National XC Championships

I had never taken part in the Nationals before as the idea of running a long cross-country race just to finish hundred-and-somethingth wasn't particularly appealing, but this year I was talked into it on the premise that we would have a strong enough turnout to push for a place in the top 10 teams. As it turned out, however, some of our key runners were out of action on the day of the race, to the extent that I thought I'd have a good chance of being first Garscube finisher. Natasha was making her cross-country debut, and we had to make a hasty detour to avoid a major traffic jam in the centre of Falkirk, arriving about half an hour before the women's race. The weather was variable with fleeting snow showers but as the start approached I decided a vest and shorts would be fine.

The course for the men's race was 3 convoluted 4K laps of Callendar Park. I got off to a reasonable start, more or less keeping up with my usual rivals, but I found the long muddy hill on the back of the course very hard to climb, even with 12mm spikes, and would lose several places here on each lap. On the corresponding downhill, on the first lap, I managed to fall and land on my knee, but picked myself straight back up, apparently uninjured. There was a difficult riverbed to cross, where I had to hope for the best, and soon after this point on the first lap I had an overwhelming urge to throw in the towel, and probably would have if I hadn't been first for Garscube at that point. I struggled on to the end of the lap, by which time I was starting to feel better, although I realised I hadn't managed to started my watch. The next two laps weren't quite so bad but still hard work. It was hard to tell how far ahead I was of my clubmates, as there are several club vests which look similar to Garscube, and I thought if anybody was catching me I probably wouldn't be able to hold them off, but as I climbed onto the Antonine Wall embankment for the last time I reckoned I was safe enough. I was outsprinted by a Bellahouston Road Runner in the finishing straight, completing the 12K in 47:02, giving me a 6:13/mile average which seems implausibly fast. I finished 116th, and by my calculations I was 20th Vet. Felt utterly fatigued afterwards but recovered much quicker than after the Round Arran Relay.