This weekend has been a much anticipate weekend for me, since qualifying back in January. Why...? because this is my first English schools, even though I was running as the older age senior girls, which also makes it my last. I would say my last few weeks have not been ideal in the lead up to this race, having picked up a few niggles. I knew I had to be fit enough to run English schools because I didn't want to hold a place in the team which someone would be able to fill, who was in a fitter position than I. Even though I have had little run training recently, I knew I would be able to run this weekend to a good standard. The journey up to Leeds started on Friday at 10:45 at Tonbridge for me, where I was being picked up by the Kent coach to make our way up to Leeds. It was a long journey following some delays on the motorway but we did finally make it to the hotel at around 6:30. This gave us just enough time to put our stuff in our rooms before heading off for some dinner. Dinner was really good, with a buffet style... perfect for all of us hungry runners. It consisted of some turkey, pasta, veggie lasagna and veg... a bit of a mix but none the less, very tasty. The time seemed to fly and after a team meeting, followed by a shower, I was ready to jump into bed. The hotel was nice, but I always struggle to sleep in another bed so woke up rather tired. I had also managed to pick up a cold over the last few days and waking up to not being able to breath through my nose wasn't ideal. After a quick pack of my bags, I headed down to breakfast. Again breakfast didn't dissapoint and even though there wasn't porridge, this wasn't really a problem as I'm happy to have toast instead. After checking out, we were ready to jump into the coach and head off to the course. Kent arrived pretty early to the course to give the people racing first a good two hours before their race, however it meant the senior girls had got there about 4 hours before their race. After having only arrived for 30 mins, the cold suddenly started to hit me and my toes were feeling it the worst. I was really starting to feel rubbish at this point because I could feel myself slowly freezing. Thankfully Holly (who won the senior girls race) allowed us to jump in her camper van to warm up... honestly I am not sure what I would have done without this. This meant that even though we were unable to support all the races we were keeping warm and stayed in here up until the hour before our race. On my warm up I actually felt like I warmed up... well I never cooled down after getting out the van, so that was good. However in the warm up I could feel my hip flexors tightening, which worried me as this had really stopped me in my tracks at the inter counties the previous weekend. After applying some gel, I was hoping they would hold up for the race, considering it was only 4km but hilly. We were soon waiting just outside the start line and then we were called into our pens. This is when suddenly the weather turned on us... the wind suddenly blew up and the air suddenly turned to ice. Just as the gun went, the sky started to snow... this combined with the winds created a lovely blizzard for us to run in. The first 5 minutes were some seriously tough conditions and my fingers and nose were so cold. The course went by quickly with a short and a long lap, made up of a lot of uphill, then straight back down again. The conditions under foot had turned pretty horrendous by the time it was our race and was fine in some places. However in others, keeping your spikes on your feet was the problems. Coming into the last 100m it was a slight up hill and I really had to dig deep through this and finally crossed the line in 123rd. If you had told me a month ago I had come 123rd out of the over 300 girls in my race, I would have been disappointed. But, with the injury problems I have had and the previous two bad xc races (affecting me mentally), I was actually chuffed to come in where I did. More importantly I had made it to my first and last english schools xc champs and made it to the end of xc season, just about in one piece. Kent just missed out on a team medal, but we had some amazing individual performances within the team, picking up 1st, 9th, 14th and 16th.
It was a long journey home and I finally made it into bed at about 10pm. However as I am writing this now, I am in bed and have been for the last few hours feeling pretty horrendous and just can't really even get out of bed. The long xc season and the stress of being in my final year of school has just all hit me I think. I need some time to chill now, recover and come back strong for track season. G x
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Over a month ago at Kent Champs (blog post here), where I qualified for the Inter Counties for the first time after missing out on selection last year. This meant I was very excited for this race and well worth the long travel up to Loughborough. On Friday, I did my usual routine with pasta and had my bags all packed for the early morning. I had an early night to prepare myself for the 6:30am start, where my mum and I were travelling up together. On arrival, the realisation of the mud hit me hard. Firstly I had just come in my trail shoes... a big mistake, wellies were a necessity! I was sliding all over the place, there wasn't an inch of grass on the field where the tents were. I arrived slightly late to Loughborough after sitting at stand still on the m25 for about an hour after an accident. I had a quick walk of the course but it didn't take long because you could see most of the course from one spot on the course. Soon enough I had finished my warm up and was making my way to the start line. On the start line we were placed in pens and I was near the back, following my not so great run at Nationals. When the gun went the mass of people was quite overwhelming and I found myself squeezed right in the middle of the crowd and didn't have many directions in which I could go. The course was muddy all over and I struggled to pick up a rhythm because of the tough conditions and felt I couldn't pick up much speed over the course. The mud seemed to suck the energy from my legs along with the hills, this is clearly something I need to improve on next season. I crossed the line in about 120th... so not a great run and was definitely wanting better. I was also disappointed to come in as last Kent, I just wanted a better run and prove to myself I am capable on a tough course. It was great though being part of such a fab team and it was a amazing experience and one I won't forget for a while. I look forward to hopefully being selected again next year to return stronger to this course. I have English schools this weekend, which I am so so excited for. I am travelling up on the Friday and back on Saturday evening after the race so it will be a busy weekend!
