National XC Relays

I was on the third leg for our Vets' team and was hopeful of beating 15 minutes. I made up a couple of places early on and got caught up in a battle with a runner from Edinburgh AC who eventually got away. The going was heavy in places and I noticed the people I was chasing seemed to be able to pull away on the downhill stretches. I thought it had gone well enough but approaching the final turn I was disappointed to see I had no chance of achieving my goal and ended up finishing in 15:15, 7th fastest for Garscube on the day. Average pace for 2.57 miles was 6:56/mile. We were 5th Vets overall. I might reconsider my choice of footwear in future as the only time I have beaten 15 minutes in recent years was in 2010 when I was wearing trail shoes.