Report: English National Cross Country Championships 2025

Battling through the course

Looking for a challenge in your running life and not sure where to turn next? I present to you the English National Cross Country Championships at the quagmire of Parliament Hill, London.

The Nationals, as they’re more commonly known, take place every February and are held in a different part of the country every three years. It means the event only takes place in London every third year before heading to the North and Midlands on the other two years.

English National Cross Country Championships 2025 Stats

Distance	7.7 miles / 12km
Date	Saturday, 23rd February, 2025
Start Time	3:00PM
Location	Parliament Hill, London
Entry Fee	£15
Course Profile	Cross Country
Elevation Gain	968ft / 295m
Website	https://www.englishcrosscountry.co.uk/

Before the Start

First things first, for club runners this is the event on the cross country calendar. It’s an opportunity to test yourself against the best cross country runners in England and the English Cross Country Association (ECCA) do a great job in organising a race that feels ‘big’.

Team Arena all smiles before we got stuck into the mud

As the event is held in London, getting there is straightforward with plenty of public transport options. We chose to go to the closest station to the start, Gospel Oak. When the train was pulling into station, you caught sight of the myriad of different club tents and flags fluttering in the wind of Parliament Hill for the first time and started to realise the scale compared to the Southerns at Beckenham Hill.

One club mate had arrived earlier on and set up our camp alongside the first climb of the race. Heading up the hill to the tent, I uttered the careless words of ‘this isn’t too bad, the mud’. More on that later.

Our camp for the day (tent arrived later)

After putting up the tent, we watched the senior women’s race start and did a short recce before a 2 mile warmup. The majority of this was on tarmac apart from a small part on grass where I slipped over for the first time of the day. It meant I was caked in mud before I’d even started the race.

Now I didn’t think too much of this fall at the time, but somewhere in my head the decision to not wear spikes was looking stupid.

The Race

The start area is at the lowest point of the course and directly adjacent to Parliament Hill Lido. We assembled by the start around 10 minutes before the start and basked in bright sunshine. After being given our marks, the gun fired to get the race underway and 1,800 or so runners got underway.

The start line

The course itself is run over three laps of Parliament Hill and is undulating in profile with no hills that are huge like the one at Beckenham Hill. Even so, it felt much, much harder in comparison.

Back to the race itself. For the leaders, King of the Hill was up for grabs for the first man to get to the top of the opening hill. By the time I got to the top of the climb the speed of the race slowed to a walking pace as it is quite the bottleneck with 1,800 runners trying to navigate their way through. Conditions underfoot felt good at that stage. After turning the corner and heading down the hill, I slowly realised how hard an afternoon it was about to become.

Official map of the course

The first lap, which was the shorter of the three, was tough. The mud was not only deep but the kind of sticky, heavy mess that tires your legs quickly. And when it wasn’t heavy and sticky, it was wet and slippery. The only respite came when running through the wooded sections when there were tree roots to cope with. Cue fall number two of the day when a tree root stopped my progress. Time to repeat the ‘lift your feet up’ mantra in my head for the remainder of the race.

Onto the second lap I took it a lot easier, turning it into a steady state run. Even walking up the hills was a challenge and I’d consoled myself that I’d be back stronger with spikes in three years time.

My club captain Sam appeared on the final lap and this did a good job to keep me going. As I’d taken it easier than expected earlier in the race, I had enough in the tank to kick for the line and finish with a time of 01:11:34 for 1249th place.

My Gear

Shoes	Inov8 X-Talon Ultra 260 V2
Watch	Garmin Forerunner 965
Sunglasses	Goodr Whiskey Shots With Satan
Top	Soar Race Vest
Shorts	Janji Men's 8" Trail Half Tight
Socks	Feetures Elite Light Cushion Mini Crew - Tempo Blue

It’s worth going into a little detail about my choice of shoes. For the cross country season up to this point, the Inov8 X-Talon Ultra 260 V2 had done me very well. They have deep lugs that have held up to everything I’ve thrown at them. Unfortunately they were no match for Parliament Hill mud. Although I don’t think anything but spikes would have worked here.

I would 100% still recommend the Inov8 X-Talon Ultra 260 V2 for cross country courses in Sussex, they just don’t stand the test when it comes to mud of epic proportions.

Summary

Without doubt, this is up there with the hardest races I’ve ever taken on. The conditions were highly technical and tough plus my decision to not wear spikes and go for my usual cross country shoes cost me.

Saying that, this was not my target race for me. The main target is the South Downs Way 50 and beyond, so being sensible here was better in the long run and I can take on the Nationals next time with plenty of mental experience in the bank.