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Anybody else looking forward to a season of XC this year?
We kick off the Birmingham League in Crewe next month. Really looking forward to getting back in a Godiva vest after a summer representing Eden on the fells.
Can i finally get a top 100 place (not a chance), or get a lot closer than before (possibly).
Hoping to guest at one or two Cumbria League races as well.
Ankle-injury permitting, I'll be doing as much XC as possible. Starting with guesting in the Red Rose league at Bolton Saturday, then Midland relays at Aldersley, then Betley, and so on. Will see you at Betley mate.
Looks like i've had the nod to run for our first team at the National XC relays in Mansfield on saturday.
Which can only mean one thing.... they must be absolutely desperate.
Has also rather scuppered my plan to do an informal local XC relay as a bit of a training run.
Good luck Travs. We haven't got a men's team going. Have done it at least half a dozen times over the years. One of my favourite events - great for spectating and the course is a nice undulating twisty one. 5k hits the spot sometimes! The start is brutal on leg 1 - even faster than the Birmingham League or national.
I ran the National XC Relays today at Mansfield.
Having never been to this venue, i was very pleasantly surprised to find an interesting course through woodland and grass, with enough undulations to make it very challenging. The woodland sections especially were very good quality.
Top 5
1 Shaftesbury Barnet
2 Highgate Harriers
3 Aldershot, Farnham & District
4 Leeds CIty
5 Tonbridge
Pretty much all the big club names in and around the top 30 or so.
As to my own race, i went off on the final leg, losing 11 places overall (as expected), finishing in 20:17 for what was about 50 metres over 5km.
Initially disappointed with that time, but i was a similar distance behind others in my team to what i would be on a flat 5km, so i guess i ran about level par today... Although certainly can and should have ran a bit faster with some race-sharpness in the legs.
We had a good opening leg and were around 30th but steadily dropped throughout the remainder of the race... not at full strength today. I bought us home in 68th.
On to the first Birmingham League next weekend which will be no less competitive!
Nice one Travs.
The National relays is such a high calibre competition and never been pleased with my performance there but it is great just to be part of it.
I love the Berry Hill course, it's usually a mud bath and used to be a regular fixture in the North Midlands XC league, but recently they've only used it for the National relay competition until this season when it makes a welcome return in January.
I would have been looking forward to some XC this year but the first 3 fixtures all clash with 50@50 races and not sure I'm going to be fit enough due to injury troubles for Mansfield in January, but you never know.
First league fixture tomorrow on a farm outside Crewe.
Felt a little bit flat last weekend at the National Relay... hopefully tomorrow will see a bit of improvement.
A bumper day of cross country for the opening league fixture at Crewe yesterday.
All three divisions of the Birmngham League running in the same race, saw over 600 on the start line.
Managed to run 90secs faster than last time we were there (winter 2019), which is very encouraging. But still didn't feel that i ran well.... again felt a little "flat".... GazB came past me with 1.5 miles to go and although i stuck to him up the hill, he pulled out nearly 30secs on me over the final mile... and i had absolutely nothing up the finishing straight, losing perhaps 6 places in the final 200mtrs.
Looks like the standard was as good as ever, if not even higher.... despite knocking 90secs off, i don't think i've gone any further up the field... still hovering just outside the top 150.
As to the overall results... not seen official standings, but a quick glance and i think Univ Of Birmngham have taken a good lead, followed by Birchfield. Tipton and Loughborough battling for 3rd. Cov Godiva i think 6th.
Again a missed opportunity for us as missing a good chunk of our usual scorers... if we could get our arse in gear we could have been comfortably 3rd today... but i guess all clubs have similar issues... i'm sure Birchfield and Loughborough will start firing in later fixtures, not to mention some of the teams queueing just outside the top 6.
3 weeks until the next fixture at Northampton.
Fixture 2 of the Birmingham League saw us travel a short distance south-east to Northampton, and one of my favourite courses (although listening to others, i'm well in the minority there)
Having been really quite ill for a few days, i wasn't sure i was even fit to race, but an early-morning fitness test on the treadmill and i'd survived, so it was off to Abington Park.
Imagine my surprise then to pick up a narrow pb in terms of league position (153rd), and manage to see off the challenge of one or two clubmates who usually beat me.
I can only imagine it was from running without pressure from the start... Just went out hoping to live through the ordeal, found myself in the hunt on laps 2 & 3, and had enough in the tank to see it home on lap 4.
The walk back to the car was a different story... first both calves cramped up, them both my entire upper legs.
As for team results, it was a strange day, with both Loughborough and Birchfield finishing well down on their usual positions. Although i understand there was a high-profile 5km race on in the Midlands this morning.
We were also depleted, losing our two best scores from the first fixture, and then another of our faster guys this morning. Tale of our season really. With the exception of Birmingham University who are way in front, the minor positions are there for the taking but nobody seems to want them!
Onto next year and the various county champs being the next fixture.
Back to the league tomorrow, at a favourite course of mine, Warley Woods in Smethwick, a classic cross country fixture and venue in the midlands.
Faint hopes of sneaking into the top 150 for the first time ever, after finishing 153rd last time out despite illness.
I'll be there too Travs. Looking at improving a fair bit on the 1st one at Betley, after finding some form last week at the Staffs (also at Betley, albeit in rare muddy conditions).
Great to speak to you Gaz before and after.
Was a really stacked field today... i ran my best XC performance of the season so far, yet still finished 40 places down on the last league fixture. I believe that the Uni teams were using the fixture to select the lineups for the upcoming BUCS championship, so they were out in real force.
