Four intrepid members of Ilford AC went north of the border to compete in the annual Braid's Hill Cross Country Hill race on Saturday. Held near Edinburgh University the 6 mile course is undulating and very challenging with a long gravel bridlepath climb and one steep downhill section on each of the two laps. In a field of nearly 200 runners Malcolm Muir ran extremely well to finish highly placed in 28th position in a time of 35 minutes 19 seconds. Matt Maple ran cautiously carrying a foot injury but was nevertheless next home in 96th place clocking 40minutes and 13 seconds. Darren Bottrill produced a strong run of  43mins and 16seconds giving him 131st place. Martin Clarke completed the scorers in 153rd with 45 minutes and 33 seconds. The club managed a creditable 21st postion out of 31 competing clubs and was rewarded with the award for the furthest travelled team.
Closer to home a very large field of over 550 runners turned up for the Billericay 10k road race on Sunday. The rain held off for most of the race but times were kept well down due to a very windy last 3 kilometres. Ilford's Ashley Pearce produced a good run for the conditions finishing 13th overall.  Rohan Alexander recorded 44.18 finishing 90th. Pauline Tester was the club's top woman runner clocking 46.28 for 135th position and Phil Postings finished in 57.33 for 425th place.