On Friday afternoon I began the very long coach trip to Birmingham for the UK Inter Counties Cross Country Championships. The trip down was interesting in itself with the under 17 men deciding that they would have an smartphone/headphone rap battle…I was delighted and surprised when their batteries lasted for the full 6 hour journey (surely they can’t own an iPhone). The bus driver also thought that he would create tropical weather conditions on the bus (we were heading south after all) by putting the heating on full blast. On arrival at the hotel we were fed the hottest curry known to man, all of our mouths were on fire, not the normal pre race meal I would go for but there was certainly enough to feed a small army. The race day was great if not some what intimidating. We all got rallied into pens, around 40 in total, with 6 ladies racing for each district or country. Looking around at the start most of the girls figures resembled those of models, they were so tall and thin and I must say I felt like a bit of an oompa lumpa stood next to them (this is my next fancy dress outfit!). The race started off at a blistering pace which of course I tried to go with…ha this plan would soon backfire! The course consisted of 1 small lap and 2 big laps totaling 8km. The course was hilly, muddy and technical everything that a cross country race should be. For the duration of the race I had girl A* running on my shoulder breathing like a dragon. I tried to run away from her mainly because her breathing techniques were driving me insane but no such luck she stayed right there with me for 8km! The race finished with a ridiculously steep downhill which was pretty fun to run down. With girls finishing on average every 2 seconds you can imagine the pandemonium the marshals had to deal with as girls flew down the hill and then suddenly stopped on the finishing line incapable of walking (I was potentially one of these girls). I ended up finishing 101st out of 270 which I was pretty proud of considering the caliber of runners and that I am in full marathon training at the mo. Once the race was finished we dusted off the mud off our legs and clothes as best as possible jumped back on the bus and headed back home! Oh and before you ask we got to recreate the iPhone/Headphone rap battle on the way home. It was such a great opportunity to race for West Scotland at this race and fingers crossed I can better my position next year! P.s. I beat A* by 2 seconds Carla * Girl A’s name has been changed to protect her identity. Mostly because we’re scared of dragons.
Daily archives: March 15, 2014
This weekend was not spent getting a PB like the majority of the purple posse. Me and Iain headed to Madrid on Saturday afternoon to surprise his Mum for her 60th birthday. I had noted that a 10K was taking place on the Sunday at the stunning Juan Carlos park so decided to enter us both. I was still mildly paralysed from attending Carla’s ETC circuit class on Thursday AM. I would highly recommend that you try the class if you fancy a hard work out due to the small class size of 4 it is like a personal training session and you have no room for skiving (read this as TORTURE) and Iain was recovering from a 15 miler on the Saturday so PB’s where not expected. Iain had a humorous evening on Saturday trying to track down the office where we had to collect our bibs. – I will let him fill you in on this part……….. Having ditched my bags, I instantly left the hotel, I got to where I wanted to be via the Metro with one change, so far so good. On the Metro I realised I forgot my print which showed me where I was actually going. A quick swatch of the map of the local area had me off towards something that seemed familiar from the race website. As the registration closed in under an hour, I trotted along the boulevards of Madrid to arrive at the building I was aiming for, it was closed. After a quick recce to confirm the building was definitely closed, I had what was essentially a one way conversation with a Spanish security guard who assured me I was looking for the hotel next door. Entering the hotel which was really more a hostel I see the Cafeteria, which rang a bell, Success! However, it was closed. With no phone, I didn’t know the time, but was sure it was still before 9pm. I managed to find another Spanish security guard who had pretty good English & he eventually checked the website for me & told me I only had to go round the corner. In Madrid, round the corner can be quite the distance. I ran back down to the Metro I’d arrived at & up in the direction towards where I was supposed to be going. I caught up with & overtook a jogger who was making use of the cooler evening temperature to get his miles in, this after my 15 miles earlier in the day was def going to catch up with me! Having eventually got to where I understood the address to be, again nothing looked like a race registration area. Eventually I followed a couple of confused looking Spaniards down an alley into the car park of a block of flats. They stopped & started speaking to one another in Spanish, I just went over to yet another security guard in the hope that she spoke English. She did & pointed […]