Mid Lancs XC - Kendal (First Race of the Weekend)

This morning I woke up with a huge feeling of dread.  Yet again, I started trying to talk myself out of racing today.  This is making me think I need to knock racing on the head for a while.  I'm just not enjoying it at the moment and I'm not entirely sure why.  It's not really anything to do with not getting good times, I think it's more a self-consciousness thing.  I'm not really sure what to do about it either but I really need to sort it out because I don't actually want to stop racing, I just want to start enjoying it!  At the moment, the only part I enjoy is crossing the line at the end.

Last year I quite enjoyed Kendal cross country so went in with a positive attitude.  The course was different this year as one of the fields it went into last year was closed off.  The course for the ladies was one medium lap and two large laps.  I was the sole representative for Horwich ladies and the only other Horwich athlete in my race was Nathan Townsend who was running in the under 17 men category (for anyone who doesn't know, the under 17 men and the senior ladies race is run together but the results are split afterwards).

I made the same mistake as I make in most cross country races - I started too fast.  It's really easily done, especially in cross country because the start line is really wide spread and so it isn't very deep so it's easy to be swept along by all the fast girls (and under 17 lads) at the start.  Having looked at my Garmin stats, I ran my first half mile in a 6.34 to 7.15 minute mile pace which is much faster than my usual pace, even my road pace!  I was still doing a 7.30-7.45 pace into the second mile, which is when I began to struggle.  I felt sick and my legs just had nothing left in them.  They were completely drained of energy.  I gave it all I had but had nothing left to give.  When I crossed the line I just made for a grid on the floor to sit down on before I fell down.

I did take 9 minutes off my time from last year's Kendal XC but it's not really comparable because it was a different course.  I think it is still a huge improvement though, given that the course distance was pretty much the same.

The men's team won the race, making then the overall winners!  RED ARMY!!!!!

Total distance - 3.10 miles (plus warm up)

All photos courtesy of Mark Birbeck