First Devon vest!

Yesterday I earned my first Devon county vest after placing in the top 8 Devon finishers (4th, to be exact) at the Devon County Cross-Country championships, held in Exeter.

It was a day of many 'firsts': my first time doing XC since secondary school, where I only made a grand total of 3 performances (one each year for years 7, 8 and 9); first time wearing spikes; first time competing against such a competitive field and, the final first, Exmouth Harriers ladies were the first female team, claiming team gold! Can I hear a 'whoop' please?!!

The course, which took place on the Exhibition Playing Fields, next to Exeter athletics arena, was a nasty one! Not one bit of it was flat. It basically weaved its way like a snake from the bottom of the field, up hill to the very top, back down to the bottom again, and back up to the top. 4 big loops forming a circuit which had to be completed twice, with lots of twists and turns and plenty of mud, totalling 5k in distance. Too short! I hate 5ks on the tarmac as they just represent 18-19 glorious minutes of asthmatic wheezing, but on the mud they are even worse as to keep up the same pace requires about 15-20% more effort. In short: they hurt!

On the start line with my fellow Harriers teamies, like a hunting pack!

I managed to get myself to the front on the start line of my race, which was shared with the under 17 men, senior ladies and masters ladies. The gun went and I was shocked by how furious the pace was from the start. The under-17 lads all shot off the front, but so did loads of women, and within the space of 5 meters I found myself in about 50th and going backwards! They were all fighting to get to the front for the first tight turn about 100m from the start. I was in the middle of the pack but managed to find a good line to it but I was scared stiff about getting someone's spikes in my leg as we all became congested in the bottle-neck. Fortunately I didn't and after this the course dragged uphill for 400m and so the field started to spread out.

In the chaos of the start, I had lost track of all my competition, but now as we started to string out I started to pick people off. Firstly I overhauled a couple of Exeter University runners,then my team mate, Hannah, who had sensibly started fast and got herself to the front for the first turn, and then my track training partner, Lucy, from South West Road Runners (now my 2nd claim club). I did get past Lucy but never managed to put any real distance between us. At this point, my team mate and super-star vet athlete, Cathy, came up onto my shoulder and then passed me and I dug in to stay in contact with her for most of the race. So the battle turned out to be a bit close to home with my team mate, Cathy, and my training partner and friend, Lucy, as my nearest competition!

Starting the second of 2 long loops, trying to hang on to Cathy and an Exeter Harriers athlete, with Lucy just behind hanging onto me.

Before the race I foolishly hadn't had time to walk / study the course and I didn't really understand the course map, which looked more like an algebraic equation than a running route (complete 2 x ABCD, then BC, F. Err... E = MC2?) ! But my Dad, bless him (uttered between gritted teeth!), believed he had it sussed and talked me through it, saying when you come down the hill for the last time there is an added loop through the woods before heading to the finish. Wrong. I came down the hill for the last time and suddenly, without gravity's assistance, I completely hit the wall. This was the most dramatic 'hitting of a wall' I have ever had in a short race. I just had nothing left in the lungs. Thinking I had another loop of the woods to complete, I backed off the pace, at which point Lucy surged past me. It was then that I realised she was kicking for the finish and I was in fact on the home straight: there was no extra loop. I then managed to dig deep and find something extra (as you always can when a finish line is wafted under your nose!) but Lucy had got the gap and Cathy in front had kicked too and I left it too late to react to them. I did manage to  hold off the runner behind me who was finishing fast though and I finished 8th lady overall, out of the Cornish and the Devon runners, and 3rd senior Devon female, earning myself a bronze medal for my 18:58 minute's worth of sheer, tortuous pain!

Definitely not my best angle! Nearing the end: knackered, at the upper end of my limits!

The final surge for the finish line: hallelujah!

The icing on the cake was that both Cathy, myself and Hannah all earned ourselves the gold medal in the women's team competition and we each got 1 of the 8 available places for selection to run for Devon at the South-West inter-county XC championships at Bicton in January and at the national inter-counties championships, alongside all the country's top elite athletes, at Birmingham in March. Unfortunately I will on holiday for the January match: typical, first Devon vest and I ain't in the country to wear it! But I will definitely be taking up my team place with pride in Birmingham. Unfortunately the Birmingham race is the day before the Grizzly, so that one might have to be shelved for another year. The crazy part of me, the part that believes I am invincible, says I could do both the XC on the Saturday and the Grizzly on the Sunday, but the more rational me says that that is likely to break me totally and jeopardise my chances in London a few weeks later, so I fear the Grizzly might be a no go for 2013.

So, have I managed to replace the horror memories of school cross-country with nice, shiny new positive memories? Yes and no! It still hurts like hell and, whilst running it, there wasn't a single moment of it that I could say I actually enjoyed, but the feeling of satisfaction and achievement you get afterwards definitely makes up for the pain. In trail races, and in many local road races, the gaps between your rivals can reach epic distances (I once won a marathon with a 28 minute cushion between myself and 2nd place), but in XC, you don't get that. The competition is tight, you can see your rivals the whole way round as the course is so open (no bends to hide behind!), and you have to fight fight fight for every second and every place. Cathy finished 2 places ahead of me, yet the time gap between us was just 4 seconds: you don't often get that in local road or trail races. Yes it hurts, yes its unpleasant, yes it's a total asthma attack from start to finish, but at least the pain is short lived. Only 18m58s worth on this occasion! Hopefully less next time!

The Exmouth Harriers female team: Devon County XC champions 2012!

It was my first attempt at true, competitive cross-country, so I didn't know what to expect and it was a steep learning curve! What I learned from this outing is that I need to go out harder from the gun next time so that I don;t end up so far down the field before the first technical section and so I don't spend the first mile having to pick people off again by going wide on the turns. I also learned that I need to really study the course better next time and not rely on my Dad to give me the relevant information and advice! Hopefully I won't be caught out next time!

So, I guess that now I have earned myself this 'ere vest I am going to have to embrace more of this pain and do it justice in Birmingham! Roll on 2013!