National Cross Country Championships 2012

The Nationals at Parliament hill were amazing; being part of 1600 runners charging up Parliament Hill is something I don't think I'll ever forget.  Made it round in 51:14 and 981st place, which is fine by me.  The whole thing was just amazing; from the shear number of runners to the speed of the guys at the front.  The ankle deep mud that lost people their shoes, the steep ascents and fast descents.  Best race of the year so far, best cross country race I've ever done.

Video of that mass start below:
http://www.athleticos.org/coverage/248314-2012-National-Cross-Country-Championships/video/612080-National-XC-2012-Senior-Men 

Picture in the paper, XC, parkrun and future plans.

Last week was a return to Lloyd Park for cross country.  At least half the course was snow bound which made things more interesting but wasn't too treacherous.  I didn't run that great a time but it was a good fun race slipping and sliding in the snow and mud; generally overtaking people on the down hills and being passed on the ups on the other side.  At the start of the second lap I was in the midst of a crowd of Collingwood runners and ended up in a picture in Sutton's premier local paper relating to an article on their xc promotion.  I love the local paper so pleased as punch to have my picture on the sport pages!

This morning I headed down to Nonsuch Parkrun for a windy park run (19:45, 7th place).  I ran it pretty evenly and passed 3 or 4 folk on the second lap which makes a change from heading off too fast.  I'll have to remember this next week at the National Cross Country race at Parliament Hill.  I'm looking forward to this race from what I've heard of it (fast field, big hills, mud, chaos at the start); however am very conscious there's a real risk I could come last.

Finally, I've decided on some plans for the rest of the year.  First up in May I'm entered in for the Surrey Hills trail race- organised by SLOW who organised the Box Hill fell race, it's a self navigating 30k across the Leith Hill area.  Looks excellent- I aim to brush up on my navigation skills before the event (and maybe do a few reccie runs).  Then in June, a couple of days after my 30th birthday it's going to be Trail Marathon Wales.  I'm super excited about this- 26.2 miles all on trail in the Coed y Brenin Forest Park in Snowdonia.  Once I've got the xc season over next week it'll be time to start increasing the mileage and hitting the trails and hills- this is my target race for the year; bring-it-on!

Firsts

 

This week has been a week of 'firsts' which have resulted in two interesting runs and a brief cycle across London.

 

Thursday night saw the first time I've gone running on the trails at night with a head torch.  As it was an experiment and I was unsure if my pretty basic head torch would be up to the job I decided that I would first do a lap of the woods around Oaks Park where I would be not too far from a road at all points should I need to make a tactical retreat from the proceedings.  My head torch turned out to be just about up to the job, although only just and there were a few trips along the way and I nearly ran into a recently felled tree.  The whole thing was quite exhilarating in some ways but there's definitely an overall feeling of being very alone when running in the dark with only the sound of your foot steps for company. I think I'll definitely head out again, maybe with a new torch, before the nights start to get lighter again.  There's a few races run at night, most notably the Kent Moonlight Challenge which was halted mid way though this weekend due to the snow, so I may have to keep my eye out for one to enter this year.

 

The second first involved the much hyped Boris bikes (I realise I am very behind the times on this as they have been around for ages).  I needed to get from London Bridge to Paddington and had some time to spare so thought I'd ride.  Whilst not being the most efficient bikes in the world it was a nice cruise from East to West across along the Thames and through Hyde Park.

 

The final first was on Sunday.  I hadn't intended it to be an introduction to trail running in the snow as from the window of our friends house in Cheltenham all the snow from the night before had melted.  The aim was to head up the paths to the top of Cleeve Hill as I had done in August when I was there last.  The roads to the base of the hill will clear of snow however as soon as I hit the steep path up to the ridge the snow increased with treacherous ice covered mud in the woodland sections.  The going on the way up was interesting and at times I was reduced to walking to stay upright through the iced paths and frozen mud.  Upon reaching the top of the hill I turned to make my descent through a mix of skating, running and walking.  Last August the descent was a fast, amazing and out of control experience. This time this was not to be the case!  Whilst in the sections in the fields where the snow was deeper there was an opportunity to let loose, through the woods my approach involved hanging on to trees and sliding down the ice!  Once back down on the roads I took an opportunity to run the final mile back as fast as I could but this couldn't make up much time for what ended up being over 50 minutes for only just over 5 slow but enjoyable miles.

 

Finally its worth reporting on some Beer of the week.  Whilst in Cheltenham our guests took us to the fantastic local beer shop, favourite beers.  Special mention must be made to both O6 from the Otley brewery, a strong porter with an almost liquorice taste and Exhibition beer from the Bristol Beer Factory- an excellent strong dark ale.