This was my 4th weekend of racing on the trot and it's fair to say I've been loving every minute of it (except the Saturday school catch up...)! This week luckily it was exeat, aka we don't have Saturday school... yay. Unfortunately my teachers think exeat is like a short holiday, so they will be sure to set me a mountain of work (they would call it holiday work) to do, and unsurprisingly this exeat this was no different. I would go on about my usual carbonara pasta, but you probably know my routine all to well by now. Anyway this Friday was no different. This weekend it was South of England XC champs at Parliament Hill, and this would be one of my biggest races so far! I had heard lots about Parliament Hill being hilly but, but wow was I not expecting what I faced on my 5km course. While walking the course it felt as if we were only going up hill, no exaggeration! As I was standing on the crowded start line, looking up at the long hill in front of me, I thought 'can it really be that bad...' and before I knew it, the one minute warning was over and the gun went. As expected people flew past me up the hill, but I knew I couldn't go off too quickly otherwise I would pay for it dearly at the end of the course. After accomplishing the first uphill we were quickly sent back downhill, which was a very muddy descent and as I tried running down it normally, but I still managed to skid and jar my knee a bit, but it was all okay it didn't hurt after 10 seconds. The course went on, with a similar style up and down, up and down however the uphills seemed significantly bigger than the down hills but perhaps that was just my tired legs. At least the benefit of walking the course was, you knew what point you were at the top of the hill and you could start to just give it your everything and push on until the end. When the last little mound came, I pushed off the top and tried to just stretch out my stride and run as quickly as I could into the finish, and I was quite happy to overtake 3 people in the last 200m, as a desperate last attempt to get as high up in the rankings as possible. I crossed the line in 59th and at first I couldn't work out whether to be happy or sad by this result, as most of the people around me I had never raced against. After finishing, I was quick to make my way back to the tent and get some layers back on, but fortunately it wasn't that cold anyway but I was already starting to chill off. I picked up a handful of sweets to put some sugar back into me and restore my energy levels before heading off on a cool down. I plodded along on my cool down, realising that my legs really didn't have much left in them and that the hills really had taken it out of me (even today as I am writing this, I am tired just walking to the kitchen). On our cool down, we passed the hoodie and top stall... my favourite! As our race was near the end of the day I was lucky to pick up a couple of bargains and I came out with a new purple hoodie (not my usual colour but I felt like something different, because normally I'm all about the blue and don't want anything to do with the colour pink or purple) and a navy blue long sleeved top, as seen in the photo below. Overall I really enjoyed the day, but looking back I am a bit disappointed with my run, but I guess it is all a learning experience and I just need to get back to training and work towards next weekends race... inter-counties. I hope everyone who raced this weekend, whether it was southerns, midlands or northerns that they all went well. I am sure I will have a busy week of work again this week and training too.
G x
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I am very sorry, that this post is so late, I have been pretty busy and sorry for the lack of photos in this post, but I wanted to get a blog over to you this week, so here it is: For most of last week I have been pretty excited for the race last weekend, Kent XC schools. I had never done this race before, well this isn't really surprising considering this is my first XC. As usual I was at school on the Friday and I made my usual carbonara dinner, which was delicious as always and I got in an early night. In the morning I was up by 7:00 doing last minute preparations and also having breakfast. When I got to school breakfast I was glad to see a large pot of porridge and lots of bananas... perfect that was my breakfast sorted. I rolled onto the school coach for 8:30 and soon enough we were on our way down to Dover. Yes, Dover! It seems a bit silly to me, to put a race which all the Kent schools go to, right on the edge of Kent and sadly for us this did mean it took rather a long time to get there. Fortunately 1 hour and 20 minutes later, I could see the sea and the white cliffs of Dover *relieved sigh* we were nearly there! There was lots of chat on the bus, mainly about how there wasn't a piece of flat land in sight. Fortunately when we got to the school we were relieved to see it was a relatively flat course with a few sudden uphills but nothing too major. I set out to walk the course and quickly came to the reality of how frozen the ground was, because I was turning my ankles and I was in my trainers, this did worry me a bit! The course was 2x 2km laps, which were pretty straight forward. The last 200m consisted of a short sharp hill and then a curve around to the finish. After a nice long warm up and many decisions about whether to wear gloves or not, I was standing on the rather packed start line. I was in the senior girls age category, but we were mixed in with the inter girls and there was no way of telling who was who, but luckily, there was quite a large percentage of people I knew in the race from club races. BANG! The race was off, everyone made a sudden sprint and for one moment I thought I was in a 400m race, I saw myself just being over taken by more and more people... this isn't a rare occasion for me at the start! I decided in the first lap I was just going to settle down and get into my rhythm and on the second lap start making my move and catching people. This pretty much went to plan and on the second lap I just started to pick people off and maintain this. Coming into the last 200m a girl was 5m off me so I put in a desperate attempt to catch her and so nearly did, but my legs just didn't have any more in them and I came in 1 second after her. This was very annoying but I could tell that my speed at the end, even though it didn't let me catch her, it has got better.