G x I am writing this post nearly a week later after my race, tucked up in the warm on my final snow day off school. It hasn't all been fun and games with the snow because I was in the middle of mock exams when the Beast from the East paid a visit. Instead school gave us to the exams to do at home... not much fun when I could be out in the snow. Anyway more back to the topic of my race, I had the national xc champs last weekend at Parliament Hill, it was a tough one for me and I certainly didn't come out of the race with the result I was hoping for. As you might know over the last few weeks I had been struggling with some shin problems and had to take some time off running just before nationals, which wasn't ideal and was upsetting for me because I felt like I was in good shape. By the time Nationals came around, luckily I was back running and had a couple of sessions under my belt going into the race. I knew what the course was like and had prepared myself mentally, for the challenging hills and soft ground. Following a walk of the course I had checked out every single hill I was ready to face the race. I soon found myself on the start line, looking up a the huge hill which faced me in my first 500m of the race. This hill is huge and really challenging... it certainly didn't disappoint and I made it to the top, somewhat tired! The course was 6km and made of two laps of about 2km and 4km, however the marshals sent us the wrong way on the first lap which added 800m. To start with a 6km race was one of my longest race distances, but to have it being nearly 7km on such a tough course was a recipe for disaster. Luckily I only realised the first loop was longer when I had finished so mentally I didn't really notice. I felt I started the race strong, not too quick but was in a good position. However about halfway in, I started to struggle and my legs felt exhausted. Mentally I was ready to hit these hills, but my body couldn't. The last 2km was certainly a mental test as people started to pass me and I knew I was much further back in the field than I should have been. At this point I wanted to just give it my everything and get around the course. I finally crossed the line in 89th place... far, far away from my target, but I had made it around the course. This course seriously challenged me mentally and physically. So, I may not have come out of this race with the result I wanted and it means I have had another bad nationals race, following last years bad race too. I do feel like I learnt a lot from it too, because the more experience I get with the larger fields of athletes the better. This will all help to building me to be a stronger athlete. Looking back now I can take positives from this race, whereas in the initial few days I was only seeing the bad. I have two races coming up in the following weeks English schools and Inter Counties. These are two races I have been looking forward to all season and I am ready to go into them and finish my season with two exciting races.
G x This Wednesday I had a mid week race; the King Henry VIII relays. It is a relay taking place in Coventry, with girls teams of 4 and boys teams of 6. To start off with Coventry is about 2.5 hours away from my school, so I was not looking forward to the travelling, but it is always a fun and exciting race. My journey up consisted of a bit of chatting but also a lot of latin revising for my test the following day (and I am pleased to say that the test went well)! After having driven for a good 2.5 hours we were able to get off the coach and stretch our legs. We quickly registered at the school and then made our way over to the park. The course is an odd one because you spend about 80% on a path but then the other 20% is in a muddy woods... not really ideal when it comes to choosing footwear. I eventually went for my cushioned trainers as I am dealing with a bit of a shin splint problem at the moment, so I wanted something which would cause the least bit of aggravation. I was the third leg which I actually quite liked in the end. When I was handed over the baton we had a big lead, so I set out to keep this gap as big as possible. The course isn't hilly at all, just the odd slight slope, so I was thrilled with this. I felt strong over the first 800m and then I was off into the woods... thankfully because it was pretty chilly the mud was slightly frozen, however there were too patches which were so so muddy. When I got to these points I was so concentrated I just ran straight through the horrible mud. I was very relieved when I finally got out of the woods back onto the path. The boys set off 5 minutes before the girls so by the time my leg came around we had just caught up some of the slower boys and I found this really helpful because it meant I could use someone as a target to chase down. I found the last 200m the hardest as my legs were tired and my shins were sore but I was pleased to hand the baton over, still with a big lead. We finished in 1st place at the end with over a one minute lead, which I was thrilled about and so was the rest of the team! It was a great day out and coming home with the win made it even better. However my shins have been getting sore over the last week so I've decided to just give cross training a go until next week to help this problem settle, I can already feel that they have recovered and I know I'll be back running very shortly.
