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Thread: Cross Country 2017/18

  1. #71
    Master ba-ba's Avatar
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    Saturday!

    Looking forward too it! Have been wanting to run a Parliament Hill National for a while now but not yet managed to. Tuesday's session felt good, pre-race rest day today. Just the 3h drive, 15min tube and 15min walk to negotiate now.

    In the 2012 running a friend of mine (the same one who ended up looking at a moose's arse in Norway from the Wildlife encounter thread) got what you'd call a 'very good start'
    Last edited by ba-ba; 22-02-2018 at 06:04 PM.
    Nic Barber. Downhill Dandy

  2. #72
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    Yes looking forward to Saturday. Unfortunately I've been suffering with a bad calf and I'm hoping to be ok for Saturday, it's probably 70:30 in my favour that I'll be on the start line at the moment, but there's too much coming up for me to risk doing any serious damage.

    Final xc of the year for those of us who have no chance of getting near the inter-counties...!

    Going down on the train to Euston from Cov, shall be there for the full day. I hear it's going to be a cold one.

  3. #73
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    A great day at the nationals today in London, always a great spectacle, and standing at the top of the hill watching the other races come steaming up the first hill, with the Skyline of London in the background, in the sun, was fantastic (although bitterly cold).

    As for the race, well it didn't go well for me. Was running well for the first 15 minutes, feeling fresh and holding my position well. But around that point my calf unsurprisingly started to play up and I was pretty much reduced to a jog for the remainder of the race. Quite literally hundreds passed me and I trundled in to finish about 1500th in 59mins.

    I dread to think how many places I actually lost. One of my teammates who I usually beat by minutes, came past me within about 800 metres of the finish, and beat me by a minute, so I reckon I lost a minimum of 4 or 5 minutes and I suspect probably a bit more than that.

    Was a great course, very muddy and slippy in places, with quite a few hilly sections. Bit of a shame for me that I got held up at the top of the first hill in the congestion, and then a second time going down the hill on the other side, but in the end it was irrelevant due to my calf issues.

    But still, I finished (which after 15 mins was looking an impossible task), and didn't do any major damage, and can rest it properly now.

    As for the team, we finished about 49th team which is down on last year, but I thought the standard was a lot higher this year. A bit gutted as I was in line to be a scorer today if I'd been fit and raring, in fact my issues look to have cost us 4 or 5 team places. Not to mention another team mate had to pull out with a calf problem. But on the other hand we beat pretty much all the other teams from around the 'mid midlands' with the exception of Tipton Harriers.

    Tempted to go back in May and watch the elite runners there, in whatever the competition (European Champs or something similar I think).

  4. #74
    Master ba-ba's Avatar
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    Night of 10km pbs on the track?

    Not a great day for me. Started well (too well?) but dropped a lot on the last half or so. Latent tiredness from marathon training? 291st probably about par with previous years and the w races this year but was hoping for (and am capable) of more.

    Harewood House leeds next year. Good course, similar to today but more open.

  5. #75
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    Quote Originally Posted by ba-ba View Post
    Night of 10km pbs on the track?
    .
    As I approached the venue I heard it announced over the loudspeaker, and to me it sounded to me like some kind of European or Home Counties international event, and I got the impression it was XC.

    May be wrong though.

    Well done ba-ba on an impressive performance.

  6. #76
    Master ba-ba's Avatar
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    XC finishes in early March.
    By all accounts the 10km event is great fun, they have a beer tent over the back straight, lane 3 beer-n-cheer all the way around the track and spectator races. I might be tempted!

    There's nothing impressive about popping half way through a race.

  7. #77
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    Still a lot better than most of us will ever manage.

    A slightly disappointing end to the xc season for me, but overall it's been very positive. My aims were to use it to improve on my fell running, and it's coincided with a number of pb's on the fells. Also managed to progress to a position to where I'm regularly beating people at xc who I was a long way behind 6 months ago.

    Hopefully I can continue to progress next season, and when I do race on the xc i'll be looking to improve again. But with some long-distance ambitions over the next 18 months or so (including two tough ultra races next December) I may well have to accept that the xc will again have to be secondary in my plans.
    Last edited by Travs; 26-02-2018 at 10:55 AM.

  8. #78
    Master ba-ba's Avatar
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    yes, I need to remember that XC is a means to an end as far as I'm concerned - improve myself on short fell races and build a bit of speed. But I have started enjoying the cameraderie and the championship XC races so get a bit invested in them.
    Nic Barber. Downhill Dandy

  9. #79
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    Yes, exactly the same for me. I'm a fell-runner at heart, but the only time I can run as a team is in the XC and road/xc relays. Have found myself criticising myself a bit too much after a poor performance on the xc, and also need to remember it's to help my fell-running....

    But when you put that vest on, it's hard to look at it as anything other than a race to the death!

    I also see it as paying back to my club. I take all their training, coaching, facilities, for a frankly minimal yearly fee, then disappear to the other end of the country to race on the fells on my own, so suffering on the xc for the team is the least I can do.

  10. #80
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    2 years ago at donnington park I was our 11th counter in 241st place. That was a great team day out (and a good night out after!). The 6-man team were 6th, 9-man 12th and, had Andy Hayes raced (he was on the entry list) we would have had a bronze as he'd finished 2nd and 3rd in previous years.
    This year I was 6th in 291st, last year 5th in 253rd so we're struggling a bit for numbers at the moment - different racing priorities (e.g. Andy ran 7:51 3000m at Glasgow GP on Sunday; 3rd place at Northerns is targeting 2:15 at London), injuries, a few guys have had kids and there's a bit of a shift in the ages of our senior men. My housemate is trying to get a bit of camaraderie back and our Northern 12-stage team is looking handy if we can get 2 more! Those team days out are really special when you have a lot of guys out.

    I don't make it to track all that much over winter, then piss off to the fells in the summer but when free I try my best to be available for the championship races. I'm doing the Northerns on the Sunday of a stag weekend...
    Nic Barber. Downhill Dandy

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