Team East Haddon XC - 1 March

The final cross country proved a day of contrasts.  The furthest distance to travel, for the shortest distance to run.  As we drove up the M1 it got darker and damper - but the moment the race started the sun came out and it felt quite warm.  The mood was gloomy too, before the race, but by the end of the day things had brightened considerably.  I'd better explain.

 

Actually, it doesn't take much explaining.  As we gathered in the sports hall before the race it was clear that we were going to struggle to field a complete men's team.  Which set us grumbling about how useless all the absent squirrels were, of course.  But we got ourselves to the start as normal.

 

I had a strange start to the race.  The start line was at an angle to the course, so that the first corner was far closer to the right hand side of the start line than anywhere else.  Naturally, I stood there.  But nobody else did.  So when the race started and I darted for the corner, I found I was almost alone.  It took about a quarter of a mile before the fast boys overtook me, which was a very odd experience!  But even then it was clear that other clubs were a bit light on runners too.  Probably the best way to illustrate that is the fact that I came 7th.  Yes, I felt like I'd had a good run, but normally I'd be about 20th.

 

The sandwiches and cakes afterwards were very good - in fact, they rivalled our own efforts, which is saying something.  And it was just as well that it was sunny and warm outside, because we had a long time to wait before the results were ready (something about the software not being able to cope with the fact that we had a cancelled race).  And this is where the mood changed.  On the day it turned out that the men came 2nd (quality over quantity) and the ladies 3rd.  And that was enough to confirm NHRR as 3rd overall, and the men as 3rd too, which was better than expected.

 

So there.  A happy ending.

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.

Buntingford 10

I entered this race too late, and got telephoned by a nice person from Royston Runners to explain this and wish me better luck next year.  (It's not better luck I need, it's better organisation.)  But since quite a few NHRR members dropped out late on, both Lindsay and I were able to get hold of numbers.  Once we got to race HQ we were also able to get hold of chips, but the next conversation was a little like this:

where do we go to do a number transfer?
What do you mean?
We've taken over someone else's numbers, so we need to change the registrations.
That's OK, you don't need to do that.
But if we run as we are, we'll be running under the wrong names and mess up the results.
But you've got a number and it's paid for?
Yes.
Oh, well, don't worry about it.

Fortunately Karen spotted the Royston Runners chairperson, who directed us to The Man In The Van outside, who very quickly amended the database, so all was well.  (Although with no audit trail, so I think I prefer the way we do it at Standalone, where number transfers are done by filling in a form.)

For some reason, every year I do this run I forget how difficult it is.  The first three or four miles are quite hilly, and they always catch me out - and this year I had an aching leg to contend with.  And it's usually cold, of course.  But after getting thoroughly depressed for the first half of the race, and thinking that I was going to be extremely slow, the second half comes as a welcome relief, and things start improving.  OK, I was never going to get close to an hour, but I was quite pleased when I finished in 61:04.

Earlier in the week Statto had said that if I was slower than about 61 minutes, then when he published the updated list of 'fastest 10 mile times over the last year', then he would be on top, rather than I.  So I left the race thinking my time would be enough to keep me at the top of the list.  But oh no - when Statto says 'about 61 minutes' he means... well, he means 61 minutes, since Statto's impressive 61:01 is now top of the list.  So I'm going to have to be fit, fast and injury-free by the time of the Fred Hughes 10...

Training partners

A few times recently I've commented how much I'm looking forward to getting back to training with what looks to be a promising little training group.  By coincidence, I've trained with most of them individually over the last few weeks.

On a cold, wet, windy Saturday morning I met James, to go for an off-road slip-athon for an hour or so.  It was the sort of weather I never would have chosen to go out running in, so it was a good thing that we'd arranged to meet previously.  With leggings, long sleeves, hat and gloves, there was very little of me showing, and as I ran back home through Hitchin town centre, I saw shoppers struggling with huge Woolworths carrier bags and wondered who looked sillier.

The following week the training schedule said we were to do 800m reps at Sainsbury's... but on the night there was hardly anyone at the club.  But Ollie said he'd arranged to meet Sibbo at the 800m venue, so I went with him.  It was very strange doing a speedwork session with only the two of us there, but it was quite fun to do so.  Sibbo never showed up.

And a similar thing happened on the Tuesday before Christmas.  While half the runners who turned up on the night went on their 'bling run', Statto wanted to stick to what it said on the schedule, which was the 2 x 3 mile session down and up the A505.  Unfortunately a muscle in my leg started giving me trouble on the first of the runs, so I bailed out of the second.  (And as it happened, without the pleasure of my company Statto felt he couldn't go on either, so it was quite a short session in the end.)

Now if only we could all train at the same time...

Nothing to report

It's been a whole month since I last wrote anything on this blog.  If there are any regular bleeders out there, then sorry (and if not, then I don't need to say anything anyway).

But there's a fairly good reason why I haven't written anything - there's been so little to write.   So, I can do it in summary form.  Since last month I've:

- had about three different colds (the first week after the marathon was expected and pretty much guaranteed - it's kind of the price that everyone pays after running a marathon)

- been too busy at work (and with putting together the NHRR quiz on 21 November, which seemed to go well) 

- been on holiday for a week to Madeira (very nice - there aren't many people I wouldn't recommend it to) 

- done almost no training (mainly due to the above), but done 4 races: 

1) The cross-country at Wing.  I remember this in the past as being a race where we ran in a field alongside excitable horses.  This year we ran in the same field as excitable cows, which was rather more scary.  At one point I decided it was in my best interests simply to stop and wait for a couple of the herd to get out of my way.  I ran OK, but was affected by a cold.  If my legs had done as much running as my nose, things would have been far better.

2) The first Stevenage 5k.  This wasn't long after the marathon, so I was quite pleased to be able to get round in under 18 minutes.  It was a new course - hilly but not necessarily slower than the old course, and Ollie was pleased to beat me in a photo finish... even though, I claim, I wasn't really racing that night (until that sprint finish, of course, which I lost)

3) The second Stevenage 5k.  I felt quite good for this one, and went under 17:30 (of course, last year I went under 17:00, but that was never going to happen this year).  Ollie was back in his rightful place, a few seconds behind me.

4) The third Stevenage 5k (spot a trend?).  Very cold!  This time I thought I'd go for the tactic of 'go off as fast as I can and see how long I can keep it up'.  Interestingly, this made absolutely no difference, and my split times for each kilometre were almost exactly the same as race 2.  No sign of Ollie this time - he tweaked his ankle early on and didn't really recover.

Why all the mention of Ollie?  Well he started it.  He's getting very competitive, and seems to take pleasure in running faster than me.  Which cannot be allowed, clearly.  To be honest, it won't just be him - with James and me getting back into training, and Ollie and Statto improving all the time, there could be a fun little rivalry going on.  Now if only we were all Steve McKeown's speed that would be even more exciting!