Double Cross Country. 14/11/09 ~ 16/11/09Parkrun No. 5 14/11/09
It became apparent as we checked out the weekend's events that it would be possible to do the Parkrun on Saturday morning followed by the Braids Cross Country in the afternoon. Followed by the first of the Borders Series XC on Sunday. A busy weekend but all short races so I thought I might give it a shot.
Parkrun – another early start and the weather, while not the forecast gales, was far from ideal. There was the constant threat of rain in the air and the wind was picking up. A few Porty faces though maybe the forecast had kept a few more in their beds. Lucky dogs.
I was hoping for a 3rd Parkrun pb in a row but knew the chances were slim. Having previously used up all my intelligent tactics like reining myself in for the first half etc, I was now reduced to upping the caffeine drink intake and going all out from the off, in a desperate attempt to better last fortnight's 17.31.
I did a longer warm-up which helped offset the wheeze factor on the way out, but when we turned at the Granton End and the swirling wind was unmagically still in our faces, I suspected the game was up. There is nothing to do but to try and keep decent form and tell yourself the pain will be over in a short time. There was only the thought that it would be terrible to miss one's goal by just a second, or to be overtaken by someone seeing you flag in the last hundred yards. So it was full steam ahead, onto the small path that tells you its nearly over and after trying to raise my game and ignore the warning lights flashing on all around my internal systems, dive across the line. A quick glance at my watch told me I'd failed to beat last time – I thought it said 17.35 (though later, when the results went up it was 17.39) - which didn't come as much of a surprise.
On reflection, this time is a reasonable effort considering the wind somehow managed to confound us in both directions, and it was wet underfoot. I felt I thrashed myself more than the previous 2 in an effort to better those times and although I failed, it wasn't because I was saving anything for later. My throat felt scorched from forced breathing, though after Mary and I went for a jog warm down I was beginning to get the slightly euphoric payback that the Parkrun effort seems to generate. I consoled myself with the fact that I got to hand in metal token number 6 again for the third time, managing not to drop any places after the halfway turn. Mary ran a pb by 47 seconds proving either I am a woose or she just had a dream run. She is now targeting 21 minutes; a further 30s faster. Jim Scott also had a pb – good going on such a day. Michael F put his fractionally slower time down to cycling there, though I think the weather was more of a factor this week.
I am not looking forward to the weather deteriorating and icy patches appearing, as there is quite a lot of seepage from the woods across to the beach. However it still gets the thumbs up as an excellent short'n'fast speed trial and best ever value for money. (Free to register and free every week.) They are always looking for volunteers and you don't have to sign up for the whole season – just put your name down for 1 week at a time, and hopefully you get a lovely morning walk by the seaside. You know you want to....
Parkrun results
Andrew Jeske's photos
Plenty of mud at the BraidsBraids Cross Country 14/11/09
When we got home I had the second half of my breakfast and decided to do the Braids cross country. Mary opted out and by the time I had dicked around the flat for a bit I realised I would have to cycle hard into the South wind to get across town in time. I met Johnny, Alex (Musselburgh) and Alastair (Lothian) and we registered then walked up the road to the Braids golf course. Although its only 2 x 3 miles or less its a pretty demanding course, and I was caught between warming up and watching the women's event. They had not long set off so I ran the back end of the one lap they do to catch the leaders towards the finish, while doing a couple of strides on second hand legs. The weather was steadily deteriorating, the rain and wind getting worse, but the shrubs and gorse round the course gave a bit of protection. I had taken a t-shirt to wear under my club vest but at the last moment ditched it and ran like a man! Kept the gloves on though.
Tactics for this one I remembered from past years (and nearly getting trampled by the spikes of hundreds of students who come from up and down the country) to get to the front and set off fast. Or be caught as the track round the golf course narrows at various points. The circuit is loosely 1 mile uphill to the trig point, followed by a bit of sharp descending interspersed with corridors of mud then a long slowly descending undulating path parallel to the road. A lot of the route makes for difficult overtaking so when it widens on the home straight you have to choose your moment to bomb past the student ahead who's hangover has probably kicked in and he's having a whitey.
My legs afterwards.I started so well I was nearly half way to the trig point before HBT's finest shot past. This was encouraging though a lot of youthful runners were also going past either side. The one advantage this has is you get to choose the best line and they have to splosh through the muddier bits to overtake. The mud round the top of the course was as hilariously abundant as I've seen it and there is nothing for it but to charge through. Forget keeping shoes dry for the second lap. The file of runners began to thin out for the second time round.
The next lap is a real grind: without any recovery you have to start up that red cinder hill which this time seems steeper and longer. I was surprised Alastair didn't go past. We got to know each other from being in the same part of the field. Recently, after beating me in a couple of events, he had had a tough run at Tinto, taking a fall towards the end, putting him way down the results. Towards the end of the first lap (after he took a bit of a scenic diversion halfway round) I caught up with him and saw him try to overtake the guy in front. Shoes clipped and he went down shouting an apology to the guy ahead. (Such politeness!) I had time to sidestep this but thought Alastair would probably be back ahead shortly.
Over the top and down the treacherously slithery rock before the mud troughs and back through the gorse bushes. Andy Kitchin (1st mv) went past at some point and my only regret of doing the 5k earlier was that I didn't have the wherewithal to chase him down. He stayed just a handful of seconds ahead.
