European XC Trials

I decided to do this race a few weeks ago when I was running a lot better than I expected to be and so Nick thoguht I could have a chance of troubling the selectors for the Euro Champs. I know cross-country is not my strength and wasn't as confident as Nick but was willing to test myself against the best just to see how it went, knowing that whatever happened, this race was just a stepping stone towards getting marathon fit next year. I was hoping the course was firm as I hate the mud and it defintiely was. There was barely any mud on the course and I had no excuses on the conditions.

I wanted to test myself in this race to see how fit I was and where I was at. I'd done a great tempo session the week before on my tempo loop, completing 5 laps 8 secs per lap quicker than I had completed 4 laps the week before. On the flip side, my Tuesday session felt a bit flat but mentally I was in taper mode so that could have been part of it.

I decided I wanted to go off with the lead group and get involved and I did so. It was a chaotic start with lots of tight corners in such a big group and a few fallers. I just tried to stay out of trouble while not falling off the pace. I hurdled James Wilkinson after about half a mile and when I could take a chance to look ahead of me found myself towards the back of the lead group in the mid teens. I tried to tell myself to relax here as I could see Andy Baddeley and Andy Vernon around me and so didn't need to push any harder than I currently was. After the 1st of 3 laps was over, I was at the back of the group and just starting to lose touch. I was trading places with JAmes Wilkinson who was struggling after his fall and found that on the uphill and windy sections I was losing ground but then gaining it back on the downhill sections with good running. I could see the leaders ahead of me but I was gradually losing touch and was paying for starting with the lead group. I lost a couple of more places on the 2nd lap and as we entered the 3rd lap I was still tussling with Wilko and also trying to chase down the group of 3 or 4 athletes ahead of me which had Ash Harrell in and Jon Pepper. Phil Berntsen came past me on this lap and went on to have a great run ending up in 15th. 

The last lap was fairly uneventful as I maybe lost 1 place and Wilko got away from me in the last half mile. He thanked me after the race for keeping him going and I return the thanks as he was the only real person I had a tussle with in the race after the first lap was out of the way. I ended up in 26th place (30.20) and I'm slightly disappointed but not overly so. Looking at the results I was only 1 minute behind Andy Vernon who won and there were loads of great athletes ahead of me. At the same time I don't feel they're untouchable and I would have liked to have been in the mix of it a lot more in the top 15, instead of beaing at the back of it.

I averaged 5.02 miling for the course, which shows a) that the conditions were pretty good, and b) that I ran ok. My first mile was 4.44 and this is needed in a XC race like this. I could have sat back and moved through the race but as Fraser Thompson said to me the next day on our run, "That would have been the pussy way to have run it". All in all it was a solid run and I ran ok but not brilliantly, which was what I hoped. At least I atoned for last time I ran here, came 45th or so and gave up on cross-country as a serious pursuit!