National XC Relays

Conditions at Cumbernauld were far better than last year and the rain had even gone off by the start of the men's race, although it was quite heavy underfoot. I was on the second leg for the A team, and Ben handed over in the nosebleed territory of 15th place which meant I lost about 4 or 5 places within the first few minutes. I tried not to get dragged along at a faster pace than I could handle, although not entirely successfully as it was a real struggle after the first mile or so, and I lost several more places in the second half of the race. I think the trail shoes maybe didn't work out too well as I had some ankle problems - certainly, nearly everybody else seemed to be wearing spikes. Finished in 15:43 which was the third fastest time for Garscube on the day and a great improvement on 2008's time, not surprisingly. Distance was somewhere in the region of 2.5 miles. Jogged the 1.5 miles back to the car afterwards.