Grace :) Kent schools has been an important race in my diary all season because I have had a lot of feelings about doing well in it. Last year (blog post here) I came 10th and I then went on to the schools inter-counties, where I then missed out on English schools selection. Last year I was able to say 'I have next year,' however this year is my last year of school, so it was my last chance. This gave me an element of pressure that I placed onto myself. I didn't want to dwell on this and I felt my nerves didn't really effect me that much. Anyway, moving on from all this chit chat and I'll explain how the actual race went. Setting off in the morning I knew we were going to be in for some pretty poor weather, after the forecast said 100% chance of rain from 7am to 2pm... I wasn't too amused by this. On arrival the rain was on queue and we all sat in the car with not much motivation to get out, it was pretty miserable. I made a dash to the registration to avoid the rain and then I was straight back in the car. Finally there was a point where I needed to get out, I combined my warm up with walking the course to allow for the minimum time in the rain. By the time I found myself walking to the start line, I was pleased to say that the rain had eased off a little. I whipped my water proof off at the last minute as the whistle went for 2 minutes remaining. Standing on the start line I started to focus in on the race and what I needed to do. Senior and inter girls were running together which made it challenging to know where you are amongst your own age group. The gun went and everyone went off extremely fast, I did try to go with it but I knew it was just too fast and unsustainable, so I just focused on getting into my own rhythm. When we reached the first small uphill, I tried to work my way up the field and I continued to do this throughout the race. After the first 2km lap of two was done, I knew I wasn't where I wanted to be in the field, although I didn't have a clue what place I was in the senior girls race. On the last 2km lap I really just tried pushing on and giving it my best shot. The very wet conditions led to really muddy fields and it felt like the mud was sapping all energy from my legs. Coming into the last 200m of the course, I knew someone was coming up behind me. At this point I didn't know what age group they were in so I really pushed right to the end and I found some mental strength here that I've never really used before... I think because the possibility of english schools selection meant so much to me. I crossed the line in 3rd... I actually couldn't believe it. I had been running around the course just hopeful of top 4 in order to gain automatic selection for english schools. To come away with a medal was just out of my dreams, I couldn't believe it, I really couldn't. The race definitely took its toll, as I struggled to stand up and try and catch my breath at the end... at least I knew I had really pushed it. My two big goals of this year was to be selected for inter counties and english schools, both things I had failed to do last year. To know I will be going to both of these now, honestly makes me so happy. I know I will be buzzing for a while after one of my best ever races but training continues and hard work is still to be done to hit the rest of the xc season with purpose.
I hope all those with school xc champs this week have been successful and any other races or training you have been up to. Love G x The Knole run is possibly not a course that I think about with hundreds of positive thoughts but I was actually excited for it this year. Last year I raced in the Knole run and you can read all about it here. Last year I came 17th and I was pleased with this at the time but this year I had higher hopes and was aiming top ten. My week before this race hasn't calmed down that much and with the addition of starting school on Wednesday that added to some tiredness. My Friday night pre race routine was similar to normal with pasta and a banana, however the Saturday morning was slightly different because I had to go to school... arggggg. The race started off fast and I felt I was in a good position going into the first hard hill. I was sat in the top six but the hill was tough, I tried to keep it calm. The race pretty much consists of uphill, downhill, uphill, downhill, uphill, downhill. I find this tough but I was able to keep in a good position but I felt the last hill was one ask too many and I lost a few places, crossing the line in tenth. My first thought was how had the rest of my team done. There were two Sevenoaks girls just in front which was promising and some were coming in a bit behind, so I was hopeful! Sevenoaks won and I was thrilled, I couldn't have asked for much more. After a tough race, I was delighted! A big bonus was there was some great cake at the end which was exactly the sugar hit I needed. I hope everyone who was racing had good weekends. I feel like I am back into the swing of school again now after starting next week, however the count down to half term has already began. I feel I am at the point now that I am ready to finish school and take my exams.
