Midland Cross

Taken from my 'Solid run in the mud' blog.

I went into this feeling a little tired as I haven't eased down at all this week as i'm racing Alsager next week and we felt it wasn't a race that I was going to target, just wanted to turn out and get a solid run in for the team.

I had a jog round the course before the race and it seemed pretty soggy in places, but some hard ground at the top of the course so I was fairly happy with it considering all the rain we've had this week.

Phil Nichols decided from the off her wanted to make it hard and set a tough pace, I followed along with Boneham, Hinch and Lole. At the end of the first lap Nichols and Lole were starting to pull away and I was the only one to really go with it. the other lads settled into their own pace. the 3 of us got away but I was soon dropped by the two lads at the front as the pace didn't drop at all. I settled into my own pace comfortably in 3rd staying around 50m down on the leaders for the next 2 laps and staying the same distance ahead of the chasing group (not sure how far they were back, I don't like to turn round!)

I felt strong throughout and tried to make an effort on the last lap to catch Matt Lole who'd been dropped by Nichols but credit to him, he didn't slow at all, Phil got his gap and it stayed the same all the way round the last lap. With around a mile to go I knew I wasn't going to catch Matt and felt asthough I had a comfortable gap ahead of 4th so just settled once again and seen the rest of the race out.

As I finished it was a little anxious waiting to see where the team would finish. After all this was my first Tipton team event, something I've never really been a part of in domestic races in recent years! Although we were the 3rd team to get 6 runners home our good packing (3 in the top 5) really helped our score and we managed to just win it with 6 in 25.

All in all a good day out and I can honestly say I enjoyed running through mud for the first time in years! Normally I hate the stuff but this time I felt comfortable running through it. It'll be good to get back on the roads though next week!

Cheers for reading,

Ryan