SYO was well represented at this year’s Interland with 6 runners all making the journey to northern France. 5 of us made the 3 hour journey down to the rendezvous together on Friday night; Charlie and Louise Adams, Lucy Wiegand, new member Sheila Sprott and of course myself, Michael Adams.
Interland is an annual competition between England and 4 other teams from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands with competitors from M/W14 to M/W60.
After meeting the 6th SYO member, Peter Gorvett, and the rest of the England team early on Saturday morning, the bus set off on the 5 hour journey to the warm up event on Bois de Verdrel. The forest was very good (in my opinion) with brilliant areas of runnable terrain and dotted with multiple pits and depressions.
That evening at the accommodation most of the team took part in a night sprint around the forest around the buildings. This forest was very similar to the event earlier in the day and again seemed generally well received as well.
There was a unusually early start on the Sunday with breakfast being at 7:00am and leaving for the event about an hour later. The main event of the weekend took part on Le Bois des Dames. The area was not as good as the previous day mainly due to the brambles that filled most of the area.
Good runs from lots of the team gave England the win again in the overall competition and also England won the juniors competition.
We were immediately on the bus after prize giving with our tight schedule to get back for our channel tunnel train. It was a late night for most as we arrived back in England at about 21:00 before having to repeat the 3 hour journey back to our homes in Yorkshire again.
Overall it was a great trip and it ended in the result everyone wanted.
Michael Adams