I was handed my slip of paper with 11th place on, which actually turned out to be 10th as they made a mistake so I was chuffed to have made it in the top 20 to get my place in the inter-counties in two weeks time to represent Kent. Tomorrow I am off to Parliament Hill for the South of England Champs, which I am very excited for! Good Luck to anyone running tomorrow. G x 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 Apologies about the delay of this post coming up, but ever since I have come back to school this term I have been up to my head in work... okay pretty much only Maths work, but I have finally got most of that done now, so I have put some time aside to blog! This weekend I had Kent XC Champs at Brands Hatch and I'll say it now but I wouldn't say it went well or badly, it was just okay I guess... Having come back from Lanzarote on the Thursday and racing on the Saturday, I always knew I was going to still be tired, but I just didn't know to what extent. After two good nights sleep back in my own bed, I woke up ready with a surprisingly large amount of energy. My usual tradition on the friday night of carbonara pasta, while the rest of my family had chillie con carne was no different. On Saturday morning, again I stuck to my usual breakfast, even though I was kindly offered bacon and eggs by my dad (which usually I would never turn down). Once we had arrived...perhaps a little too early (but I am not a fan of being in a rush). Dad, mum and I set out to walk the course, with the course map in our hands. It was a bit chilly but after walking half the course, we had soon warmed up and were taking one of our many layers off. The difficulty I have, of only just taking up XC is that almost all the people in my race, will have run the course at least one time before and they can know what to expect... me on the other, I wasn't quite so ready for how I would feel running up the last hill. After carrying out my warm up, with drills and strides, I was on the start line ready to go and also a little bit squished as the start had a few more people than in the previous kent leagues, and I guess that was all to do with the fact it was Kent XC Champs. The start was just as pushy as I expected, but luckily I got out okay and found myself in a nice little pack, with many other TAC runners too, which worked nicely. The course was 2 small laps and 1 considerably large one. The first 2 small laps flew by and so did I to an extent, I found myslef in a comfortable position, further ahead than I had expected. Perhaps I lost concentration because of this, or perhaps my week of seriously intense training had caught up on me, because as I came into the last 1km and also the last (only) hill, I was tired... very tired. Yes perhaps I had gone out too fast, but that felt comfortable at the time and it didn't help it was a hill at the end, which just dragged on and on. In the last 1km I lost 3 places and I came across the line in 11th... which well I was initially happy with, but looking back I would have liked to have done better. I will definitely take some positives from the race though, because apart form the first km, I felt more stronger than usual, and although I didn't finish it off well, I guess that is definitely something to take away and improve on. I had made the decision to make the most of my training week in Lanzarote and I hope that will benfit me in the long run, especially with the rest of a very busy cross country season to folllow. I have got a very busy January of races, so I thought I would leave my post all about my training camp in Lanzarote for Febuary, but I'll be sure to keep the photos from there still posting on my instagram, to help motivate everyone through the winter. Well done to everyone who raced last weekend, as I know lots of people had their county champs.
G x |
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
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