Today I joined my fellow Bellas in Gourock for 3 hilly laps of a very Muddy park.
Lynn R very kindly collected me and Maz at our old ski centre haunt and off we went to deepest darkest Inverclyde. Lynn was a fellow XC virgin and we weren’t too sure what to expect. I was most afraid of the weather- Hurricane/tornado/Storm Abigail has been showing us her worst for a few days and I was fully expecting howling winds and driving rain. Maz had warned me to bring loads of warm clothes, so as I can go often blue I packed silver blankets and a heated sticky patch thing just in case. To be honest, the reason why I have never entered a XC race before was because I thought they were for “proper runners” and I’m not sure I’m one of them…But I’ll try most things once so I was aiming to get myself round in one piece.
The ladies did 3 laps and the boys were doing 5- initially I thought this was a dreadful sexist travesty but by the time I got to lap 2 I was so relieved and thought it was after all very sensible. Oops- no-one tell Beyonce, I don’t think she’d approve! Although Lynn R was having such a great time, she nearly went round for a fourth…
The start was signalled by a gun , which gave me a fright and then off we went. The course appeared to me mostly uphill, had some very tight turns and some sections were like running in very cold chocolate mousse. Maz managed a very impressive slide onto her back after just a few metres and retains her title of “runner most likely to fall- and no, she wasn’t pushed!” Kirtseen was then at a disadvantage as this made it harder for her to run because she was laughing so hard! Apparently one of the men got hit on the head by a football too which knocked him down- Gordon Goldie was on duty with the camera and captures this and many other golden moments! About halfway through I had my usual thoughts of “this is crap, who’s idea was this and I hate running” and then came the final wee hill which George pushed me up and I had finished!
Hurrah- I didn’t fall over, I wasn’t last and the rain stayed off! All in all not a bad first XC experience 
It was a pity our poor gazebo ( may he/she rest in peace) wasn’t around to provide us with shelter, but thanks to my Bella mates for the cracking race day banter! Bring on the next XC race.