The finish this year was round the corner and 30 yards of flat to allow for a number of frantic sprint finishes. Before you hit the corner the path was narrow and rutted and difficult to overtake – the guy ahead of me went down trying – so it probably improved things. There was no shortage of last ditch battles even quite far down the field where the amount of glory to be gained vs. pride lost was minimal. A reflection of the excitement stirred up by the event as well as perhaps the youthful vigour of the contestants.
Times would have been slow this year, I seem to remember being much quicker in the past, but maybe that's just rosy tinted rear view mirrors. I cycled home cold and filthy and had to take shoes and socks and shorts into the shower to scrape off the mud. Managed to get the vest and shorts through the machine and dry for Sunday's cross country. Shoes were a bit damp though.
Results here
Day trip to England with a lolly.Borders Cross Country Series 15/11/09
Norham was the first round of the Borders Cross Country Series – 6 races in different Borders locations. A good turn out of runners went along to sign up (only £12 for 6 events!) and my legs were not too bad considering. It was quite an early start (we were picking up Alastair and Johnny on the way and weren't sure where it was,) but the glorious weather off set that trauma and Lynn M had assured us it was a great, old style xc course. Old style meaning stream crossings, fences and mud rather than twice round a football pitch with carpet over tarmac.
warming upWe watched the juniors while we warmed up and they looked to be every bit as serious as the grown ups. I don't know where their course went but they were coming back down off the hill with a good bit of determination.
Nanook of the NorthWe got in line and were set off by the same guy who sets off the Yetholm Hill race which was a good omen. And he was running it too. After a turn around the grassy field we rose up a stubbly field then exited over a fence. I couldn't decide to vault or climb and made a mess of it barking my shin and elsewhere as my foot slipped along the wet wood. Trying to use the exquisite pain and adrenaline as motivation, we charged around some more fields and edges of fields I think, before taking a right turn that led to a steep bank. Stuart H from Dunbar had just gone past. He and Alastair, directly ahead, began skating sideways down the grassy muddy slope. It was almost impossible to get a decent footing and you just had to estimate the corners, and aim roughly where you wanted to go. First stream crossing and Alastair jumped the gap but landed amongst the marking tape. Stuart jumped into and through the murky water and I jumped over. The banks of the stream were completely waterlogged and made for interesting (old style) running. We crossed the stream 4 times in all. After (I think) the second crossing was a small wire fence which Stuart misjudged and ended up below with his back on the ground legs in the air. I hadn't realised until later he had become trapped by the wire, (requiring a marshal to help extricate him) though I did wonder why he didn't jump to his feet and continue onwards. Not stopping to enquire I crossed the fence, doing all but stepping on his prostrate corpse and running onwards in a fairly unsympathetic manner. I would like to think if, for instance, his head had been underwater I would have noticed and helped.
However my mission was now to catch Alastair who was just ahead and one place behind Stewart Whitlie. I'm pretty sure I've never seen Stewart after the first 10 yards in any race so I thought he was either having a slow day or.... But there was more to ponder on than how gloriously I was doing (as Mr. Whitley quickly moved up the field.) With a callous heart I was thinking how Alastair had fallen in his last 2 races and so I was watching closely in case he planned on employing this tactic again. And there was plenty scope for it with lots of ankle deep puddles and greenery covered mud swamps. Mary said she saw several folk out taking photos but I didn't dare lift my eyes from the ground.
Early on, over the fields of stubble - photo Ian NimmoSoon we seemed to finish the lower level river crossing bit and after a couple of short sharp rises (I confess the last bit reduced me to a hands on knees walk) we were back to the fields. The route wormed back and forth and at various stages you could see the following runners on the other side of the wall. I lost any sense of where we were and just followed Alastair who hadn't yet had the decency to fall over or even slow down. Having done one more race than him over the weekend I had a handsome excuse for letting him go (not to mention he is just over one third my age.)
Mary enjoys the post race glowThere was a long relaxing straight browing the edge of a field that slowly showed itself to be the one in which we stood earlier taking photos of the juniors. Home so soon? I had thought it might take 30 minutes to run the 4 hazardous miles but after a canter round the start/finish field I stopped my watch before 26 minutes.
Dunbars
Alastair (on right)The excitement of the route had focussed concentration so acutely I hadn't noticed any tiredness from the day before. It was a great event, very smoothly organised and well attended – obviously has a reputation as a cracker. The old style course got everyone fired up and afterwards we all stood about vigorously discussing the merits and difficulties of the route. A quick warm down once round the field then back to the car to scrape off the top layer of mud and put filthy kit in poly-bags for the drive home. (No showers.)
Johnny and Mary did an extra warm down on the swings opposite the Village Hall. Lets hope the next race in the series is as special. Lauderdale on the 29th Nov. See you there. Details here
Results here
WoLeith 16/11/09
As Mary and I both had the Monday off we had loosely planned to recce the Devils Burden or go for a long slow one in the Pentlands but the rain and heavy grey skies put paid to that. However we did manage 16 soggy miles up the Water of Leith then back the canal and round Holyrood. Wasn't pretty though. This marks the start of the winter training runs, looking ahead to the Highland Fling which in a moment of weakness I let Mary sign us up for. I may well live to regret that.
Reports pb
Mary's blog
