National Cross Country

Well, we were lucky with the weather.  After all the crazy conditions we've had recently, I was very pleasantly surprised to find Parliament Hill Fields bathed in warm sunshine.  I can't remember the last time I could stand at the start of a race in shorts and vest and feel warm.

As expected, the course was tough: the usual hills and mud.  It was actually less wet than it has been in previous years, so the mud was stickier, which made it even harder to get through.  But unlike the 15k course for the Southerns, this was only (!) 12k, so we only did 2 large laps instead of 3 medium ones.

Oddly, I had more family than club members running (well, Lindsay's family, really).  Lindsay, her mother, brother, sister and brother-in-law were all racing, and the only remaining Squirrels were Tash and Chris Priestley.  Although Pete, Karen and Ollie were there to shout encouragement (I think that's what they were doing!) from the sidelines.

So, just like the Southerns, I didn't really have much way of telling if I was doing well or not.  The only person I knew well enough to compare myself against was the aforementioned brother-in-law, and he smoothly overtook me after about 5k and proceeded to disappear off into the distance.  And my energy levels started to fall, and I didn't enjoy the second lap very much at all.  

Which made my thoughts start to take a negative turn.  Why was I doing this?  If I'd just stayed at home, it would have made absolutely no difference to the results.  We couldn't put a team together for either the men's or ladies' races, for a national event only an hour from home.  Why is our club getting so pathetic about cross country races?  Did nobody think they could manage it?  I know the name of the club is 'road runners', but that's not all we do.  And I'm bored of the marathon-training excuses too: I've managed to work cross-country events into a marathon schedule before, and a bit of off-road running on softer ground is better for you than endlessly pounding around roads.

Humph.

Anyway, it appears I came 524th - coincidentally, the same position as Lindsay did.  This wasn't so bad, since there were about 1500 people running, which was part of what makes the event such an experience in the first place.

Another cross country next week, then...

There snow cross country

I have mixed feelings about the Ampthill cross country being cancelled.  Or are we saying postponed?  I don't fancy our chances of being able to reschedule it within the current season.

Firstly, disappointment.  It's one of the best courses we do.  And well-organised.

Next, confusion.  What caused it?  Frozen car parks?  Soggy ground?  I suppose if the council made the decision, they had to do it during office hours, even though a decision made on Saturday might have kept the race alive.  And having 300 people do 2 laps of the park might have done too much damage if the ground is especially soft.

Finally, relief.  I'm doing a half marathon in a few weeks, and I can't remember the last time I've run that far. So Sunday proved a useful chance to try it out, and get out on the country lanes for the first time in quite a while.

High point (apart from simply being out there): running on non-icy non-slippy roads, but running past fields covered in snow.

Low point: coming across a huge flooded section of the Charlton-Preston road, and being completely unable to avoid it.  Cold wet feet from that point on.

A lot of catching up to do

You know those jobs that you never get round to doing, and the longer you put them off the harder they are to do?  Well, that's what it's been like trying to find time to get this blog back up to date.  So I'll do it in very small chunks.  Each of these would be a whole blog post on its own, but I never seem to find the time!

At the start of January we had a few days of snow.  This was exciting at the time, but after February's much heavier snow it seems like nothing.  Still, it was enough to cancel a Tuesday club night, apart from about 8 of us who ran a parlauff session around the cricket pitch, which was lots of fun.  That was probably the first time I met our new speedy girl Rachel...

...who had won our cross-country event (when I didn't know who she was) and went on to come about 4th in the Herts XC.  My thoughts on those races: our event was, as usual, very well organised*, and Santa's Grotto was especially fun.  But a word of advice: if you ever have a stone in your cross-country shoes, do try to notice it before you're on the start line.  I didn't have a good day at Watford at the Herts XC, although it was nice to run a course I've never seen before.  But I was plodding a lot.

* Although Steve McKeown and I were trying to put up the gazebo, and had to stop when there were no plastic connectors for all the rods to fit into.  They were last seen at Standalone.  Does anyone know where they are?  The gazebo is useless without them, obviously.

The Southern XC was quite fun too - very wet all the way round, pretty hilly, and only Lindsay and I there to represent the club.  I started slowly, and sped up half way round, which felt really good, overtaking lots of people.  But after looking at the results, I probably took it too easy early on.  The funniest part of the race was right at the start, when the horde of a few hundred runners all set off.  After a few seconds there were shouts of 'wa-hey!' from up ahead, and we soon found out what it was for as we stomped through a huge ankle-deep puddle, and splashed everyone up to their faces.

There seem to have been a lot of new people at the club recently, which is good.  It could be the January "new year's resolution" effect, or the "I've got a place in the London Marathon" effect... but it also seems to be the result of some disagreements within FVS Tri.  I've always thought this club was particularly friendly and welcoming, so if we gain new members because of that, then I think we deserve it.

There's been a lot of talk on the forum recently about running on treadmills.  I'm not a fan, but when the streets are full of ice, as they have been for the last couple of weeks, they can prove very useful.  My gym has a running club, and on Sunday morning its session was on the treadmills.  We all formed into pairs, and one person ran 1k as fast as possible, while the other cycled on another machine.  Then we swapped over.  Half a dozen of those made for quite a fun session.

Which brings us up to date.  Yesterday was the first time I've had a proper run from the club for what seems like ages (but it's only a couple of weeks).  And even though there was still ice to avoid, it felt very good to be out.