National Cross Country Championships 20/02/10 (senior men's race report)
This was my first cross country race for quite a few years. It was also the first race for my new Inov8 fellrunning shoes and more importantly my first race in a Portobello vest. I decided that the best tactic was to go fairly steady for the first lap and pick the pace up once the field thinned when it would be easier to overtake.
In the past I've made the mistake of putting too much effort into overtaking on the hills only to see the runners I've worked hard to pass come zooming past me on the downhill sections. With this in mind I made sure I didn't push it too much on the hills and concentrated instead on picking up the pace again as quickly as possible once I made it to the top of the hill.
The leading pack round the loch and up the hill...
I thought the course was well put together with a mixture of undulations and long grassy straights. The cold weather meant that the shaded parts of the course were still fairly hard whilst the bits of the course that were exposed to the sun were starting to get fairly muddy.
The toughest feature of the course was a steep V about two thirds of the way round the lap. The idea is to use the speed you pick up from the downhill to power your way up the other side. I didn't do too badly with this on the first lap but on the second my foot got stuck in the mud at the bottom and I lost virtually all my momentum and had to climb up the hard way. My third attempt was better but I think there's still some work I could do to improve my technique.
The Dunbar boys.
Ricky had already done the Parkrun earlier in the day.
All of my training with the club seemed to pay off as instead of fading on the final lap I continued to catch and overtake runners in front of me. Coming down the final hill I was caught by someone, but after negotiating the final muddy turn I managed to speed up and hold them off in a sprint for the finish line.
I was pleased to be the first counter for the Porty team. Willie came in next having managed to sneak past Peter on the home straight with Ricky a bit further back having already done the Edinburgh Parkrun in the morning. Scott was next followed by Steve and Tony.
Report Gareth Green
Photos Mary Hunter and Christine Green
Roadrunpics coverage here
Results hereYoutube video of Men's start
Youtube video of Men's finish
Ben
