Gloucester League cross-country, Cheltenham

Pittville Park in Cheltenham was the venue for my third cross-country outing of the winter, on a chilly but sunny Saturday afternoon.  The course was two laps of undulating parkland and fairly firm underfoot - thank goodness!  That is, apart from the stream we had to cross twice!!  I must admit I wasn't really looking forward to this bit beforehand as stream crossings aren't really my forte, but when we actually got to it, it turned out to be fine.  The banks were quite firm, the water fairly shallow and the bottom firm gravel, so it was just a case of one foot in and straight out up the bank the other side.

I started off in the leading group of about 4 or 5.  About halfway round the first lap a girl from Cheltenham made a break away and I went with her.  We ran together for a while, but then I found I had drifted in front so decided I'd better push on.  I hadn't really planned to go into the lead that early, but once there I thought I'd better try and open a gap as I guessed the others would have a stronger spring finish than me.  I was leading as we went into the second lap and maintained this until about halfway around the second lap, when Heather Fell from Bath came past me.  We ran together for a while, but just before the finish she kicked in front of me and I didn't quite have the speed in my legs to go with her. She finished just 8 seconds ahead of me, but at least I was first Master.

I was pleased with the way I ran - I felt more comfortable on the twists, turns and steep banks than I had in my previous two x/c races.  I think it's just a matter of practice, and reminding myself how to run cross-country, as I'm so used to running on the roads now.  I thought it was a good course, although a little short for me at only 3.5 miles!  I said to my coach afterwards that it felt like I'd just done one rep of a training session and that with a couple of minutes recovery I could have gone out and raced it all over again!!

So that's it for 2011 races.  Roll on 2012!!!