With runners and athletes sharing all those special moments on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, there are always a few things that catch the eye.

Here are a few good, bad and humorous posts that stood out this week.

1. National pride – A team gold for Turkey at the European Cross Country Champs and fortunately the only member of the team born in Turkey arrived just in time to turn the flag the right way up.

 

2. Cinderella Partridge – Lily Partridge loses one of her spikes halfway through the Euro Cross Country Championships on Sunday – and still powers on to a 15th place finish. Respect.

 

3. Can’t please everyone – Andy Vernon was unhappy with his XC team omission, but Andy Butchart is having none of it, telling his fellow Brit to “try getting one of the guaranteed places next time”. Vernon was returning from injury at the Euro Trails and has been a solid performer on the XC for GB in the past.

 

4. Ideal marathon training – American 1:42 800m runner Nick Symonds ran his first marathon in Honolulu this weekend and his training was… less than ideal. Off of an average of 25-mile weeks, Symonds ran 3:00:35. Where was your sprint finish for that last 800?

 

5. No excuses – Rain, hail or snow get out for that run.

New Year’s Resolution #1: A little water is no excuse to skip training 😂😱🤭 #FridayFun #Comrades2018

A post shared by Comrades Marathon (@comradesmarathon) on

 

6. On the subject of snow – Social media was awash with snaps of snowmen this weekend,  and Job King’s ‘Snow Farah’ is the clear winner.

 

7. Hat’s off – In her collegiate debut in the 300m US star Sydney McLaughlin runs 36.12 to shatter Candace Hill’s world junior best of 36.56. McLaughlin’s time ranks No. 2 all-time in American history.

 

8. Not a sprint star in the making – Before setting US 6 hour and 100k records, as well as a World 12 hour record, at the Desert Solstice Track Invitational at the weekend, Camille Herron gave us a display of her sprinting… I don’t think the US 4 x 100m team will be calling.

 

9. Good news – A good news story to finish from 4th December. Fell runners stopped in their race to rescue a pensioner who had fallen into a freezing waste deep bog. The walkers, in their 70’s, could have been in serious trouble if it were not for the runners.