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
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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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