World Cross

I think it's about time I explained what happened then.

Well I started the race staedy like everyone told me to, and ended up running with teammate James Wilkonson for a bit. But even though I was holding back, I felt terrible. Legs started burning early on and the chest got tight, and I hadn't even finished the short lap yet! Got to the end of the short lap in 71st and wasn't as comfortable as I hoped. I got through the long lap still feeling bad but managed to get through to 56th, just passing other teammate Tom Farrell at the end of the lap. Then at the beginning of the next lap my body completely folded and I was reduced to a jog, then Tom came past me and pulled away. Just after that I thought to myself "I've had enough", and just decided to pull out, end of World Cross 09.

After the race I told people it was because I wasn't mentally tough enough and couldn't handle the pain, which I still believe, but that was just the start of my troubles. In the team coach on the way back from the course I started shivering and couldn't control it, could have been due to the fact I didn't eat much after the race. A few hours later at the banquet I ate some food and the shivering went and I warmed up. I then proceeded to shuffle to the dancefloor and bust some serious moves with Rashid Ramzi. Then after we left the place at 12 and I started shivering again, so as soon as we got back to the hotel I went straight to bed. Next day, and things were even worse. I was light headed and struggling to balance, but still had to travel home. As the day went on I got better but at night I was rushed to toilet by my stomach. During the night I kept getting stomach cramps and needing to go to the toilet, and that's also the story of how Monday went plus being light headed; I had a stomach bug.

So my original theory of not mentally strong enough may not be so true. It may have been the stomach bug, it may have been the altitude or it may have been lack of heart, or a combination of all three? I can speculate all day but the fact is the race is done and I'll never know, so time to move on. At the end of the day, I've done more this cross season than could ever dream of so I'm not going to dwell on one race and let it ruin an almost perfect season. Well done to all the team, no matter what everyone else has said.