Love G x As I am writing this title, the idea that I have just written 2018 does scare me a little... anyway on to the more important aspect of this blog post, the actual race. Firstly if you want to check out my blog post from this same race last year - Kent Champs 2017 you can read it here. I had been excited and nervous for Kent champs for a long time now, however I have never felt the way I did on Friday night... I was nervous. First of all, this is a very new experience for me, but I tried switching this anxious energy into something more positive. So, as I settle down for the night on Friday I decide to start reading Kelly Holmes autobiography and this worked a treat, as soon as I stopped reading I was off asleep. In the morning, I was struggling through my porridge I just felt a bit sick eating it... again I think a bit nervous. Soon enough we were in the car and on our way to Brands Hatch. On arrival all my nerves disappeared and I felt actually full of energy and excited to race. After a quick walk of the course which was quick because it was the same course as the year before. The temperatures were pretty low as I was warming up, honestly I could not move my toes... I am not joking!!! Putting my spikes on was quite the mission but once they were on I was ready for business. The gun went and I was off. The course was two small laps and one large lap. The first two laps went by quickly and I was glad to get them over with. The last lap was more challenging, my legs started to hurt but I felt concentrated and was happy with my position in the field currently so didn't want to let it drop. When I got to the bottom of the final hill, I knew I just had to get up this hill quick enough not to get caught up... this was tough (shown by my expression in the photos below). I crossed the line as 4th u20 and I was thrilled, this is possibly my best race to date. I was chuffed to also have got automatic selection for the inter-counties in March, which last year I had missed out on and this was a big goal for me in 2018. I hope everyone who had county champs or any other races or training, that it went well! This is only the first race of the New Year so it has been a nice confidence to get a good start to it, but there is still a lot of work to be done and many more races to come.
Love G x It has been a few weeks since my last blog post and cross-country race, last weekend’s race I was particularly excited for, why?… because I was representing Kent at the Southern Inter counties for the first time. My usually Friday night before the race was the same as normal, with a big bowl of pesto pasta (I’ve converted from carbonara). I also came straight home from school on the Friday, which is always a nice treat when I have nothing after school. After a relaxed evening my alarm was set and I was all packed for my race. My alarm wasn’t crazy early which was nice as I was leaving at 9:40am which meant I didn’t go into school in the morning, which is always a bonus. We headed off to Oxford with a car full of layers and footwear ready for the elements that we were expected to be facing in Oxford. When we arrived, we had slightly less time than planned following some nightmare traffic getting into Oxford. I picked up my number and headed out to walk the course. The course consisted of two 3km laps which were actually relatively flat apart from one mound at the beginning of each lap, so I was quite happy about that. Before I knew it, I was already standing on the start line amongst a large number of u17s and u20s. The start was physical with people in 3 or 4 rows on the line, luckily I found myself only the second line back. There were a few initial tight corners which meant lots of people ended up fighting for positions. It was a relief for the initial km to be over and then suddenly the u17 and u20 split off on their separate paths and we were now just running with our own age groups. From then on, the field spread out a lot and I actually found myself mainly running with other Kent runners; four of us seemed pretty huddled together in the same part of the field. The ground throughout the course was so variable, parts were rock hard, frozen by the seriously low temperatures. However, others had really churned up by the time it came to our u20 race. Ideally, I think I should have gone for 12mm spikes and not 9mm as I was losing grip in a lot of places (I should have listen to dad with his advice to go for the 12mm). The final stretch was 600m around a field and my legs were giving up and I really lacked some speed at the end and was over taken in the last 200m. This is definitely an area which I need to improve on before the new year when I have lots of important races coming up. I think I finished in the middle of the field and was the 6th Kent scorer which I was happy about. The official results have all gone a bit wrong for the organisers but hopefully somehow, I’ll be able to see how I did officially. I hope everyone who was racing this weekend had good races and enjoyed this rather overdue blog post, but I’m sure you can imagine in my last year of school, work is pretty heavy at the moment. I am now on my Christmas holidays so there should certainly be more going on, on my blog and social media!!
