just need to race the people and the terrain around you. It’s a great way to get to know other club members outside of your normal peer running group. Lift shares will be encouraged too. Several of the Southern League races are held on private land that is not usually open to the public, so you get to race somewhere special. Running cross country is excellent training and makes you a stronger athlete. It can be built into marathon training too and we often have runners tagging on extra miles before or after the race to make it up to an excellent Sunday long run! Cake! Some races offer tea at the finish and if there isn’t a hosted tea, I promise there will be Team HRR goodies.Fixture list
The date of fixtures for the 25/26 season is as follows – please note this is the most up to date list and supersedes any previous list:
- 2 NOV 2025 – Benyons Enclosure
- 23 NOV 2025 – Bourne Woods
- 21 DEC 2025 – Lords Wandsworth
- 18 JAN 2026 – Chawton House
- 01 MAR 2026 – Alice Holt
- 08 MAR 2026 (TBC) – Fareham
Please feel free to comment below with any questions or message me.
We look forward to a great season of cross country!
Hannah
