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Wow, who would have thought I would be writing blog posts again. Some of you may have seen on my Instagram that I was considering starting a podcast as I wanted to share things with you all again. I have not ruled out this but for now I thought I’d get back to the old blog posts. Anyways, let’s get to the topic of this post. On Saturday (25/02) I raced the National Saucony XC Championships and wow how I have missed XC races. Unlike previous years, this race was held at Bolesworth Castle (Chester) rather than the traditional Parliament Hill venue. This worked perfectly for me as it was only 1h45 drive compared to 2h45 from university (thanks to my lovely boyfriend, I didn’t have to drive). We set off at 0930 with the aim to get there at 1115, leaving plenty of time to faff around, register and warm up. However, this didn’t exactly go to plan. The drive was relatively plane sailing until we arrived at the venue. First problem - the Sat Nav took us (and many others) to the wrong entrance of the grounds which meant a diversion to the main route to the venue. Second problem – we got on to the main route, but the traffic was almost stand still, younger athletes were getting out of cars every which way to get to their race on time (I felt their stress). We eventually got to registration at 1230 where I met the other members of Chichester Runners who were racing (there were only 5 of us). With only an hour until my race time, I set up base with my bags and then went to walk parts of the course. I was expecting the worst – a muddy bog and some gruesome hills. The course was the opposite of that, very grassy and relatively flat. I do love a muddy XC but I was happy with this nationals course. I was feeling nervous but overall excited, XC is absolutely my thing! 1310: Time to warm up. I’d kind of forgotten my pre-XC race routine and warm up. It was a long time ago when I was competing in XC races regularly. A warm up jog, some drills and strides done… Time to get the spikes on and head to the start line. Now this is where my fatal error occurred. 2 minutes before the gun I realised I didn’t have my timing chip on, it was back with my bags! PURE PANIC! Everyone else around me was a bit like ‘S***’ too but they were trying to help me make the most of a bad situation. I shouted for my boyfriend at the start line and told the marshals. My boyfriend sprinted back to the tents to get my chip to give to me during the race (life saver). The adrenaline was definitely high now (eek). 3, 2, 1… BOOM… the gun sounds and a stampede of senior women power through the field. I started the race feeling strong and slowly advancing through the pack but also aware that I needed to keep an eye out for my boyfriend and the timing chip. 7minutes in, I spotted him and we fumbled around trying to get the chip on my ankle, I was aware I was losing places so shoved the chip in my sock and sprinted off. I was determined to try get those places back. This meant I was running quite fast for the first 5km so during kilometre 6 I stopped kicking as hard before then pushing again for the final 2km (well almost 3km because the race was 8.65km rather than 8km). Throughout this race I was focusing on closing the gaps, this definitely helped me to move forward in the race and kept me motivated. The final kilometre was super tough but I was still focused on overtaking as many people as I could.
I finished feeling relieved and exhausted all at once. I loved that race for what it was (and I guess that’s the main thing), placing in the top quarter of 773 senior women, however I was frustrated for my mistake at the start line which overall lost me a couple of minutes and therefore quite a few places. Bring on UK Intercounties Loughborough British Cross Challenge on the 11/03!
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