Saturday saw the first fixture of the Cumbria Cross Country league and what a shock to the system !
Approx 8000m or 4 laps of a hilly muddy field - I thought it was only 3 and really struggled to come to terms with the devastating news when I was told by Ian Davis on the second lap!!
Its run in a handicap system with the fastest group setting of 6 minutes after the so called "slowest" and 3 minutes after the "fair to middllng" group.
Standing on the start line with the faster group witch included a slight uphill start I felt perhaps I would of been better off parking at Dunmail and running over to Thunacar Knot to watch the Langdale Horseshoe fell race.
The faster lads ran off into the distance and I settled on trying to keep my pace even, which I did for the first 2 laps until I ran out of power and ended up having to work really hard to keep my position.
Think I maybe finished 6th of 7th. I will do the whole series over the winter as everyone keeps telling me its good training and to be honest, I really do enjoy them..... once I'm back home !!
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| getting ready to attack the orange Keswickian |
Penrith 10K Trail Race
The following day I was going to do 12 mile on the roads easy, but after looking at Eden's website I was reminded there was a 10k trail race 5 mile up the road, so I hopped on my bike and had a blast round it.
Very wet and muddy under foot which sapped your legs and after about 2 mile I found myself in a clear 4th with 3rd about 50-70 yards ahead. At the 4 mile mark I was aware of some one on my shoulder but I never had anything left to fight him off and I gave up my V40 yellow jersy position easy.
In the last mile I had a good battle for 5th with Steve Murdoch, swapping places a couple of times, but he proved to strong for me and I settled for 6th and 2nd V40.
A great hilly course and I really enjoyed it. A strong turn out from Eden Runners and it was good to catch up with a few who I aint seen since last winter/spring training but will soon be forced back to Wednesday night training next week with the nights getting too dark to mess about on the fells.
Eden's Jonny French won. Not sure on first lady. About 200 ran.
In between the two events I attended Shap Wells Hotel on Saturday evening where I was presented with my Bob Graham Certificate.
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| with fellow Eden runners |
2 comments:
the thought of cross country still gives me p.e in knickers flash backs! sounds like a great running weekend, nice one. any big plans for next year....?
I could have said it was 5 laps Stu...
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