Dig Deep

It’s been a while, how are you? January has been a bit shitty for a number of reasons do to with work and such things, so I haven’t had the time or inclination to write anything. But here I am, ready to tell you about this past weekend.

I found myself running a XC race yesterday, as much a surprise to me as anyone else. I hadn’t actually signed up, but my name magically appeared on the squad list. I checked it with my coach Nick, conscious that we should be gearing towards London. I had expected him to say “give this one a miss” but no, “Go ahead” he said. Cheers Coach.

This wasn’t just any old XC race though, this was the Northern XC Championships, held (conveniently for us, lucky, lucky us) just outside Liverpool in the grounds of Knowsley Safari Park. Cue lots of Lion-based PB jokes and banter. After my experiences last year at the Northern Road Relays, I was under no illusion I’d be anywhere near the front, but its good to do these things for a different racing experience.

The weather over the preceeding weeks, had caused me to believe (hope) it might be cancelled. Indeed, the equivalent event down South had been. But no such luck, it was to go ahead, with a fresh dumping of snow over the North West less than 24 hours before the start of the race to add to the fun.

I turned up, eyeing all the elite looking runners, with their talent and low bodyfat percentages – seriously, do these guys even think about cream cakes? hmmm…cream.

We watched the women race before us, with a valiant effort by the PLS Ladies. I noted how tired everyone had looked after one lap. We were doing three *sigh*. But it was time to de-kit and get ready. 10 minutes before the start a delay was called as an ambulance had got stuck in the mud and the JCB sent to rescue it had also got stuck, That’s an encouraging sign. Then 5 mins before the start, the sky, which had been a lovely shade of blue, suddenly went grey and a fresh sprinkling of snow happened. The Gods were against us.

We lined up in the allotted pens, 600 blokes all keen to get this bloody thing over with. I like the gallows humour that you often get on a running start line. The gun (an actual gun) went off and off we went up the hill.

I’m not going to give you a blow by blow account of this race (there would be too much swearing) but to sum up it was absolutely BRUTAL. The mud, oh god the mud. Mushed in with the snow , it developed into a Leg-Sapping substance hitherto unknown to Science. It was basically like running 12km ankle deep in Angel Delight. Now that would have been much preferable. There wasn’t a single dry, flat patch on the whole course and the hill lasted for about half the lap. In fact, here’s a map of the course:

The hill started at point C and finished and point H….YES POINT BLOODY H.

Going up the first hill, I felt a little stabbing pain in my side “Shit, a stitch” I thought to myself, cursing the ham, brie and cranberry baguette I’d had for lunch. The bloody thing wouldn’t go. I battled round the first lap, but by the second was starting to fade badly. At times like this, there is little you can do other than dig in and try to keep going. That’s not an excuse for a bad race. At the end of the day I turned up and gave it my best shot on the day. Some you win some you lose. As I was going round the course, I thought to myself, a) those intervals on Thursday are biting you on the ass, but mainly b) What am I going to take from today?  I came to the conclusion, if nothing else it was an excellent leg workout. That and a Northern XC Champs T-shirt – you’re damn right, I earned that!

Without doubt, the hardest racing experience of my adult life. When the pain was bad, I’d thought about giving up so many times, but stubbornness made me carry on. The finish juddered into view in the end. I’ll admit I felt a bit desolate at the end, and didn’t want to talk to anyone or anything. Probably more kanckeredness than anything else.

Maybe in the long run I’ll be stronger for doing a race like that and in some slight weird way I’m glad I’ve done it, if only for the experience. There was some great support round the course and I deffo appreciated the tips that were shouted as I hobbled round form lots of different people.

I’ve been given heart but hearing the comments of much more experienced runners calling it one of the hardest races they’d ever done. If that’s as bad as it gets, I’ll be much more prepared next time.

So that’s my first season of XC over and its been a blast. I think I’ve learnt more about racing in the last 4 months, than in the previous 4 years of running. If that’s not a success overall, I don’t know what is.

Now back to the roads, forgetting today’s LSR - which shall for ever be known as ‘The One Where Mitch Shuffled Along Like Mrs Overall’.

London’s Calling…