Northern Cross Country Championships

When I sat down and planned my racing and training schedule up to the London Marathon in April, I decided that cross country wouldn't really feature after mid-January.  The only two exceptions to that were the Northern and National Cross Countrys which I try to do every year.  I haven't missed a National since 1997, and have only missed two Northerns in that same time period.

The two I had missed were last year - when I was running for England in Elgoibar.  And the previous year when I was injured.  So essentialy, I hadn't run this race for 3 years!

My record in the race is pretty damned consistent since I became a senior.  In my last six Northerns, I had finished 4th, 7th (three times), 10th and 11th.  Although I've had 3 decent weeks now, I know that I'm still chasing fitness and keeping in that 4th-11th bracket was going to be a very big ask indeed.

All winter, I have been struggling to get up with the early pace in cross country races but finishing very strong so I was keen to try and get as close to the action early on as I could rather than ploughing a lonely furrow through the field.  I was very surprised to find that after a mile I had managed to position myself in a group of about 12 runners contesting 4th place, with Andi Jones a lonely 3rd not too far in front.  Another Runnerslife athlete Jonny Mellor was also in the group so the site was well represented.

Given how much I've been struggling to get going in all of my cross races, it was surprising me just how easy it felt where I was.  I kept telling myself that 4th place was anyones, and that it was going to be about who ran the most sensible race.  I think Jonny Mellor made exactly the same comment in his report!!

2 miles passed and I was still in there, this was too good to be true.  Then Andy Wiles decided he wanted to break the group up and suddenly we were all strung out.  Over 7 miles, you're going to have a bad patch at some point and I chose to have mine at the point there was the injection of pace.  I quickly slipped away from the group and was quickly ploughing a lonely furrow in 13th place, with Martin Hilton hovering a few metres behind me.  Jonny Mellor and Ben Fish looked to be dangling off the back of the group so I made these two athletes my focus.  Ben was running a canny race and was soon cutting his way through the group but Jonny was clearly disliking the mud and it wasn't long before I passed him and he looked totally disinterested!!

I started to feel better again and was working well with Martin to try to claw back another runner but the gap was not coming down.  Worryingly, I was aware of athletes behind closing up, and there were a lot of them.  This race could go either way, I could be swallowed up and finish somewhere around 20th.  Or I could finish strong as I have been doing all winter and maybe even gain another place or two.  My position of 12th didn't change throughout the second lap and there didn't seem to be any chance of gaining a place either until partway round the last lap, the figure of Simon Deakin came into vision.  I didn't seem to be making much ground and the group was still breathing down my neck.  I needed to push through the barrier and find another gear, although it didn't feel like I had one.

With about 1k to go, Deakin's advantage was down to 100m and a huge shout from Aaron Scott, Shane Robinson and Pete Matthews urging me to "get Deakin" and I managed to find another gear.  It took me away from Hilton and co but Deakin was being warned by supporters that I was coming!

One thing was keeping me going.  After my last Northern in 2008, Deakin had told me after our sprint finish (where he came out on top) that when he saw it was me coming alongside him he knew I wouldnt outkick him.  A 3:44 1500m man probably should be confident of outkicking a 4:05 man but I decided that I was going to use this as my motivation. 

I came onto his shoulder approaching the last corner.  I waited until 10 metres before the bend, changed gear to make sure I turned the corner ahead of him and then just put my head down and concentrated on the line.  I managed to hold him off by 2 seconds and steal 11th place - thats now a top 11 finish in my last 7 Northerns so there's certainly an element of consistency!  As I drove for the finish line, I could see two more athletes less than 100m ahead and quickly coming back to me.  Over 7.12miles of running, I was eventually 57secs off the bronze medal so I'm making progress with each race.

The race was an absolute mudbath and my GPS showed an average pace of 5:46 per mile which shows just what a slog it actually was!  I've spoken to a few people since and it seems like people have taken longer than usual to recover from this race.

Results:
1 Tom Lancashire Bolton United Harriers & AC 38:09
2 Steven Vernon Stockport Harriers 38:22
3 Andi Jones Salford Harriers 40:05
4 Ian Kimpton Lincoln Wellington AC 40:19
5 Patrick Martin Sunderland Harriers 40:21
6 Gareth Raven Sale Harriers Manchester 40:28
7 Ben Fish Blackburn Harriers 40:34
8 Andrew Wiles New Marske Harriers 40:36
9 Andrew Heyes Hallamshire Harriers Sheffield 40:45
10 Alex O'Gorman Stockport Harriers 40:46
11 D Norman Altrincham & District Ac 41:02
12 Simon Deakin Leeds City Ac 41:04
13 Daniel Garbutt Durham City Harriers 41:08
14 John Henegan Pudsey And Bramley 41:11
15 Martin Hilton Leeds City Ac 41:16

Warming up with clubmates Adrian Fuller and Nick Leigh:



The start - Vernon and Lancashire set a ferocious pace while I can be seen in the yellow vest/red shorts contesting a top 10 place:



About 1km in.  762 Patrick Martin took 5th and Ian Kimpton in the white/black/red vest took 4th.



With fellow Runnerslife member Andi Jones: