When the snow fell on Thursday, I was pretty happy until I realised that, no we weren't going to be having a snow day, and yes I still had to go into school. Then when the rumours went around that the run might be cancelled, and some peoples reactions were 'YES no tough xc race,' but mine were the complete opposite, I was very up for the race and had been excited for it, for a long time and I didn't want it to be cancelled. Anyway when the email came around to confirm that the race was on, I was thrilled. When I walked down to the park, I was shocked to see how much snow was still on the ground, because most of it had melted in school. After a nice warm up (in the snow) my feet were nicely cold and wet and my socks were already covered in mud. Once I had done a few drills, I was soon jumping up and down on the start line, trying not to get too cold and a few nerves were starting to come over me. It was my first senior Knole run and this is quite a well known schools race in the south east, so I was keen to do well. Soon enough the gun went off and with a few pushes and shoves, I found my space, although not quite in the position I wanted and all I could see was people running past me, and at this point I was definitely starting to panic. I refused to let this effect me, and I tried to stick to my game plan, which was pretty simple...'don't go off too quickly.' The course started with a a lovely steep uphill, now this hill is quite a bit of a killer... I mean it is a pretty tough hill to run straight up, straight away in the race. I would like to say that once this hill was over it was all a walk in the park, but no not quite. 3 more large hills later and that would be the finish. I started steady and I got into my rhythm, although it was disrupted a few times by for example skidding down a slope. Once I was about 3/4 of the way around I just had one more section left, and this was a sharp uphill, followed by a sharp down hill, followed by a little flat section to the finish. Coming into the last hill I was in about 23rd and I was starting to think, I need to seriously pick up the pace and thankfully I did a bit, I finally got my leg moving. Secretly I felt like I was zooming up this hill last hill (although I probably looked like I was about to collapse) but I felt good. I really tried to push at the top of the hill, and I did manage to take quite a few places. When I finally got to the last flat section, I was really trying to stretch my legs out but unfortunately I was just pipped at the post (by one of my fellow school runners, which made it slightly better) and I came in 17th. Phoebe (one of my close friends from my school) came in first by over a minute, which is pretty impressive. Overall my team I was in won, which was a great result and our B team came forth. Afterwards, I was pretty quick to get my jacket on asap, as it was pretty chilly and luckily it gave me an opportunity to test my dry robe out, which I had got for christmas. Even though I got a few odd looks in it, as I walked around in my floor length jacket, I wasn't too bothered, because I was nice and toasty warm. Most of us then stayed to watch the boys race which was 2 laps of this gruelling course. Then we were quick to venture back to the sports hall to warm up, and not to mention of course eat some cake too. We had the prize giving and we went up to receive our medal. Overall I came 17th out of about 120, which I was pleased about, but of course being me I still wished for a better result and hoped to be able to improve in the future. I hope all those who have been racing this weekend, have gone well or you've had good training. I'm hoping that the weather is going to start warming up soon and I also have another race next weekend, which should be fun!
G x
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HelloI'm Grace, a 18 year old runner, and fitness fanatic. Join me on my crazy journey through life, squeezing in an adventure in every second of spare time I have. Archives
February 2019
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