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Thread: Cross Country 2017/18

  1. #61
    Master ba-ba's Avatar
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    Interesting analysis of Northers v Mids v Southerns: Which race is strongest and what your position suggests you'll get in the National: (Will Mycroft, the person who has done the analysis, is an acquaintance here in Sheffield. Pretty sure he's meant to have finished his PhD now but maybe doing stuff like this)

    So 100th at Northerns puts me at 251st come Parliament hill - which closely matches my National result last year (253rd, last year my northerns result of ~125th was skewed by illness).
    This year I'm hoping 3 weeks of more directed training (i.e. less time fell bashing for the moment) will help me swing keep moving in the 'right' direction, beating the formula to trouble to top 200. We shall see.
    Nic Barber. Downhill Dandy

  2. #62
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    That is a really interesting article.

    Interesting to note the perceived 'weakness' of the Midlands Champs. I'm sure I read somewhere (on this very website) that the B'ham league XC is up there with the best in the country (I appreciate there's more to the midlands than just Birmingham).

    To add to the above, I was talking to a club member on Saturday, who told me that your performance in the B'ham league XC (only applies to Div1 of course) is roughly equivalent to what you can expect in the Midlands Champs. This is because the addition of the other top midlands teams from outside the B'ham area, such as Bristol, Notts, Charnwood, etc, is canceeled out by the removal of the strong University teams who are in the Div 1 league, such as the awesome Loughboro, and the likes of B'ham Uni and Warwick Uni.

    I haven't yet seen this weekend's midlands results, but having seen some club-mates finish, it seems to ring true. For myself, my only league finish this year was approx. 160th. Multiplying this by the factor of 4.5 would put me around 720th in the nationals. Given that the league result I got was on a hilly course and I probably finished higher than I should, i'd probably suggest around 200th would be realistic for a typical league fixture. This would equate to around 900th in the nationals, which I think is more realistic.... I was 1250th last year in a shocking run, and hoping to clear the top 1000 this year.

  3. #63
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    When down in the Midlands, my best Brum Div1 results were around 50th. My Midlands champs were 56th and 62nd, so Brum Div1~Mids is roughly correct.
    Birminhgham league is one of the best leagues in the country (alongside one of the London leagues), but there isn't another single league that takes in such a large chunk of populous. There are large and small, good and 'poor' quality local leagues, but none with a geographical range from Stoke to Cheltenham, Telford to Northampton, encompassing several chunks of population around Birmingham (Greater Manchester league is pretty good. I'd love a Yorkshire league).
    Nic Barber. Downhill Dandy

  4. #64
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    I've seen the results now. A club-mate with similar ability, albeit I've been beating in the last few xc, came 212th. And the guys I was stalking up until my calf injury were around 130th-140th... so I guess somewhere 160th-200th is fairly accurate for me.

    We managed to come 7th in the teams, which is not too bad I suppose. I heard some comments on the finish line that 'Coventry Godiva are well down" which I guess is a sign that Cov are still seen as quite a heavyweight name. I suppose with a full strength team, somewhere between 4th and 6th would have been possible, but the top 3 teams (Notts, Birchfield, Tipton) were streets ahead.

  5. #65
    Master ba-ba's Avatar
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    I have an MCAA gold medal from the Midlands XC champs in 2014 - they had a 'B-tier' competition for teams not finishing in the top X for Y number of years. Courtesy of >Y fallow years and us (City of Stoke) managing to get 6 people out (including a couple up top) we came 4th overall and first B-tier club, despite performing in the top-5 of the Birmingham league that season (think we finished off 4th with just the Unis and Tipton beating us?)

    So maybe you Cov lot are playing the long game?
    Nic Barber. Downhill Dandy

  6. #66
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    it's a possibility...!

    I really don't know what goes on within the club. In my previous lives I was always quite involved with my clubs... as a local footballer I was fairly 'senior' and was treasurer for a bit... in kickboxing I was an instructor and competed at pro level, so was again fairly senior.

    But at Godiva, I just turn up and run. I don't really know what the prime focus is for the club as a whole. Track & Field? Cross Country? The real elite runners (of which there are a few)?

    Seems to me that in a relatively large club everyone seems to have their own focus and commitment. My part of the club (the seniors) seems to be the most club-like, with a regular core at training, and representing as a team at events.

    Really I shouldn't be commenting... i'm off doing fell races every couple of weeks and especially at this time of year it means missing out on xc fixtures!

  7. #67
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    Back to the XC and a Birmingham League fixture on Saturday at Wolverhampton. From what I remember from racing there earlier in the season at the relays, it's a fairly flat course with quite a few twists and turns. Hopefully i'll put in a decent run in the final league fixture, and final race before the nationals. Although the legs were very heavy in training last night, so not looking forward to the no doubt fast and furious pace...!

    Good luck everyone else racing in their respective leagues this weekend...

  8. #68
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    Tough race today at Wolverhampton. Generally a fast course, but some very sticky and slippy sections. Was pretty happy with my own performance and finished 182nd, personally expected 200+

    My usual tactic in xc has been a fast start to stay out of trouble, and then spend the rest of the race drifting slowly back through the pack, praying for the end. But today, after the first short lap and the race had settled down, I then only lost one place over the next half an hour or so, so I finally felt like I deserved my position, rather than an 'imposter' living off my fast start.

    Hello to GazB and well done, you panned me by about 2 and a half minutes if not more. Great turn out for your lot.

    We finished 8th today, and 9th overall for the league. We didn't get a full 'b' team out today (I was 1st counter for our b team today which shows we were slightly lacking in depth today), which means our b team sadly dropped from 9th to 12th for the season. A bit cheesed off at this. Admittedly I've missed a few xc fixtures this season due to Fell commitments, but if the club said "look we're stuck and need you to run or we won't have a team", I'd double up and suffer through, as I did earlier in the season.

    We seemed to get a decent 'front end' out today though, and our a team had their best performance of the season. Hopefully we can progress next season, and I may even challenge for the back end of the a team (was only 70secs off being 6th counter today).

    Just the Nationals left then. After reading ba-ba's interesting article on league performance and it's bearing on national position.... well I've had 161st and 182nd in the league this year... multiplied by the "midlands factor" of approx 4.5, means I could be looking at 720th-820th at Parliament Hill... that seems a massive jump on last year when I was 1250th. My aim had been top 1000 this year, perhaps I'll be a bit more optimistic and hope to get closer to 900th...

  9. #69
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    Cheers Travs. We'll done mate. I missed out on the counters for the 1st time in a while. By 1 place! Was tough going so thankfully a bit short. Been struggling with injury since November, so I'm just hanging on and slowly slipping back. Our club put on a good show and we also managed to finish 11th. Just the intercounties for me now (I am a desperate call-up for Staffs as so many have dropped out) on the country til October. Good luck in the national all!

  10. #70
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    Yes I thought it must have been a bit short, when I looked at my watch on the line and it said 36 mins! I wouldn't get close to that on the road for 10km! Probably about 9km I think.

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