Love G x These last two weeks have flown by and that is no surprise considering I have been on half term and thankfully I didn't have loads of work to do, so I could also rest and relax for a bit. Leading up to this race I was a little nervous of how the course would go as it is known for being very hilly. Last year I was in the u17 age group (last years blog post here) and this year I was running in the seniors race so the course is longer. This week it was 4.9km to deal with but with about a million hills in it too !!! After my usual warm up, I did my last few drills and made my way to the start line. The gun went and I found myself in the mix of the race pretty instantly, the beginning of the course was relatively flat but it didn't last long before we started climbing and then soon after we were descending... up and down, up and down, we went. The course was made up by two laps, one 2km lap and another 3km lap. The second lap was certainly the hillier one, so it was key not to go off too quickly as I had visions of me pretty much crawling up the hills in the end if I did. The last lap of the course was painful, my legs were full of lactic and felt heavy, I was desperately just trying to hang onto my position but this was tough. The final 500m was hard because it was all pretty much down hill but following some killer hills, it was hard to let your legs go and have a final strong finish. There was several of us all close to each other and we kept over taking each other but then the last one hundred metres we all gave our final sprint... and this was painful !! I over took one girl, but then got overtaken by another and I crossed the line in 16th senior women and 8th u20. I crossed the line and my initial feelings were of disappointment however after having some time to reflect and look back, yes it wasn't my best race but it wasn't horrendous. I think my good result in the previous Kent league is what made me feel initially disappointed but I had to look at the bigger picture and there were more people in the race this weekend. It feels great to be solidly into cross country season now and although the conditions haven't exactly been tough yet, I am really enjoying it. I am now back at school, hence the slight delay in post but I hope you all had a good week. I have had some very exciting news in the week because I came an auntie to the beautiful Florence and I can't wait to spend lots of time with her in the future.
Love G x The time had finally arrived for my first official cross country race of the season and was my first Kent league of the season. It took place at Stanhill farm... one of my favourite locations because it's a pumpkin farm, so whats not to love. This time last year I was doing this kent league and it was my first cross country race for Tonbridge AC ever and the blog post is here. This year, I was going into this race with a season of experience but also as an age group older, this time I was running as an u20 in the senior women race! Having prepared for this race suitably with my usual pasta in the evening... however not carbonara, why? Well I think I'm becoming lactose intolerant so I have just been trying to avoid it recently and see if it helps in any way, so this time is was pesto... who knows this might become my old carbonara in future. The senior women's race was not until 2:15 which allowed me to have a suitable lie in on my first day of half term which was very much needed after possibly the most stressful last two weeks of term. I am now off for the next two weeks which is great, although I have a lot of work but I will also have time to relax and chill. Soon enough I was on the start line and the gun went, a bit to my surprise. I jumped into action and I found myself near the front of the crowd which I was pleased with as usually I get caught in a big bunch of people. I kept myself calm and just went with the initial pace and was happy with my positioning. The field soon started to split but I found myself in a little group of three early on which made it much easier, because we got the first lap done with not too much energy exerted. However I say this but going into the beginning of my second lap, my legs start to burn and they feel exhausted and I suddenly think... 'argggg, I've gone off too quick.' The thought of this I think actually motivated me to keep running fast because I knew I wouldn't forgive myself if I went off too quickly because then I knew it would be all my fault. I kept pushing hard around the course and one of the girls in our little group of three soon broke away from us and I was unable to keep up with her pace so the group turned to two. With the finish line in sight, I was still side by side with this other girls and I knew it was going to be down to the last few hundred metres. I tried to push on with the pace and was at the front and just tried to keep progressing strongly, I had no idea where she was at this point and knew I better not turn around. What I didn't know at the time was I had a comfortable lead on her but I kept pushing hard until I crossed the line in 7th. I was so pleased with 7th in the senior women race and even more pleased with 3rd in the u20 race, a huge improvement from my 13th last year in the u17 age group. I finally started to feel all my hard training paying off. The exhaustion I felt as I crossed the line was like no other. I was D E A D! I was on the floor for about 5 minutes before I was able to get back up and I knew that was the most I had pushed myself I think ever and it has given me the confidence that I can push myself to near my limits if I really put my mind to it. Yes, that was probably one of the most painful races I have raced, but it was so worth it for the result! Now I must say a quick apology for the lack of blog posts, but I have realised that I am sure you would much rather quality over quantity. There is no point me writing a rushed blog post, which I done on a forced topic. My favourite thing is posting about how my races have gone, whether they went good, bad or ugly. I have another race in a few weeks time so I am sure that will be featuring very soon. Also I have some very exciting news that my sister is pregnant and is due in just over a weeks time now, so it is all very exciting at home and I have now become obsessed with baby clothes instead of sports wear... I guess this is probably a good thing. Also on Sunday we had a baby shower which consisted of lots of food (particularly cake) and was just generally such a great afternoon. I hope you have all had a good weekend and if you had any races that they went well.
Love 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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