Saturday, 12 July - AV 16 km X-C

Slept in a bit this morning, so it was all a bit of a rush to get ready. Madeleine had to go to the hospital for an x-ray at 11:00 am and rather than risk getting to Geelong late for my race, I decided to hitch a lift with John Braszell

Madeleine had been keeping her arm limp since yesterday and the doctor sent us to the hospital for the x-ray as a precaution. He said he couldn't feel any break but that if children hurt their arm, they just stop using it. Hope she is going to be okay

We got to Geelong at 12:30 pm and as we are getting out of the car Brazza says he thought the race started at 1:00 pm! So we had plenty of time to prepare and we killed most of that time by walking a lap of the course

We were to do four laps of the four kilometre circuit and a nice 500 metre steady downhill start gives way to 500 metres of climb, albeit the first half of it pretty gentle. The last half of the climb is tough before you hit some relief with long downhill and straight section. Then another climb about 300 metres further on. The next kilometre or so is all winding flats and slight uphills before you reach the peak and you are less than a kilometre from the finish. Some nice downhill lets you build up some speed before the last climb up and over to the finish

We were all chinwagging on the start line and almost missed the gun. I set my watch and then joined in the mad dash that was the start. Great thing about this race is the start line is strung out over about 100 metres so plenty of room at the front

Went down that first part and thought I was going a little too fast. As I would throughout the race, I sacrificed some speed on the first big hill to make sure it didn't take too much out of me. After about two kilometres, I was feeling the pace and wondering if I was going to blow out. Plus you would think with all that time before the race, I would have gone to the loo when I had to. I spent the first lap looking for good places to wee

Went through the first lap in 14:23 and wondered what my next splits would look like against that. And half way through the second lap, I found that I no longer had the urge to wee, which made things more comfortable. Some parts of the course were starting to get a bit heavy underfoot

Don't know my split as I didn't hit my watch properly but I would guestimate it to be around 14:40. Started to feel like I was getting into a real rythm here and the plan of slower hills meant I could really push on the downhills on the flats. As a result, I felt alternately like a snail and a road runner. But what a great feeling to go from small steps to bloody great big strides and some decent speed!

The last lap was a bit of a struggle and while I did hit my watch right as I began the lap, I forgot to stop it when I finished! But it would have been around the 14:50 mark. In the end, I did 58:36, so an average 14:39 per lap and well inside the 59 minutes that I thought would have been a par performance

Not sure how to rate it alongside my 54:05 at La Trobe for the 15 km Road Race. I was happy with that road run, but cross country is supposed to slow you up and I was only a little bit slower here at Geelong compared to Bundoora

All in all, I liked the course. It has great views of the bay on one side of the course, winds through trees in other parts so you almost feel you're in the bush, and parts of the course are covered in pine needles and what not. Plus I just felt that while the hills were tough, you could recover sufficiently and really attack the "easier" parts of the course

A good day's work and off to Sofia's Restaurant in Preston for dinner

TOTAL DISTANCE : 16 kilometres (walking the course was a good warm up, though)