West District XC Championships

I wasn't really looking forward to another long cross-country race in the wake of the Dunbartonshire Championships, so was far from distraught to discover that my name (and indeed the entire Garscube squad) was missing from the entry list. The mix-up had however been sorted out and I was able to collect my race number at the course in Inverkip. The Ardgowan Estate turned out to be a farmer's fields and there were supposedly some heavy patches. After a fruitless quest for a pair of Vibram KSO Trek on Friday, I had taken both spikes and trail shoes and went for the latter. Having since done further research it sounds like the Vibrams wouldn't have helped in the mud anyway.

The first mile was brisk enough but I seemed to be a lot further down the field than I would have expected. It had been OK underfoot but the thick mud started in the second mile. I tried not to use too much energy ploughing through it, to save something for the grassier sections. At the furthest part of the course there seemed to be large stones underfoot, but it was apparently ice. There was a brief respite as we headed away from the edge of the field towards drier ground, but we were soon back in the mud again. I was 7th for Garscube at this point with no prospect of catching any of the better cross-country runners ahead of me, and was seriously considering just pulling out rather than face another lap of misery on an increasingly chewed-up course, but then Alan dropped out and left me in a scoring position, so I just had to persevere. On the second lap, things began to settle down and I became involved in a couple of battles where I would be overtaken in the muddy sections and pull ahead again on the firmer ground. The fact that the last few hundred metres was in reasonable condition gave me an advantage and I managed to get away from one of my rivals, finishing in 60th place, 6th and final counter for Garscube. I would have to have been around a minute quicker to have propelled us from 5th place into 3rd. Our Vets' team was second, but as 4th Vet I wasn't one of the counters. Distance came out at 6.16 miles, time 41:51 for a 6:48/mile average.

Pace splits: 6:17, 6:53, 6:45, 6:45, 7:16, 6:52, 6:31