The English National Cross Country Champioships took place on the iconic Parliament Hill Fields course at Hampstead Heath in London. The beauty of this event is that, as long as you are an official running club member, anyone can take part. So in the senior men's event you have elite runners at the sharp end and then, 2000 or so places behind, old slowies like myself plodding round. The course always seems to be an absolute mud-fest, which combined with some testing hills, makes for a tough run. My own target in this kind of event is always quite simple; don't be last! Having no more ambition than this allows me to take things quite steadily and enjoy the atmosphere as much as possible, though I do find it impossible to keep all competitiveness completely under control!
I was able to achieve my objective with over 100 places to spare, finishing 1886th out 2005 competitors completing the 12k event.
The following day we were at Pegwell Bay in Kent for the six hour Hugin Challenge, a 3.28 mile loop which was to be completed as many times as wished/possible within the time limit. Many runners decided to stop once the marathon distance had been completed but my objective was to plod on for as long as I was able. I was feeling a bit heavy legged after the muddy hills of the previous day and had a slight knee niggle caused by all the slipping about during the cross country so I was pleased to keep going and get to almost 30 miles before being timed out. My favourite part of the day, though, was Mandy completing her first ever 20 mile run, even continuing after her official finish to make up the full distance!
A week later it was more muddy hills for multiple marathoner Anna's first event as a race director, the Mill Hill Marathon, established in order to raise funds for a local hospice in north London. This was always going to be a relaxed affair which was just as well as the course was very hard consisting of four and a bit loops with a lot of deep mud and three significant climbs on each full loop. I travelled with three club mates, all very experienced marathoners if not the speediest and our finishing times ranging from 5:41 to just under 7 hours attest to the nature of the course. My legs were just about done by the finish of this one and I was secretly pleased to be first Reading Roadrunner home ahead of my old friendly running rival Pete, but don't tell anyone that, I wouldn't want him to think I was always trying to beat him or anything!
Next up was the Groundhog Track marathon, the event at which I set my PB last year. 105.5 laps of a standard running track. Stupidly I thought that I might be in for a decent run at this event, the positive associations of last year overriding the reality of my much slower running currently. I set out to run nine minute miles for as long as I could in the hope of getting under 4:15 even with some slower miles at the end. My data shows that I was only seven seconds slower than my PB run at the 14 mile point. Thereafter it all went very badly and it was a struggle to finish, particularly as my electronic lap counter started to malfunction and friends I was running with started pulling ahead in terms of official laps completed despite lapping at the same rate as myself: the wonders of modern technology! It made little difference as any chance of a good time had long gone and this sort of development is good for mental toughness training. I think!
22nd February 2015 The Hugin 6 hour Challenge 29.7 miles 5:53:50 #61
1st March 2015 Mill Hill Marathon 5:41:55 #62
7th March 2015 Groundhog Track Marathon 4:56:04 #63
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