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Thread: Cross Country 2018/19

  1. #31
    Master Travs's Avatar
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    Warks/Worcs Champs yesterday at a new course just outside Coventry. Interesting course but rather flat for my liking, just the one steepish hill which was negotiated in no more than about 20 seconds.

    Cov Godiva were 2nd team, edged out by Birchfield, apparently we were leading after the first lap. Not sure about my lot in the Masters category, but I hope we improved on 8th last year, we certainly had a stronger team out and hopefully we made the top 5 or 6.

    As for myself, I had a fantastic battle with two other club mates. Spent 90% of the race trailing them by 15-30 seconds, but picked up the pace in the final couple of km, breezed past on the hill... one of them was cooked and couldn't come back, and the other held on and beat me in a sprint finish. Good bunching, the three of us all scoring for the masters within about 20 seconds of each other.

  2. #32
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    After a significant mix-up on the published results, we finally received the corrected version. Despite our masters team scoring a much better aggregate than last year, we still finished 8th team!

    Interestingly, in this competition there is a trophy awarded for best performing team across all age categories. I have no idea how it's calculated, but would think we are in the running after picking up medals across most ages.

    Anyway it's back to the Birmingham League on Saturday, and what sounds like a fairly flat and fast course at Northampton. Whilst this is not ideal for me, it is slightly dwarfed by the prospect of also running the Trigger the following day, in as of yet unspecified (but i'm sure unpleasant) weather conditions.

  3. #33
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    Northampton is a good course Travs. Always been pretty dry over the years. Ok, it's pretty flat, but it does have rolling gentle hills. There's a concrete bridge, that you go over each lap, but no problems in fell shoes!

  4. #34
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    Thanks Gaz, see you there...

    Good news about the Fell shoes... especially as I don't own any spikes anyway!

  5. #35
    Senior Member fellgazelle's Avatar
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    Anyone else racing tomorrow?
    It's another back to back weekend for me with the final round of the North Midlands XC league at Wollaton Park tomorrow and the 2nd round of the East Midlands XC league at Holme Pierrepont on Sunday. Anyone doing either of these?
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  6. #36
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    Hope it went well fellgazelle? Wollaton Park is a proper course.

    Birmingham League action today at Northampton. After being told it was flat and fast, I was pleasantly surprised to find a reasonably undulating course. Ok there weren't any massive hills but certainly enough gradient to take advantage.

    At the start, a Rugby & Northampton runner was picked out for a round of applause as it was his 100th B'ham league race. At least 25 years of commitment, superb.

    An amusing start as GazB spied me just after the gun went, turned to say hello, and went flying into the course marker pole, sending myself and a fair few other runners all over the place, almost causing a Grand National style pile-up. In fact the same thing happened again 50'yards later as we trampled over the next marker... at that point I decided to find a bit of space...

    As to my race.... 39mins dead for 10km. Managed 183rd which is best performance of the season so far, although we must have had a strong team out as I was 14th Godiva. (In the last couple I've been around 10th counter despite being in the 200's). Had a good race again with my clubmate but distinctly had the upper hand today. After the first two close laps, I pulled out 10 seconds on the 3rd lap and a further 20 seconds with a big final lap. Must have paced it well as I was generally moving slowly through the field throughout.

    The league standard seems to have gone through the roof this year. I'm unquestionably stronger than last year, but my positions this year 200/210/183 are worse than last year (180th and a 160th on a hilly course at Trentham). I guess it's a good year.

    Not seen any results yet but I suspect Godiva have had a good day, and the coaches were saying it's possibly our best league day for a few years.
    Last edited by Travs; 12-01-2019 at 05:49 PM.

  7. #37
    Senior Member fellgazelle's Avatar
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    Yes not too bad today thanks Travs, I was a fair bit faster than last year so things are going in the right direction. There are a number of different courses at Wollaton Park and this one is my least favourite being pretty flat and very fast. It's very different in character to the National XC course and I prefer hills and mud!
    Sounds like you had a good run today? Thats a good time for an XC 10K, I'm geussing the standard is pretty high in the Birmingham league?
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  8. #38
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    Yes the Birmingham League is very tough.... division 1 has teams like Birchfield, Tipton, Loughborough, CityOfStoke, Cheltenham, all top teams on a national level, I'll throw ourselves in there as well, and a couple of other strong Uni teams.

    Draw your own conclusions as to the standard... but I've got a 5km pb of 18:41 (which is decent but I'm under no illusions and it's not exactly elite), and I was 183rd today out of approx 300, and that's the first time this year I've been inside the top 200.

    Our new World Mountain Champs competitor made his debut today, ran it in 35mins and still only came 46th.

  9. #39
    Senior Member fellgazelle's Avatar
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    I thought you must have been division 1 as I have a couple of clubmates who also ran yesterday for other clubs in division 2

    Round 2 of the East Midlands league at Holme Pierrepont today. I quite like this course even though you wouldn't say it was hilly. It's a much smaller event compared to the North Midlands with some narrow single track running through small copses. I felt fatigued after Wollaton Park yesterday and races last weekend, so steady run today. Rest weekend next week then Tigger Tor the weekend after.
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  10. #40
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    I actually did my new clubmate a dis-service.... he actually ran 10km cross-country in about 33:15 and still only just scraped into top 50....! Unreal...

    We had a good day yesterday and tanned Tipton and Cheltenham. Looking solid for a top 6 finish, and with a similar result at the final race in a few weeks, could even sneak into the top 4 or 5..... (6th looks most likely though).

    I said I'd eat my hat if we made top 6 this year... looks like it could be meal-time...

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