I said as much to Mark Tallon of Northern Athletics – he agreed, and step by tentative step, we hatched a plan to convince the English Cross Country Association (ECCA) to bring The National here. With support from Steve Gaines, Paul Gooding, Arwel Williams and others, we persuaded Eamonn Martin and ECCA to entrust Sedgefield with the premier event of the grass roots winter athletics calendar. Durham County Council agreed to let us host the championships in East Park (and the Hardwick Park team were fantastically ‘can do’ from day one), and North East Mayor Kim McGuinness and the North East Combined Authority provided valuable support to Sedgefield Harriers as host club.

Yesterday was our moment, and what a moment it was! Absolutely everyone involved stepped up, and the result was phenomenal. Even though I love the sport, I am known for looking miserable while running – not this time. Because everything was still going smoothly by the time of the senior men’s race, I was able to take part in that, and I had a smile on my face pretty much every step of the way. What a privilege it was to bring The National to Sedgefield, and it was brilliant to see crowds from the local community turning out to witness the event.

There are so many people without whom this would not have been possible and I’m not going to fall into the trap of trying to list all of them here, and missing someone out by mistake! Inevitably, many of them are from our great club.

You know who you are, and I will be contacting plenty of folk over the next week or two, in order to express my thanks. The bottom line is, each and every person who got stuck in, was brilliant, and that has been reflected in responses from visiting runners and spectators from around the country. For a flavour, read the comments on the ECCA Facebook post about the event – [https://www.facebook.com/englishcrosscountry.](https://www.facebook.com/englishcrosscountry.)

On occasions like this, I think it’s important to reflect on what got us to this point. A little over 20 years ago, Ean Parsons founded Sedgefield Harriers and the club was energetic and ambitious from the start. It was Ean’s vision that brought the North Eastern Counties Cross Country Championships here for the first time in 2015, and that ultimately led to yesterday. The club and the wider community in Sedgefield and surrounding areas once again demonstrated what is possible when we work together, and we did it with a beautiful combination of efficiency and joyful panache.