As to the race... 1 small lap and 3 big. At the start of the first big lap GazB was 10 yards in front and i considered tagging onto his shoulder and seeing how long i could stick on for... given that he finished 90secs in front, it was probably for the best i took the sensible decision to play it cool in the first half of the race.
Ramped it up from halfway, and a big final lap effort to catch and pass our 9th counter... unfortunately that left me struggling on the flat run-in, and i dropped around 4 places in the final 200mtrs, including falling back to 10th counter for Godiva...
Another mid-table club finish, look to be well clear of the relegation fight, and a long way off the top 5 or 6, sat in a little group with Worcester, City Of Stoke, and Wolves & Bilston.
On to the Midlands Champs in a fortnight.
Midlands Champs at Mansfield this afternoon. an undulating rather than hilly course, very firm underfoot.
Felt that i'd had a bad run, could never really get going until the final lap when i picked up at least half a dozen places in a vain attempt to catch my clubmate...
However going on the rule of thumb that Birmingham League finish equates roughly with Midlands Champs finish, i did ok, finishing 150th today, having varied between 150's-190's in the league.
And was my usual 90secs behind GazB today... i'd expected a lot worse. So perhaps i did ok in what were admittedly tough conditions.... the wind was blowing enough to bring people to almost standstill at times, and there were long sections of each lap taking the full brunt of the wind. Was really tough to get into any kind of rhythm.
Sadly on the final lap a guy from Centurion had evidently collapsed, and as i ran past, several medics were around him, one giving him CPR, really hammering his chest.... it was quite disturbing to see and a very unpleasant experience, really made me feel like stopping... but in that situation you've just got to try and put it out of your mind. As i was returning to the car an air ambulance was landing, so i'm fairly optimistic that he was still alive at that point.
Fingers crossed.
1. Bristol & West
2. Notts AC
3. Tipton Harriers
4. City Of Stoke
5. Coventry Godiva Harriers
Nice to see you Gaz, and congratulations on your daughter's silver medal...i could see that she was getting caught by the eventual winner around midway, but she looked to finish strong and maybe could have pulled it back with another half a mile.
Hi Pete. Well done mate. Nah you had a bad run as I had a shocker, sorry! I was 2 min behind my teammate, whom I've beaten the last 2 XCs. I never run well in wind for some reason and the collapsed runner was traumatising. Thanks re Louise. She maybe could've paced it better and won, but she's got another 2 years in u20 at least
Oh dear, I was dreading you saying that your run was poor..!!
Actually I was 20 secs behind Jason Brotherhood, who I've beaten in the last two as well!
Final league race today at Leamington Spa, on a rather wet and muddy course... which had to be re-routed to avoid the main "ditch" as it was apparently impassable.
This still left one stiff hill in there, although it was short and very muddy, i ran in x-talons and couldn't get any grip going up it, my technique was more akin to cross country skiing going up it. However enjoyed the descent off the back of it and picked up a lot of places on each of the three laps.
A good run by my standards... finally made it into the top 150, which had been my aim for the season, and to be honest it was today's race that i'd targeted. Got into a good race with a clubmate and although he dropped me by 15 seconds over the final half mile, i managed 136th.
Godiva 9th for the season, firmly wedged in mid-table. I scored in the b-team every fixture and we were 5th.
Hello to GazB, good to see you as always. I managed to stick with you for a lap, but your rhythm over the flat stuff was too much to live with, and i think you pulled out about 75secs on me by the end.
Onwards to the National next week!
Anyone else at Parliament Hill for the National this saturday?
Classic underfoot conditions at Parliament Hill today.... i.e absolutely awful... although for once at a National it wasn't freezing, it was sunny and pleasant.
Usually they have numbered start pens due to the massive numbers, but not today, which left it a bit of a free-for-all at the start. This caused me issues as i was stranded right at the back, and had to deal with the severe bottlenecks/standstills during the first mile.
Worked my way through the field from a long way back, missing out on my target top 1000 by 29 places and 20 seconds....
Southampton AC won the team prize, with their Mahamed Mahamed winning the race. Dan Haworth of Matlock appears to be the highest fellrunner with a stunning 7th place.
We were 28th team and 4th Midlands team.
Another cracking day, it really is a stunning spectacle, i just wonder if they could have a rethink of the start.
One of the two occasions when I did the National XC was at Parliament Hill. About half a mile from the start, when it was still closely packed, I briefly felt a sharp pain in one foot. When I took my shoes off after the race, I discovered that someone's spike had gone through the shoe fabric and into my foot.Quote:
Originally Posted by Travs
I had quite a bad fall yesterday, but luckily i was 2km in and at least had a small amount of breathing-space in which to bounce back up relatively unharmed (yet still came up with a few cuts).
If you went down at the very start in the middle of the stampede, you aren't getting up!
I hope you are OK after your fall Travs - did your brother and nephew make it up Loughrigg?Quote:
Originally Posted by Travs
Not a chance.... the nearest they got to the great outdoors was Grizedale Forest, and Friar's Crag at Derwent Water!Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike T
Although i am hoping to take my nephew along to Church Stretton next weekend...
A walk up to Stickle Tarn at about the age of 4 sparked my love of the Lakes. I didn't return until my teens but obviously have been a few times since. There is hope yet...Quote:
Originally Posted by Travs
Yes I didn't get to the Lakes until 15/16 so there's plenty of time for him!