The Senior Women's National Cross-Country Championships returned to Alton Towers after a visit in 2008. Saucony continued their sponsorship of the event. The course was shortened to 6km on the day due to the extremely muddy conditions. This was the seventy-ninth running of the event.
Steph Twell (Aldershot, Farnham & District AC) was unable to defend her title after suffering a serious ankle injury in a cross-country race in Belgium the previous weekend. Louise Damen (Winchester & District AC) was a slight favourite, with Stevie Stockton (Vale Royal AC) hoping to go one better than her runner-up position in 2010, also fancied were Hannah Whitmore (Charnwood AC) the Midland title winner, Naomi Taschimowitz (Taunton AC) the Southern champion and Liz Yelling (Bedford & County AC) who was trying to claim her fifth win in the event.
Initially a quartet got away from the rest of the field Liz Yelling, Gemma Steel (Charnwood AC), Louise Damen and Hatti Dean (Hallamshire Harriers). On the second lap Steel dropped back and Yelling, Damen and Dean fought it out. Damen and Dean both tried to put in surges with Dean eventually tiring and Damen able to grab the win by just four seconds, Liz Yelling was just three seconds further adrift in third.
Louise Damen told Paul Halford at Athletics Weekly "I'm really chuffed. It was such a brilliant race and I don't think anyone watching could have said who was going to win. I was gutted when I found the hill was axed as it threw my race plan out of the window. "I found when the running was slightly better, I seemed to get away a bit more. The difficult muddy descents I didn't like too much. At the end I just sensed Hatti was tiring a little bit so I put my head down and tried as hard as I could."
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