Great Edinburgh XC Team Challenge
My first race of the year for a number of years has been the Great Edinburgh XC, this year it had a team challenge spin on it, that meant I had to be selected for it if I wanted to run. Fortunately I was chosen after the Europeans and it was an honour to pull on the GB vest for a 2nd time as a senior.
When I seen the start lists, i'll not lie, I was intimidated! Seeing some very good quality runners in there from GB, Europe and USA meant I knew it wasn't going to be an easy race! I backed off my training intensity during the week in preparation for it and then crossed my fingers for some snow to come down.
I Last year I loved the race when we ran in the snow but when I checked the weather on Thursday it was forecast sleet and rain which would make the course pretty soggy- not what I wanted. On the way to Edinburgh I checked again on the BBC site and seen a lot of snow was meant to come overnight. Lady luck was on my side for once and the course was how I would have liked it, covered in snow.
It didn't go out too fast in the first mile, nobody wanted to really push on so it was more of just a cruising speed for all over the first mile or two with the odd little surge. Once the three small laps were out the way it was down to business and up the huge hill we went. The field got stretched out almost immediately after the first big hill, I think it was Mo pushing it on at the front. I had Tom Humphries just in front of me and Vernon just behind. I managed to get ahead of Tom and Andy came by quite strong. I tried to stay in touch as long as I could and get dragged back towards those who'd strung out but it's such a hard job trying to make up ground when the guys ahead are moving so quickly.
I managed to hold my position well though and may some slight inroads into the guys ahead of me but I just quite couldn't get on terms with them on the last lap. As I came up the final hill I just couldn't quite get on the shoulder of the Irish guy Sweeney as he was chasing down a European. As I came off the top of the hill I just let myself go into the finish. I caught the European, El Kalai from Portugal on the sprint in but didn't quite get Sweeney and I came home in 11th.
A good result for me looking at it as I thought prior to the race i'd be around 15-20th. The team were 3rd, a brave effort and maybe the best we could have hoped for with having such strong Euro and USA teams out there on the day.
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