Saturday, 16 August - Club XC Champs

The Championships

Felt a bit tired today which did not bode well for the big race. We did some shopping for the club Trivia Night to be held later in the evening and headed round to the track

Did a little warm up as I helped to flag the course and in no time at all race time was at hand. I had been very nervous about this all week as Liam Magee was also taking part and he had had a strong week on the track

Bolted from the gun and tried to get into an easy rhythm. From the start I established a break on Liam and after the first lap, which was 12:23 on the watch, I had about a 40 second gap.

Started to struggle on the second lap and I was starting to worry about the distance between Liam and myself. Did a quick check at the four kilometre mark and could just see him coming through the trees about 400 metres away. From here I just tried to go steady up the hills and push the flat and downhill sections. At the two kilometre mark of each lap there is a loop section where you can guage how far you are from other runners. I reached this point and was gratified to see that Liam had fallen a little bit further behind

Went through the bell lap recording 12:53 on the watch for the third lap and 25:16 race time. An anxious look behind me and I saw that Liam was now about 1:15 in arrears. Either I was feeling like I was home at this point, or the course was starting to take a toll on the legs, but for whatever reason I took the hills a little easier this time while still trying to stride out the flats and downhills

Came home recording 13:15 for the last lap and finish in 38:31 with Liam only 1:15 behind and it appears we may have recorded the same time over the last lap

So in the end another of my goals accomplished for the season and I have now won four Club Cross Country Championships in a row. Somehow, I don't think that at the age of 34 next time this race is run I will have things all my own way with Liam having a full year of training under his belt and the ever improving Josh Traine and Josh Persson getting fitter and stronger. But number 5 is definitely one to try for in 2009

TOTAL DISTANCE : about 11 kilometres including warm up and down